DfE, In Your Area

Glossary

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Class Size

The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 limits the size of infant classes (i.e. Reception and Key Stage 1 classes) to no more than 30 pupils to a school teacher. The legislation allows for sensible exceptions e.g. when a child moves into an area during the school year and there is no other school within a reasonable distance of their home with a place available.

Early Years

All children are eligible for a free part-time funded place from 1st September, 1st January or 1st April following their third birthday for up to two years before they reach statutory school age. Free places can be accessed in a variety of settings in the maintained and non-maintained sectors. Local Authorities (LAs) make funding available to providers to enable them to provide free places.

A funded place currently consists of a minimum of 12.5 hours of early education per week for thirty-eight weeks of the year. The free entitlement is to be extended to 15 hours a week from September 2010 and will be delivered more flexibly. The extended entitlement has been available to the 25% most deprived children in every Local Authority since September 2009 and to all children in Pathfinder Local Authorities since April 2007. The entitlement is a guarantee of a free place and it must be free at the point of delivery to all parents.

GCSE/GNVQ

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs) were established in 1988 as a replacement for the GCE O' Level and CSE examinations. They are the main type of academic examination taken by students in their final year of compulsory education.

General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) were established in 1992 as an alternative to GCSE/GCE qualifications and job specific National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), and are mainly taken by 16-19 year-old students in full time education. They are a key component of the National Qualifications Framework that incorporates levels which read across from occupational standards on the one hand to general education qualifications on the other.

Regions

Government Offices for the Regions were established across England in 1994 and in 1996 the regions covered, known as Government Office Regions, became the primary classification for the presentation of regional statistics.

In 1994 there were ten regions but in 1998 Merseyside was merged with the rest of the North West to leave the current position of nine regions as follows :

North East
North West
Yorkshire and the Humber
East Midlands
West Midlands
East of England
London
South East
South West

The regions are built up of complete counties/unitary authorities so although they are subject to change they always reflect administrative boundaries as at the end of the previous year.(Office for National Statistics "Beginners Guide to UK Geography")

Higher Education (HE) Institutions

All institutions funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) i.e. universities (including the former polytechnics) and Higher Education colleges.

Infants

Pupils who will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the academic year and who are engaged in relevant education.

Key Stage 2 Tests

All children in maintained primary schools are required to sit National Curriculum tests in English and maths before they move to secondary schools. The tests are graded according to levels within the National Curriculum1. Key Stage 2 (KS2) tests are aimed at pupils working at levels 3, 4 and 5.

Key Stage 2 Level 4

National Curriculum tests are a measurement of achievement against the precise attainment targets of the National Curriculum rather than any generalised concept of ability in any of the subject areas.

Teacher Assessment is the teachers' judgement of pupils' performance in the whole subject over the whole academic year. The National Curriculum standards have been designed so that most pupils will progress by approximately one level every two years. This means that by the end of KS2 pupils are expected to achieve Level 4.

Young Peoples Learning Agency

The Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA) was established by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and launched in April 2010.

We are sponsored by the Department for Education and exist to support the delivery of training and education to all 16 - 19 year olds in England.

The work of the YPLA falls into three interlinked areas:

raising participation and improving attainment by 16-19 year olds
funding academies for all their provision; and
providing financial support to young learners, typically in the form of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA);

Local Authority District

In 1974 a new two-tier system of counties and districts was established across England and Wales, with a structure of (shire) counties, non-metropolitan districts and six metropolitan counties.

Council functions were divided according to the level at which they could be practised most efficiently. In consequence, counties took on functions including education, transport, strategic planning, fire services, consumer protection, refuse disposal, smallholdings, social services and libraries, whereas the districts had responsibility for local planning, housing, local highways, building, environmental health, refuse collection and cemeteries. Responsibility for recreation and cultural matters was divided between the two tiers.

Six of the upper-tier units, all in England and representing heavily built-up areas (other than Greater London), were designated 'metropolitan counties' and were subdivided into 'metropolitan districts'. As with non-metropolitan areas the respective authorities covered all areas of local government, but the distribution of responsibilities was different to that of the county/district structure.

In 1986 however the metropolitan county councils were abolished and the 36 metropolitan district councils were left as single-tier authorities.(Office for National Statistics "Beginners Guide to UK Geography")

Local Authority (LA)

Local Authorities (LAs) are the bodies responsible for the local administration of state sector education services in England.

Each LA coincides with either a county*, unitary authority, metropolitan district or London borough, and LA boundaries are adjusted annually to correspond with any changes to the boundaries of these areas.

*The only exception to this is that the Isles of Scilly has its own LA separate to that of Cornwall.(Office for National Statistics "Beginners Guide to UK Geography")

National Curriculum

Pupils aged 5 to 16 in state schools must be taught the National Curriculum. This is divided into four `Key Stages' that depend on pupil's ages.

Year Group	Reception	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Age of pupils at end of year	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Key Stage	Key Stage 1			Key Stage 2				Key Stage 3			Key Stage 4

The National Curriculum sets standards of achievement in each subject for pupils aged 5 to 14. For most subjects, these standards range from Levels 1 to 8. Pupils progress up the levels as they get older and learn more:

most 7 year-olds are expected to achieve Level 2
most 11 year-olds are expected to achieve Level 4
most 14 year-olds are expected to achieve Levels 5 or 6

Parliamentary Constituency

Parliamentary constituencies are the areas used to elect Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons.

At the May 2010 election there were 650 constituencies, each electing one MP using the first-past-the-post system. The number of MPs in each part of the UK is as follows:

Country	Number of constituencies/MPs
England	533
Scotland	59
Wales	40
Northern Ireland	18
United Kingdom	650

(Office for national Statistics "Beginners Guide to UK Geography")

Specialist Schools

Specialist schools operate in partnership with private-sector sponsors and receive additional Government funding, allowing them to establish distinct identities through their chosen specialism and achieve targets for raising standards, while working within the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Any maintained secondary school in England can apply for specialist status, in the following areas:

arts
business and enterprise
engineering
humanities
languages
mathematics and computing
music
science
sports
technology
applied learning.

Special Schools with secondary age students can specialise in one of the four areas of the special educational needs (SEN) Code of Practice.

Specialist Schools which meet a range of criteria can also opt for a second specialism in a range of curriculum and system leadership areas.

Per Pupil Funding

This covers funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant, School Standards Grant, School Standards Grant (Personalisation) and Standards Fund as well as funding from the Learning and Skills Council (Young People's Learning Agency from April 2010); it excludes grants which are not allocated at LA level.
Price Base: Real terms at 2009-10 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 22 December 2010.
These figures are for all funded pupils aged 3-19.
Figures have been rounded to the nearest £10.

Special Educational Needs

Children with special educational needs (SENs) all have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it more difficult for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age.

They may have difficulties in thinking and understanding, physical or sensory difficulties, emotional and behavioural difficulties, difficulties with speech and language or how they relate to and behave with other people.

Special education needs could mean a child has difficulties with:

all of the work in school
reading, writing, number work or understanding information
expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying
making friends or relating to adults
behaving properly in school
organising themselves
some kind of sensory or physical needs that may affect them in school.
Help will usually be in the child's ordinary mainstream early education setting or school, sometimes involving outside specialists.

Teachers Pay

Main pay scale
Classroom teachers start on the main pay scale. From April 2004 there are separate pay scales for England and Wales, inner London, outer London and the fringe. Teachers usually start on the lowest point but if they have other teaching experience they may start higher up the scale and schools may award discretionary points for other relevant experience.
Upper pay scale
Qualified teachers who reach the top of the main pay scale may apply to be assessed against eight national standards and if they meet the standards cross the 'threshold' to the upper pay scale. Progression on the upper pay scale is performance based. Governing bodies make the decisions on progression, based on recommendations from heads.
Advanced skills teachers
Advanced skills teachers (ASTs) have their own eighteen point pay spine. Each AST is paid within a five point range which is based primarily on the nature of the work undertaken, the scale of challenges to be tackled, the professional competences required and any other recruitment considerations.
Leadership group
Head teachers and other school leaders are paid on the forty three point leadership spine. Heads' pay is normally related to school group size, but governing bodies may pay more where necessary to recruit and retain head teachers of the most challenging and largest schools. Deputies and assistants are paid on a five point range below that of the head teacher and above the pay of the highest paid classroom teacher.

Unitary Authority

Following the Local Government Reorganisation in the 1990s major changes were implemented to create administrations most appropriate to the needs of the area concerned. The key feature of this change was the introduction of unitary authorities, single-tier administrations with responsibility for all areas of local government. Between 1995 and 1998 these were established in a number of areas across the country, especially in medium-sized urban areas, whilst other areas retained a two-tier structure.

Further Local Government Reorganisation occurred in 2009 and there are currently 56 unitary authorities in England, and 27 shire counties split into 201 (non-metropolitan) districts.

(Office for National Statistics "Beginners Guide to UK Geography")

Ward (Census Area Statistics Ward)

In 2003 a new policy was introduced across National Statistics to minimise the statistical impact of frequent electoral ward boundary changes, particularly in England. Under this policy any changes to English or Welsh ward boundaries promulgated (laid down in statute) by the end of a calendar year will be implemented for statistical purposes on 1 April of following year, irrespective of the year the actual change comes into operation. The wards resulting from this policy are known as 'statistical wards'.

2003 statistical wards are accordingly those that were promulgated by 31 December 2002. In general they reflect actual electoral wards as at May 2003, but for 28 local authorities they also include boundary changes that were not operational until June 2004.

Census Area Statistics (CAS) wards are used for 2001 Census outputs.

In England and Wales the CAS wards are indentical to the 2003 statistical wards except that 18 of the smallest wards (all in England) have been merged into other wards to avoid the confidentiality risks of releasing data for very small areas.
This has occured with those wards with fewer than 100 residents of 40 households (as at the 2001 Census).
Scotland and Northern Ireland also have CAS wards. Scottish CAS wards have a minimum size of 50 residents and 20 households. In Northern Ireland 2001 Census outputs use the electoral wards that were in existence at Census Day and there was no requirement to introduce specific CAS wards as all electoral wards exceeded the 100 residents / 40 households threshold.

Currently the UK has 10,654 CAS wards broken down as follows :

Country	Number of wards
England	7,969
Scotland	1,222
Wales	881
Northern Ireland	582
United Kingdom	10,654