Locrating

Map key

Map marker	Description
	School rated Outstanding by Ofsted
	School rated Good by Ofsted
	School rated Requires improvement by Ofsted
	School rated Inadequate by Ofsted
	School with no Ofsted rating
	Independent school (no Ofsted rating)
	Top 10% school Explain
	Property for sale or rent (live from Zoopla)

Background

Every parent wants the best for their children and one of the most important decisions they can make is the school they send them to. This can be an agonising decision at the best of times, made worse because finding out information on schools is notoriously difficult.

A lot of what you need to know can be found online, but it is dispersed across numerous websites and depending upon where you look and how up to date the information is on that particular site, you can get wildly different results; as an example some government websites are a year out of date, other sites are missing schools and many have out of date exam results. You can very easily become swamped by endless lists, tables, charts and reports.

As parents we personally came across this problem back in 2009 when trying to decide where to live and, being a professional software developer, I decided to write a tool to bring together all the relevant information from the most accurate places, cleanse the data and present it in a clear and concise fashion so we could make an informed decision ourselves for our own children. This website is the result of that original tool and many further years of development.

Our journey to find a school, ended with us moving to a new area, where our children are settled and happy in a wonderful local state school that we are delighted with. One we would not have found without all the effort we put into the search. For all those about to embark on your own journey, we hope this site helps!

The highest priority for us is the accuracy of our data; we are absolutely committed to keeping our information accurate. We refresh our data roughly every two weeks (the last update was on 21st May 2013). With Ofsted publishing in the region of 500 new reports each month having up to date data can make the world of difference.

Academy Schools

A lot of schools have or are currently converting to academies.

When a school converts to an academy the old school is listed as closed and a new one listed as opened in its place.

However exam results and reports from the old school are still relevant, at least until the new academy has proven itself. Hence, we display exam and performance data from the old school with the new academy.

Properties

For many, your schools search is being performed in conjunction with a property search.

We’ve partnered with Zoopla to provide properties currently for sale or rent.

The properties displayed on this site are fed live from Zoopla, removing the need to keep switching between our schools map and property portals.

How it works

You can start you school search with a postcode or place name, which is useful for those looking for good schools in a particular location or you can just browse the map with no particular area in mind, useful for those considering where to live and prepared to move house for the very best schools they can find.

We cover all state maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools (including sixth form colleges and academies); see types of school Ofsted inspects for more details. Where they are inspected by Ofsted, and a report has been published, we display their inspection report rating on the map. If we were unable to obtain an Ofsted rating for a school it is still shown on the map; that way you at least know there is a school there. Showing Ofsted ratings in the school markers is unique to us and makes it very quick and easy to compare schools.

We also display as many independent schools as we can, based upon published exam results and membership of professional bodies. Where schools are inspected by another body (e.g. most private schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate) we link to that report. The ISI does not provide ratings; hence none are shown on our schools map. Other inspection bodies include the School Inspection Service (SIS) and Bridge Schools Inspectorate.

We do not cover non-school based childcare, e.g. private nurseries and other types of early years and childcare Ofsted inspects.

Clicking on a marker gives further information, such as school size, address, pupil/teacher ratio, website etc. along with links to further information, inspection reports, local crime information, exam results and the new Ofsted Parent View and Learner View websites (where parents and students share their opinions of the school).

You can filter the schools displayed on the map by age range, Ofsted rating, gender, religious character and even see local property prices. So, whether you are looking for schools in London, or some as yet unknown place then we can help.

Great features

We regularly compare the features we offer with other sites (including those that require a paid for subscription to access).

We believe we are right up there at the top, and what's more it is all completely free!

That said, improvements can always be made so if there is a feature you would like to see here then please let us know.

Spotted something wrong!

If data is missing or incorrect on this website it is almost certainly because it is incorrect at its source (e.g. Ofsted).

However, if you do discover something missing or wrong please let us know so we can look into it as a matter of urgency.

... It's FREE!

One word of warning, don’t think that because you’ve paid a fee you’re data is any more accurate.

We paid for a subscription to a well-known schools website to find a lot of their data was three years out of date!

All the information you need is freely available.

Statistics from latest update

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