School types and terms explained
School listings are full of labels, and they are not always self-explanatory. These answers explain the types and terms you will meet on OfferDay across the three nations, so you can tell an academy from a community school and a middle school from an all-through one. Where a term belongs to one nation's system we say which.
Questions parents ask
- What is the difference between an academy and a community school?
- A community school in England is run by the local council, which employs the staff and sets admissions. An academy is state funded but run by an academy trust that is independent of the council, with more freedom over its curriculum, term dates and admissions. Both are free to attend, and the type on its own tells you little about how good a school is.
- What are faith schools and voluntary-aided schools?
- A faith school has a religious character, often Church of England or Roman Catholic, which can shape its ethos and, where it is oversubscribed, its admissions criteria. Voluntary-aided and voluntary-controlled are two ways such schools are governed and funded, differing in how much say the faith body has. A place is open to any family, though faith criteria may come first when there are more applicants than places.
- What is a grammar school?
- A grammar school selects pupils by academic ability, usually through an entrance test taken in Year 6, and they exist only in some parts of England. Wales and Scotland have no selective state grammar schools. Where a grammar school exists, admission turns on the test rather than distance, so the usual catchment logic does not apply.
- What do the school phases mean?
- Phase describes the ages a school teaches. Primary covers roughly ages four to eleven, secondary eleven to sixteen or eighteen, and infant and junior schools split the primary years. Some areas use a three-tier system with middle schools, and an all-through school teaches primary and secondary ages on one site. In England these map onto key stages, the labels used for the national curriculum and its assessments.
- What does Welsh-medium mean?
- A Welsh-medium school teaches most or all subjects through the medium of Welsh, and a dual-stream school teaches in both Welsh and English. It describes the language of teaching, not a separate standard, and it is a real choice for families in Wales who want their child educated in Welsh. Our Welsh school pages show the language category where the Welsh Government publishes it.
- What is a Gaelic-medium school in Scotland?
- Gaelic-medium education teaches pupils through Scottish Gaelic, either in a dedicated school or in a Gaelic stream within an English-medium school, mainly in the Highlands, the islands and the cities. As with Welsh-medium in Wales, it is about the language of teaching rather than a different curriculum, and it is available on request in a number of council areas.