School Wisely

About and data sources

School Wisely helps parents in England compare schools. It is independent: no school, council or government body runs it. Every fact we show comes from a published source; we record which edition we read, the period it describes and when we read it, and each figure on these pages links to that edition.

Sources and licences

SourceUsed forLicence
Get Information About Schools (GIAS) — Department for Education School names, types, ages, addresses, locations and links between schools Open Government Licence v3.0
School performance tables (Compare School Performance downloads; Explore Education Statistics) — Department for Education KS2, KS4 and KS5 results; pupil numbers and destinations (in the map) Open Government Licence v3.0
Secondary and primary school applications and offers — Department for Education Applications per place and preferences (in the map) Open Government Licence v3.0
State-funded schools inspections and outcomes — Ofsted Inspection dates and judgements (in the map) Open Government Licence v3.0
English Indices of Deprivation 2025 — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Neighbourhood deprivation (IMD and IDACI deciles) on area pages and the map Open Government Licence v3.0
ONS boundaries and lookups (LSOA 2021; wards, parishes and local authority districts) — Office for National Statistics District names, neighbourhood shapes for shading, priority-area shapes Open Government Licence v3.0; contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right
OS Code-Point Open — Ordnance Survey Postcode positions behind approximate priority-area edges Open Government Licence v3.0; contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right
postcodes.io — Ideal Postcodes (open source; ONS Postcode Directory and OS data) Finding a postcode typed into the map search MIT (service); data under the Open Government Licence
OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap contributors The base map: streets, places and labels Open Database License (ODbL)
OpenFreeMap — OpenFreeMap Hosting of the base-map tiles, fonts and styles Free to use; data © OpenStreetMap contributors
Schools' and councils' own pages — Each school or council Admissions details, open events and priority areas (in the map), each quoted and archived Quoted with a link to the original

Editions behind these pages

The pages were built on 2026-10-16 from these editions:

Corrections

If a figure looks wrong, the linked source shows what was published. Contact details will be added here before launch.

Sources

  1. Department for Education: Compare School Performance download: KS2 final. Period 2023/24, final. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  2. Department for Education: Compare School Performance download: KS2 final. Period 2024/25, final. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  3. Department for Education: Compare School Performance download: KS4 final. Period 2024/25, final. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  4. Department for Education: Compare School Performance download: KS5 (16-18) final. Period 2023/24, final. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  5. Department for Education: Compare School Performance download: KS5 (16-18) final. Period 2024/25, final. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  6. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: English Indices of Deprivation. Period 2025. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  7. Department for Education: Get Information About Schools: all establishments. Period 2026-10-14, published 2026-10-14. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  8. Office for National Statistics: LSOA (2021) to Electoral Ward (2026) to LAD (2026) Best Fit Lookup in EW. Period 2026-05-07. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  9. Office for National Statistics: Parish to Ward to Local Authority District (May 2026) Lookup in EW. Period 2026-05-01. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.
  10. Department for Education: Performance tables schools data (explore education statistics). Period 2025/26, provisional, published 2026-10-15. Publication page. Data file. Licence: OGL-3.0.