What schools must publish online

Which school website requirements apply?

Maintained schools and academies in England must publish specified information, but the legal basis and the wording of individual requirements differ. The DfE maintained-school publishing guidance points to the School Information (England) Regulations 2008, as amended, and other legislation. The DfE academy and college publishing guidance points to funding or accountability agreements, alongside legislation including the Equality Act 2010 and Children and Families Act 2014.

Both DfE pages distinguish information that must be published from information the department recommends should be published. A checklist that changes every should to must loses that distinction. Equally, a should item is a recommendation to consider and act on, not a reason to remove useful information from the website.

Label the school type at the top of your check. Record whether it is maintained or an academy, its age range, whether it is mainstream or special, who is the admission authority and which funding streams it receives. Those answers decide which rows apply. A primary school does not need a secondary careers checklist; a trust-level financial statement is a different item from a school curriculum page.

The DfE lists are the starting point for this guide, not a claim that every website obligation is contained in one page. Both lists were last updated on 24 October 2024, so read them alongside the School Information (England) Regulations 2008, the current Academy Trust Handbook and the current grant guidance. Cross-check relevant current statutory guidance, the school’s funding agreement where applicable, and the publication requirements attached to individual policies. The statutory policies for schools guide addresses the separate question of which policies to have, approve and review.

A maintained-school website checklist

Use the DfE maintained-school publishing guidance for the detailed requirements. The groups below help organise the website audit; they do not replace the conditions and lists within each source heading.

• Contacts – must: publish the postal address, telephone number and the name of the staff member who deals with queries from parents, carers and the public. Mainstream schools must also publish their special educational needs co-ordinator’s name and contact details.
• Policies – must: publish the behaviour policy, charging and remissions policies, and complaints policy. The DfE list does not include it, but the statutory RSE and health education guidance says all schools must publish their relationships education or RSE policy on the school website. Publish the arrangements for complaints about SEN support within the SEN information report. Keeping a policy in the staff folder is a different task from making the required information public.
• Curriculum – must: publish the curriculum content by academic year and subject, how to find out more, information about withdrawal from religious education, and the accessibility plan. Include phonics or reading schemes where there is key stage 1 provision and the courses offered where there is key stage 4 provision.
• Governance and finance – must: publish information about the governing body and its committees, the number of employees, if any, paid a gross annual salary of £100,000 or more, in £10,000 bands, and a link to the school’s page on the DfE Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. The DfE guidance says schools should publish the structure and remit, chairs’ names, governor appointment details and terms, attendance, and relevant interests, including for associate members. Keep those should items distinct from the general must statement.
• Inspection and results – must and should: publish a copy of the most recent Ofsted report or a link to it, and a link to the compare school and college performance service and the school’s performance measures page on it. Voluntary and foundation schools with a religious character must also say where parents can find their most recent denominational inspection report. Primary schools must publish their most recent key stage 2 performance measures, secondary schools their key stage 4 measures, and secondary schools with sixth forms their 16 to 18 measures, as published by the Secretary of State. Preserve the separate must and should labels: the maintained-school key stage 4 list includes both. Use the current DfE results section for the relevant phase and reporting year rather than copying an old results table.
• Funding – must where received; equality and SEND – must: include pupil premium and PE and sport premium reporting, equality information and objectives, and the SEN information report. The timing and scope differ; give each its own row. The SEN information report must contain the SEN information specified in Schedule 1 to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, and additional information about admitting disabled pupils, steps to prevent less favourable treatment, access facilities and the accessibility plan.
• Gender pay gap – must where applicable: maintained schools with at least 250 employees must report the required figures through the government service and display them prominently on their website within a year of the relevant snapshot date. The snapshot date is 31 March for most public authority employers. Check the guidance on who needs to report before deciding whether this applies. With fewer than 250 employees reporting is not required, but DfE says employers should give serious consideration to the business benefits of doing so.

DfE also says maintained schools should publish remote education provision, school opening hours and, where pupils wear uniform, an easily understandable uniform policy. The DfE list gives ethos and values as should too, but the School Information (England) Regulations 2008 include a statement of the school’s ethos and values in the information a governing body must arrange to publish, so treat that row as must. Schools are expected to publish information about their music development plan alongside the music curriculum. Put these recommendations on the checklist with the correct status.

For secondary maintained schools, the careers programme information must cover years 7 to 13. The DfE list includes the careers lead’s name and contact details, a programme summary and how people can access it, how the school measures its impact, and the date the information will be reviewed. The school must also publish the provider-access policy statement. For any phase-specific item, keep the applicability condition next to the task instead of leaving a blank cell that could mean either not applicable or not checked.

An academy checklist needs different labels

The DfE academy and college publishing guidance must be read separately. Several familiar items appear under should for academies even though they appear under must in the maintained-school list. Use an academy-specific checklist, with a clear division between the school website and the trust website.

• Should publish: the behaviour policy, including the anti-bullying strategy; charging and remissions policies; contact details, including the postal address, telephone number, the staff member who deals with queries, the headteacher’s name, the chair’s name and contact details if applicable, and the trust’s contact details and website link if applicable; curriculum information, including the right to withdraw from religious education; a copy of the most recent Ofsted report or a link to it; a statement of ethos and values; remote education provision; school opening hours; where pupils wear uniform, an easily understandable uniform policy; and the applicable performance-service links and performance measures. The detailed list includes phase-specific information such as phonics schemes, GCSE courses and 16 to 19 qualifications where relevant, and academies with 16 to 19 provision should explain how their curriculum meets the study programme requirements. Academies are also expected to publish information about their music development plan alongside the music curriculum.
• Must publish: academy schools’ relationships education or relationships and sex education policy, the SEN information report and relevant SEN complaints arrangements, plus equality information and objectives and applicable funding information. Mainstream academy schools must include the SEN co-ordinator’s name and contact details in the SEN information report. The report must also contain the SEN information specified in Schedule 1 to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, and cover disabled-pupil admissions, measures against less favourable treatment, access facilities and the accessibility plan. Academies must prepare an accessibility plan; the list does not separately say to publish it.
• Trust-level publication: academy trusts must publish their audited annual report and accounts, the required executive-pay information, and governance documents including their memorandum and articles, funding agreements, member and trustee names, relevant interests and up-to-date governance arrangements. Trusts must also publish details of their whistleblowing procedure. Multi-academy trusts must also publish a summary statement by 31 January, accompanying the annual accounts and outlining how funds are distributed across their schools. The current Academy Trust Handbook sets out the governance detail, including structure and remit, chairs’ full names, the register of interests, and trustee and local governor attendance records. A trust issued with a notice to improve must publish it on its website within 14 days and keep it there until it is lifted.
• Admissions: academy trusts must publish their admission arrangements where the admissions codes apply, so check the trust’s responsibility and the setting’s type. The DfE guidance says the school admissions and appeals codes do not apply to special academies, alternative provision settings or stand-alone 16 to 19 institutions. 16 to 19 academies should publish their arrangements by the September of the academic year before the one in which they apply. Do not apply the mainstream admissions calendar indiscriminately.
• Careers – separate must and should labels: secondary academies and 16 to 19 academies must publish the provider-access policy statement. Their careers-programme information is a should item in the DfE overview, covering years 7 to 13 as appropriate to the setting and required by the funding agreement, so check the agreement before treating it as optional. Include the careers lead, programme summary, access to information, impact assessment and review date.
• Gender pay gap – must where applicable: academy trusts and academies with at least 250 employees must report the required figures through the government service and display them prominently on their website within a year of the relevant snapshot date. The snapshot date is 31 March for most public authority employers. Check the guidance on who needs to report before deciding whether this applies. With fewer than 250 employees reporting is not required, but DfE says employers should give serious consideration to the business benefits of doing so.

The general complaints procedure illustrates why the wording matters. The DfE academy guidance says academies and trusts, except 16–19 academies, must have the required procedure and make it available to parents and carers of children attending the academy. That is different wording from the maintained-school instruction to publish the complaints policy. The academy SEN complaints arrangements are specifically a publication requirement.

An effective trust checklist names the public location of each document and who maintains it. Where an item is held centrally, check the route a parent follows from the school website. A link labelled policies that opens an unrelated trust landing page is not a useful substitute for checking the actual document and its accessibility to the reader.

Publication deadlines: give each item its own clock

The DfE maintained-school publishing guidance and DfE academy and college publishing guidance set out dates and review intervals that differ by item. The following calendar selects common items; it is not a single annual deadline for the entire website.

• Admissions arrangements – 15 March: foundation and voluntary-aided maintained schools, and academy trusts to which the admissions codes apply, must publish arrangements for normal-point-of-entry admissions in September of the following year. Keep them online throughout the academic year when offers are made.
• Admission appeals – 28 February: those admission authorities must publish their appeals timetable. In-year admissions – 31 August: publish how in-year applications will be managed. Community and voluntary-controlled maintained schools must publish a link to their local authority’s website for admissions and appeals information. The School Information (England) Regulations 2008, as amended in 2021, also require their governing bodies to publish the determined admission arrangements on the website by 15 March in the determination year and keep them there until the end of the offer year.
• Pupil premium – 31 December: schools and academies whose allocation is based on more than 5 eligible pupils must publish their strategy statement using the DfE template; at 5 or fewer it is not required. Each academy in a multi-academy trust publishes its own statement. A three-year spending plan does not remove the annual update.
• PE and sport premium – 31 July: recipients must publish the required funding, spending, impact and sustainability information, alongside the required year 6 swimming information. Each recipient school in a multi-academy trust must publish its own report; one trust document cannot cover all its schools. Schools should also keep the previous year’s report online. Read the current conditions of grant as well as the website list.
• Equality – separate intervals: update information showing compliance with the public sector equality duty every year; update equality objectives at least every four years.
• SEN information report: the report must be published. DfE says it should be updated annually and changes during the year should be updated as soon as possible.
• Academy trust accounts – 31 January: trusts must publish their audited annual report and accounts on their website by this date each year. Multi-academy trusts must publish a summary statement by the same date, outlining how funds are distributed across their schools.

Put the reporting period beside the due date. Admissions arrangements can concern a future intake, while a funding statement may explain both planned spending and past outcomes. A document can look recent because it was uploaded yesterday and still concern the wrong year.

Treat staff changes, new contact details, revised policies and changed web addresses as additional review triggers. For maintained schools this is more than good practice: the School Information (England) Regulations 2008 require the information they specify to be updated as soon as reasonably practicable after a change and at least annually, apart from admission arrangements, which have their own dates. For academies it is a practical maintenance recommendation. Where a source gives a particular interval, retain that interval rather than substituting a generic annual check.

A publication register that someone can actually use

A useful school website check records what a visitor can reach, not only what someone intended to upload. The following fields are a suggested working method, not a statutory register or a DfE template.

1. Item and source: write the document or information required, the official source link and the heading that supports the row. Copy the must or should label accurately.
2. Applicability and owner: identify the school type, phase or funding condition, the content owner and the person who can update the website. Keep responsibility for the content distinct from the technical upload task.
3. Version and approval: record the relevant period, approved version where approval is needed, and where the approval record lives. Do not invent an approval requirement for a routine factual contact update.
4. Public address: save the exact page or document URL and test it while signed out. Follow the menu route too, so the check covers whether a parent can find it as well as whether a direct link works.
5. Check and next action: note the date checked, any missing or superseded information, the correction owner, and the next deadline or review trigger. A blank row should not count as a pass.

Keep a dated copy or screenshot where it helps establish which version was visible when the check was performed. Use the school’s existing records arrangements for that evidence; this guide does not prescribe a retention period. A screenshot supports a check, but does not replace a working public page.

The DfE maintained-school publishing guidance says a maintained school without its own website must publish the information on an alternative website and give parents and carers a link. Both DfE lists say schools or academies should provide a paper copy free of charge when a parent or carer requests it. For maintained schools the regulations go further: the governing body must provide a paper copy of the website information without charge to parents on request. Keep should for academies and must for maintained schools.

Before closing an action, have someone other than the uploader follow the public route and open the file on a phone as well as a larger screen. Check that the document is readable, that links work, and that the title and content refer to the same version. These are suggested checks for a usable website, not a claim that a particular device test is mandated by the publishing guidance.

The approval conversation and the public page

A publication task often starts with a short exchange: the policy has changed, the dates are wrong, or the revised statement is ready to upload. The final webpage shows the result. The organisation may also need to understand which version was agreed, who asked for the change and whether the correction was completed.

The practical first step is to connect that exchange to the publication register and the approved document. Keep the public page, the approval record and the task outcome recognisable as separate records. Do not publish the underlying staff conversation merely because the resulting policy belongs on the website.

On a connected paid plan, ComplyChat keeps conversations in the organisation’s own Microsoft 365 subscription, under its retention schedules. That can support the record of a discussion about a publication task. It does not replace checking the school website, deciding which requirement applies, or keeping the approved document in the right place.

For the next governance meeting, the useful question is: if a parent asks which version was on the website on a particular date, can we identify the published document and explain the change without relying on one person’s recollection?

Questions people ask and official guidance

What policies must schools publish on their website?

The answer depends on school type and the policy. For maintained schools, the DfE maintained-school publishing guidance explicitly requires publication of behaviour, charging and remissions, and complaints policies. Academies must use the separate list, which marks several of those items should and distinguishes making a complaints procedure available from publishing SEN complaints arrangements. Academy schools must publish their relationships education or RSE policy, and statutory guidance says the same of maintained schools. Check individual statutory guidance as well as these overview lists.

Do academies have the same website requirements as maintained schools?

No. The DfE academy and college publishing guidance uses different must and should labels and adds trust-level documents such as annual reports, accounts and governance arrangements. A checklist copied from a maintained school can therefore misstate both the obligation and the place where information belongs.

Does every school policy have to be reviewed annually?

The DfE lists do not set one annual review rule for every policy. For maintained schools, though, the School Information (England) Regulations 2008 require the information they specify to be updated on the website as soon as reasonably practicable after a change and at least annually. Keep the relevant source’s interval and any change triggers for each item; for example, annual equality information and equality objectives updated at least every four years are separate requirements.

What if a maintained school does not have its own website?

The DfE maintained-school publishing guidance says it must publish the information on an alternative website and provide parents and carers with a link. The practical check remains whether the information can be found and read.

Official further reading: start with the DfE maintained-school publishing guidance or the DfE academy and college publishing guidance, then follow the linked legislation, statutory guidance and funding conditions for the items that apply. Recheck these sources when updating the register; the school type, reporting year and source wording matter more than a tick against a generic checklist.