School prospectus is ditched but requirement to publish more online

As part of the Government's commitment to free all schools from unnecessary bureaucracy, it has also been agreed to remove the duty on schools to produce an annual school prospectus or to have a curriculum policy, to avoid duplication of effort, and unnecessary cost.


With the increased freedoms afforded schools, however, there has to be increased transparency and accountability to ensure parents continue to receive the information they need to make the best decisions and choices about their children’s education and for communities to hold schools to account. As such, rather than publishing a School Profile, curriculum policy or annual prospectus, it is the Government's intention to introduce new regulatory requirements for schools to publish key information online. This will include information:


About their admissions and special educational needs policies


Details about the school’s curriculum by year and by subject


Information about the impact of the Pupil Premium (school-wide)


Reading schemes.


For those parents who cannot access the internet or who find hard copies of materials more accessible, the regulations will require schools to provide a hard copy where parents request it - this can be simply met by printing a hard copy of the online information. Subject to the secondary legislation being passed, this new requirement will take effect from the beginning of the 2012/13 academic year i.e. September 2012