Classification of Schools in England

§ A clear and data-driven overview of every type of school in England, based on the latest official statistics from the Department for Education’s GIAS register (Data last updated: 3 November 2025).

Introduction

Schools in England can be classified in several ways — by their funding source, governance structure, admissions policy, curriculum, and age range. To provide a clear, data-driven overview, we analysed the most recent dataset from the UK Government’s Get Information About Schools (GIAS) service.

By grouping schools according to the unique values found in key GIAS fields, this page explains the official terminology used by the Department for Education (DfE) and reveals how England’s school system is structured in practice. Alongside definitions, you’ll find up-to-date counts and proportions of each type of school — helping you quickly understand how academies, maintained schools, free schools, and independent schools fit within the wider landscape.

Main Classification of Schools

The GIAS field “Establishment Type Group” divides all schools in England into nine main categories. The table below shows how many schools belong to each group

Here’s a quick summary of what each category means:

• Academies : State-funded schools that operate independently of local authorities. Managed by academy trusts, they have greater control over budgets, staffing, and curriculum design.
• Local Authority Maintained Schools : Traditional state schools funded through local councils, which employ staff and oversee admissions. These include community, voluntary, and foundation schools.
• Independent Schools : Also known as private schools, they charge fees instead of receiving state funding. They set their own curriculum but must register with the DfE and are inspected by Ofsted or ISI.
• Special Schools : Cater for pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). They may be state-funded or run by charitable trusts.
• Free Schools : New state-funded schools set up by trusts, charities, universities, or community groups. They operate in the same way as academies but were created from scratch rather than converted.
• Colleges : Provide education mainly for students aged 16 and over, including further education (FE) and technical or vocational training.
• Universities : Higher education institutions offering degree and research programmes. Although listed in GIAS for completeness, they fall outside the school system and are regulated by the Office for Students (OfS).
• Other Types : Includes smaller categories such as online providers, hospital schools, and establishments that don’t fit the main classifications.

Classification of Local Authority Maintained Schools

Local authority maintained schools are state-funded schools that remain under the oversight of a local council (the “maintaining authority”). They follow the national curriculum and are financed through public funds. What distinguishes these schools from one another is largely how they are governed — who employs the staff, who owns the land and buildings, and who manages admissions.

In the GIAS dataset, these schools are identified by the field “Type of Establishment” and can be grouped into six sub-categories, shown in the table below.

Below is a short explanation of what each type means:

• Community School : Run entirely by the local authority, which employs the staff, owns the buildings, and sets admissions. These are the most common form of maintained school.
• Voluntary Aided (VA) School : Often linked to a church or faith organisation. The governing body employs staff, manages admissions, and contributes to building costs. These schools usually have a stronger religious character.
• Voluntary Controlled (VC) School : Also church-linked, but here the local authority employs the staff and runs admissions, while the religious foundation appoints some governors.
• Foundation School : Maintained by the local authority but with more autonomy. The governing body employs staff and sets admissions, and a separate trust often owns the land or buildings.
• Local Authority Nursery School : Stand-alone early-years schools (typically for ages 3–4) run by the local authority, focusing solely on nursery education.
• Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) : Alternative provision managed by the local authority for pupils who cannot attend mainstream school — for instance, due to exclusion, illness, or other specific needs.

Classification of Academies

Academies are state-funded schools that operate independently of local authorities. They are run by academy trusts — charitable organisations that oversee one or more schools — and have greater flexibility over budgets, staffing, and curriculum compared with maintained schools.

Within the GIAS dataset, academies are further classified by the field “Type of Establishment”. While there are several sub-categories, most can be understood as variations of two main routes into the academy system: converter academies and sponsor-led academies.

• Converter Academies : Schools that chose to convert to academy status, typically because they were already rated “good” or “outstanding”. They keep much of their existing identity but gain additional freedoms as part of an academy trust.
• Sponsor-Led Academies : Schools that were newly created or re-opened with the support of a sponsor — such as an existing academy trust, charity, university, or employer — to help raise educational standards and provide leadership support.

Sub-categories of Free Schools

Free schools are state-funded schools that operate in a similar way to academies — independent of local authorities and governed by academy trusts. What makes them distinct is how they are created: they are newly established schools set up by groups such as teachers, charities, universities, employers, or parents rather than conversions of existing schools.

In the GIAS dataset, free schools appear under several sub-categories that reflect their type of setting or age range — for example, special, alternative provision, or 16–19. The table below summarises the number of schools in each category.

Among the sub-categories, two types stand out as distinct models within the free-school group:

• University Technical Colleges (UTCs) : Schools for students aged 14–19, sponsored by universities and employers. They specialise in technical and STEM-related subjects, combining academic study with hands-on, career-focused learning.
• Studio Schools : Small 14–19 schools designed to bridge classroom learning with the workplace. They emphasise practical skills, teamwork, and real-world projects alongside traditional qualifications.

Classification of Schools by Phase of Education

Schools in England can also be grouped by their phase of education — that is, the age range they officially serve. In the GIAS dataset, three fields help describe this: “Phase of Education”, “Statutory Low Age”, and “Statutory High Age”. Together, these indicate the school’s approved age range and whether it provides early years, primary, secondary, post-16, or all-through education.

The table below shows the distribution of schools in England according to the “Phase of Education” field.

However, this field on its own doesn’t always reflect a school’s full picture. For instance, many independent schools appear as “Not applicable” because their registration spans multiple age phases. Likewise, several schools recorded as “Primary” actually admit pupils as young as two or three, which means they also offer nursery education.

To explore this overlap, the table below breaks down primary-phase schools by their statutory low and high ages — showing how many schools officially cover early-years provision as well.

In summary, while “Phase of Education” provides a useful overview, the combination of statutory low age and statutory high age gives a more accurate picture of how schools in England actually span the early years, primary, and secondary stages.

Number of Boys' and Girls' Schools in England

Schools in England can also be classified by gender mix — whether they admit boys only, girls only, or are mixed. The table below shows the distribution of schools by gender and establishment type group, based on the latest GIAS dataset.

The data reveals that independent schools (private schools) have the largest share of single-sex education — both boys’ and girls’ schools — making them the main providers of gender-specific schooling in England. In contrast, academies and local authority maintained schools are overwhelmingly mixed, reflecting the wider move toward co-educational learning environments.

Special schools and free schools are also mostly mixed, though a small number are single-sex, typically where the pupil cohort or educational need justifies it. Overall, these figures highlight that while co-education dominates across the school system, independent schools continue to play a key role in maintaining England’s tradition of single-sex schooling.

Other Types of Schools in England

In addition to the main school categories described above, several other types of schools are officially recognised in England. These include grammar schools, faith schools, and city technology colleges — each with its own distinctive purpose and history within the education system.

• Grammar Schools : These are state-funded secondary schools that select all or most of their pupils based on academic ability, usually through the 11-plus examination. While no new grammar schools can currently be established, existing ones may expand. Grammar schools can have academy status or remain local authority maintained. According to official sources, there are 163 state-funded grammar schools in England.
• Faith Schools : Around one-third of state-funded schools in England have a religious character. Faith schools can be maintained by a local authority or operate as academies. They follow the national curriculum but have additional flexibility in religious education and admissions policies, often giving priority to pupils of their own faith.
• City Technology Colleges (CTCs) : Independent, state-funded schools established in urban areas to promote technological and practical education. CTCs were jointly funded by government and private sector sponsors, and most have since converted to academy status. They remain an important milestone in the development of the academy model.

Public Schools – England’s Historic Independent Schools

Within the independent sector, a small and historically important group of fee-paying secondary schools are known as public schools. Despite the name, these are not state schools: they are long-established independent schools (often boarding and highly selective) that sit outside the state system and educate pupils for a fee. The term “public” goes back to a time when these schools were open to pupils from across the country, rather than just the local parish, and were governed by public bodies or charitable trusts rather than a private owner. There is no separate “public school” category in modern DfE or GIAS statistics, so they are counted within the wider group of independent schools. A common contemporary proxy is membership of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), which includes just over 300 leading independent secondary schools across the British Isles, the majority of them in England.

Observations about School Names in England

The following lists the 50 most common words found in school names across England, based on the latest GIAS data. It offers a quick snapshot of the naming patterns before we look more closely at some key observations.

• School (19790)
• Primary (12572)
• Academy (3949)
• St (3446)
• of (2988)
• Church (2725)
• England (2555)
• Catholic (1731)
• CofE (1661)
• and (1438)
• The (1366)
• Nursery (1255)
• Community (1097)
• Infant (1085)
• Junior (1020)
• College (903)
• High (697)
• Park (651)
• Voluntary (618)
• Mary (462)
• Hill (405)
• John (398)
• House (327)
• Green (292)
• First (268)
• Controlled (254)
• Aided (248)
• Centre (227)
• Hall (217)
• Joseph (211)
• Peter (210)
• West (187)
• Girls (186)
• All (185)
• King (182)
• Lane (181)
• RC (180)
• Thomas (173)
• Holy (166)
• Grammar (164)
• Manor (162)
• Saints (162)
• for (161)
• Wood (159)
• Lady (158)
• Road (153)
• Trinity (152)
• Paul (148)
• Preparatory (144)
• South (142)
• International (140)

First, the most common word by far is simply “School”, followed by “Primary” and then “Academy”, with “College” also appearing frequently. In other words, the most typical naming pattern is still “Something School”, with “Academy” and “College” now very widely used – especially for secondary and all-through schools.

Faith schools are easy to spot from their names. Terms like “Church”, “England”, “CofE” (Church of England), and “Catholic” appear very often, and the abbreviation “RC” (Roman Catholic) is also common. Many Church of England schools also use religious words such as “St”, “Holy” or “Trinity” in their names, while Catholic schools often feature names like St Mary’s, St John’s, St Joseph’s, St Peter’s, or St Thomas.

A lot of state schools also include their governance structure in the formal school name. Words such as “Voluntary”, “Controlled”, and “Aided” are common, reflecting the traditional categories of voluntary aided and voluntary controlled schools. At the same time, the word “Community” appears in more than a thousand school names, but not all of these are officially classified as community schools in the GIAS data — sometimes “community” is used in a broader, everyday sense rather than as a precise legal category.

There is also a noticeable difference between how primary and secondary schools name themselves. Most primary schools explicitly include words such as “Primary”, “Infant”, “Junior”, or “Nursery” in their names, and many use combinations like “Infant School”, “Infant Academy” or “Junior School” to signal a narrower age range. By contrast, relatively few secondary schools call themselves “Secondary School”; instead, they more often use terms like “College”, “Academy” or “High School” to describe themselves.

The statistics also reveal some patterns that are closely tied to particular parts of the system. The word “Preparatory” appears frequently in school names but is essentially confined to independent (private) schools, where it refers to preparatory schools that prepare pupils for senior schools; it is not used in the names of state-funded schools. By contrast, words like “Primary”, “Junior”, “High”, and “College” are shared across both state and independent sectors.

Finally, the frequency of certain saints’ names reinforces the historic role of churches in English education. Names such as St Mary, St John, St Joseph, St Peter, St Thomas, and St Paul appear again and again, especially among Church of England and Roman Catholic schools. This reflects both the historic role of churches in founding schools and the continuing influence of Christian traditions in school naming today.

Several abbreviations also appear frequently in school names, reflecting religious affiliation or governance. CofE and CE both stand for Church of England; RC means Roman Catholic; (C) indicates a Voluntary Controlled school, while (A) marks a Voluntary Aided one; (NC) denotes a Non-Church school. In the independent sector, GDST refers to the Girls’ Day School Trust, a long-established charitable group of independent girls’ schools.

Conclusion

The school landscape in England is remarkably diverse, shaped by differences in funding, governance, and educational focus. From academies and maintained schools to independent and special settings, each type plays a unique role in serving local communities and pupils of every background. These classifications, drawn from the latest Get Information About Schools (GIAS) data, offer a snapshot of how England’s education system continues to evolve. You can explore more detailed statistics and local breakdowns across our other pages on Baseview.uk.