Public elementary schools preliminary statements submitted to the Education Department and Board of Education, which recorded particulars of the tenure and establishment of the school, its income and expenditure, and information about accommodation and staffing.

Various modifications of the form through the years have gradually reduced the amount of information entered.

Included in this series are statements for the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, a separate volume of statements for higher elementary schools, certified efficient schools and schools attached to residential institutions and copies of the Board of Education's List of Public Elementary Schools (List 15).

The preliminary statements grouped in each area are in the order and with the reference numbers allocated to schools in 1905 and as appears in the Board of Education's List of Public Elementary Schools (List 15). With each group of statements there has been filed a relevant section of that list; which does not, however, include schools that were closed by 1905. Statements for such closed schools, and for schools closed since 1905, are kept separate and usually follow the main group for each authority. Since 1924 they have been filed on the relevant school files.