This dataset represents a snapshot of Grant Maintained (GM) Schools Database when it was transferred from the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) in 2000. It is effectively the final form of the database, as no additions or alterations are thought to have occurred after 1999 due to the redundancy of the system at the DfEE. The dataset provides information about the following subjects:
(1) GM conferences: The 'name' of the conference (normally the name of the town/city where the conference was held), the date of the conference, the venue of the conference (usually a hotel), and which schools attended the conference. In a small number of cases (210 records out of 5474 in the Attendance table), the status of a school's attempt to go GM is also indicated. Although the database was intended to record details of GM open days as well as GM conferences, in reality all of the records relate to GM conferences.
(2) Attempts to go GM: Details of attempts to gain GM status for schools, including who initiated the attempt (e.g. parents or the school's governors); the date when the attempt was initiated; the status of the attempt to go GM (e.g. whether the school was now operating as GM; whether proposals for going GM had been rejected by the Secretary of State); if parents had voted in favour of going GM, the date when the school published its proposals for acquiring GM status, the proposed date of operating as a GM school, and the date when a decision was taken by the Secretary of State to approve or reject the school's proposals. There could be more than one attempt to make a school GM provided that a ballot had not been held in the previous year. Each attempt is recorded in the database, together with its number in the sequence of a school's attempts; the maximum number of attempts appears to have been three.
(3) GM ballots: An attempt to obtain GM status would lead to up to two ballots of parents. For each ballot, the dataset records whether it was the first, second or a void ballot; the number of people eligible to vote in the ballot; the number and percentage who actually voted; the numbers and percentages who voted in favour and against going GM; the result of the ballot; whether the ballot was to be investigated by the DfEE (and the date when a decision to investigate the ballot was taken); the school's LEA at the time of the ballot; the political control of the LEA (for most LEAs this information is not provided); the school's parliamentary constituency and Member of Parliament at the time of the ballot, and the MP's political affiliation.
(4) Main data on schools: The name and contact details of a school; its LEA; its parliamentary constituency; the name of the head teacher; the name and contact details of the chairman of the board of governors; the name of a representative who had agreed to speak on GM issues; the 'phase' of education provided (e.g. primary, secondary); the type of school (e.g. grammar, comprehensive), and its type before becoming GM; the 'origin' of a school (a classification reflecting how it was maintained before becoming GM); any denominational affiliation; whether a school selected its intake of pupils; the number of pupils a school was approved to have in a single year entry; the lower and upper age limits of its pupils; whether a school had a sixth form, boarding pupils or nursery places; whether the LEA had submitted proposals for a school's closure or reorganisation, and the date on which proposals were published; why and when a school was closed; the gender of pupils of statutory school age at the school; and the category to which a GM school was assigned following the abolition of GM status. Some of these details appear in only a handful of records, and occasionally not at all (e.g. the GM Speaker Name field - which records the names of speakers on GM issues - is entirely empty). The schools covered include schools which became GM, schools where an attempt was made to become GM, and schools which attended GM conferences.
(5) Changes to schools' identifying details: If a school's LEA, name or 'school number' (the school's establishment number) changed during the life of the database, the former details are recorded, together with the date when the change occurred. Virtually all of the changes appear to have occurred to LEAs and establishment numbers.
(6) Changes to schools' characters: Where a significant change was proposed to the character of a GM or prospective GM school (e.g. to add or remove a sixth form or change the school's selection policy), the dataset records the type of change proposed; the date when the proposal was submitted to the Secretary of State; the result of the proposal (e.g. whether the change was approved or rejected); and the date of implementation of the change. The table which records significant character changes (the History table) also records the lower and upper age limits of pupils at the school, and (rarely) the school's selection policy. In some cases, the lower and upper age limits differ from those recorded in a school's main details (in the School table).
(7) Schools' Census data: A selection of data derived from schools' returns in the annual Schools' Census, held in January of each year. This includes: the year of the Census to which the data relates (data is held for the 1995-1999 Schools' Censuses); the numbers of full-time and part-time pupils at the school; the gender of pupils of statutory school age and outside the statutory school age; the numbers of full-time and part-time nursery pupils; the number of sixth form pupils; the numbers of full-time and part-time teachers, and the number of full-time equivalent teachers (i.e. full-time teachers plus the full-time equivalent of part-time teachers); the number of pupils with statements of special educational needs; the number of pupils with special educational needs but without statements; the numbers of 5 year olds and 11 year olds who entered the school that year; and the number of pupils receiving free school meals.
(8) Local Education Authorities: The names of LEAs, their political control, the date the LEA began operating (in the case of LEAs created by local government reorganisation during the lifetime of the database - a 'dummy' date is entered for LEAs which predated the database), and the date an LEA was dissolved.
(9) Members of Parliament: The names of MPs, their constituencies and their political affiliations. The list of MPs (in the MP table) reflects the composition of the House of Commons following the 1997 General Election.
(10) Groups of GM schools: Schools which decided to group together under a single governing body are identified. In practice, only one group (or 'cluster') consisting of two GM schools is recorded.
The datasets in this series are available to download. Links to individual datasets can be found at piece level.
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