About the data
SchoolPatch brings together official, openly licensed data about schools and neighbourhoods in England. We show figures as they are published, explain what they mean, and say clearly when something isn't available. We never fill gaps with estimates presented as fact.
Database built 16 Oct 2026 · GIAS extract 16 Oct 2026 · Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 31 August 2026
Sources
| Dataset | Used for | Updated | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get Information about Schools (GIAS) Department for Education | Every open school in England: type, phase, ages, address, capacity, trust, location | Daily extract | OGL v3.0 |
| School inspections management information Ofsted | Report-card judgements (from Nov 2025), earlier graded and ungraded inspection outcomes | Monthly | OGL v3.0 |
| School performance tables Department for Education | KS2, KS4 (GCSE) and 16–18 (A-level) results, school census | Annual (provisional, then revised) | OGL v3.0 |
| Primary and secondary school applications and offers Department for Education | Places offered, first preferences and all applications per school, 2014–2026 | Annual (after national offer day) | OGL v3.0 |
| Official catchment boundaries Sheffield City Council, City of York Council | Catchment polygons, only where councils publish them as open data | As published | OGL |
| English Indices of Deprivation 2025 MHCLG | Neighbourhood deprivation deciles and domains | Every 4–6 years | OGL v3.0 |
| Street-level crime Home Office / police forces (data.police.uk) | Crimes within one mile, latest month and 6-month trend | Monthly (about 2 months' lag) | OGL v3.0 |
| Price Paid Data & UK House Price Index HM Land Registry | Individual sales near a location; local authority price trends | Monthly | OGL v3.0 |
| NaPTAN Department for Transport | Rail, Underground, metro and tram stations | Daily | OGL v3.0 |
| postcodes.io Ideal Postcodes (ONS & OS data) | Postcode and place search, reverse geocoding | Quarterly (ONSPD) | OGL / OS OpenData |
| OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors | Parks, shops, GPs, leisure (via Overpass) and the base map (via OpenFreeMap) | Continuous | ODbL |
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Catchment areas: what we show and why
There is no national dataset of school catchment areas. Each admission authority (the council, or an academy trust) sets its own oversubscription criteria. Many schools, including most in London and Manchester, have no catchment at all. They rank applicants by straight-line distance after higher-priority groups such as looked-after children and siblings.
We show three kinds of information, always labelled:
- Official catchment boundaries: only where a council publishes them as open data (currently Sheffield primary and secondary, and York secondary). Each one links to its source.
- Historic admissions demand: DfE figures for each school's places offered and first-preference applications, from 2014 to 2026.
- Illustrative distances: straight-line distance and ½, 1 and 2 mile rings from your searched address. These are not catchments, and distance alone never guarantees a place.
“Last distance offered” figures are published by individual councils in PDF allocation reports, not as national open data. We only show them where we have verified them against a cited source.
Known limitations
- England only for now. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland publish school data separately; the app is built to add them later.
- Ofsted's November 2025 report cards replaced single-word grades. The two frameworks are not directly comparable, so we always show which one applies.
- Independent schools are mostly inspected by ISI, and many take qualifications such as IGCSEs that DfE performance measures don't count. Their DfE figures can be misleading.
- Progress 8 isn't available for 2024/25 GCSE results, and no exams were sat in 2019/20 or 2020/21.
- Results for schools that converted to academies or merged are linked to their predecessor where DfE records the link.
- Crime locations are anonymised by police.uk. Amenity coverage depends on OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Broadband availability is not yet included.
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