Data sources & attribution
Every number in a SpotWise scorecard is traceable to a published source. We compile and score open data; we do not republish anyone's proprietary dataset.
| Data | Source | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| School details, URN, location, phase, faith character | DfE: Get Information About Schools (GIAS) | OGL v3.0 |
| KS2 / KS4 attainment, higher standard, progress, destinations | DfE: Find school and college performance data | OGL v3.0 |
| Absence and persistent absence | DfE: Pupil absence in schools in England | OGL v3.0 |
| Free school meals, EAL, ethnicity mix, class sizes | DfE: Schools, pupils and their characteristics (school census) | OGL v3.0 |
| Inspection judgements and report narratives | Ofsted: State-funded schools inspections and outcomes | OGL v3.0 |
| Admissions criteria and oversubscription | Local authority published admissions data | Mostly OGL; coverage varies, treated as best-effort |
| National and local authority benchmarks | DfE national statistics | OGL v3.0 |
Attribution
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Vintage and refresh
Each school record carries the date its underlying sources were last refreshed, and that date is shown on the scorecard. Most sources publish annually, so figures describe cohorts that have already moved on. Where a criterion rests on a cohort of fewer than thirty pupils, we flag it and shrink the score toward the national mean, because small cohorts swing sharply year to year.
What we do not use
We do not scrape or repackage commercial school-data products. Everything here is published open data, compiled and scored by us.