2. SCHOOL PROFILE

2.1 The information in this section covers different aspects of:

• type
• sector
• size
• number of library sites.

Type

2.2 Looking at the types of school fifty three percent described their school as being for 11 to 18 year olds, 27% as for 11 to 16 year olds and only 2% as for 12 to 17 year olds. The 'Other' category included numerous alternatives across the age range 3 to 19 years. Special and independent schools quoted wider age ranges for pupils. English schools in this category were often 3 to 16, 3 to 19, 7 to 18, 3 to 18, 6 to 16 or 13 to 18. Scottish schools were often 4 to 18 or 3 to 18. The other age ranges were too numerous and infrequent to report.

Figure 1 School Type

2.3 Analysis was undertaken to find out any differences with respect to pupil size, country and sector.

2.4 Clear differences emerged between the various types of school. The 11 to 18 years old category showed the highest number of pupils compared to the rest. The 'Other' schools, having various age ranges, tended to be small in size.

Table 2.4 School size by type of school

2.5 Proportionately more of the Scottish schools were 11 to 18 or 12 to 17; fewer 11 to 16. Welsh schools were generally 11 to 18 with a much smaller percentage 11 to 16.

Table 2.5 School type by country

2.6 Table 2.6 below shows some differences; special schools being comprised of a mixture of age ranges as do the independents although to a lesser extent.

Table 2.6 School type by sector

2.7 As can be seen, the ‘Other’ type of school was dominated by the special sector but also a larger than expected independent proportion. When considering subsequent analysis it should be borne in mind that ‘Other’ was very much an ‘odd’ mixture of special and independent schools, not a coherent collection of schools.

2.8 Perhaps, not surprisingly, 11 to 18 schools tended to be bigger than the other types of school; 'Other' schools were often small with a few in the very large category. Again the mixture of special and independent schools made this category less useful, in terms of comparison.

Table 2.8 Type of school by number of pupils

Sector

2.9 As can be seen in the figure below, fifty six percent described themselves as LEA maintained. The small 'Other' category generally comprised a variety of voluntary aided or maintained grammar, denominational, schools or controlled secondary schools.

Figure 2 School Sector

2.10 Analysis was undertaken to find out any differences with respect to pupil size, type and country.

2.11 Clear differences existed between the various sectors with special schools containing the fewest pupils. It is interesting to note that independent schools contained substantially fewer pupils than the other mainstream sectors. A more complete picture of school size by sector is shown in Table 2.11, below.

Table 2.11 Average number of pupils by sector

2.12 As can be seen below in Table 2.12, special schools were quite small, with only 1.1% having more than 500 pupils. Independent schools tended not to be particularly large with the largest proportion in the 100 to 500 range. 'Other' schools seemed to follow a LEA and grant maintained profile; but notice that grant maintained schools can be very large.

Table 2.12 School size by sector

Size

2.13 The number of pupils per school were recorded in tables 2.4 and 2.11. Over two fifths of the schools had pupil numbers between 500 and 1000.

Figure 3 Distribution of size of school

2.15 Schools in Northern Ireland tended to be medium sized with about half the proportion of schools with fewer than 100 pupils and less than half the proportion of 1000 plus schools compared with the other countries. The feature will be useful in explaining differences found elsewhere. The profile for the other countries was similar except that there appears to be an increased proportion of 1000 plus pupil schools in Wales.

Table 2.15 Size of school by country

Number of library sites

2.16 Approximately eighty five percent of schools reported a single library site; thirteen percent had two or more sites and nearly 2% of schools without a library site.

2.17 Table 2.17, below, shows that Scotland had a higher proportion of schools with without a library site and a lower proportion with 2 library sites. No other differences by country emerged.

Table 2.17 Number of library sites with country comparison

2.18 A large proportion of special schools (nearly 14 percent) had no library; independent schools were a little different with respect to number of library sites (tending to have a slightly higher proportion than LEA or grant maintained with no library but much larger proportions with 2 or 3 or more library sites).

Table 2.18 Number of library sites by sector

2.19 The 11 to 18 schools had a higher proportion with 2 library sites; notice the unusual behaviour of the 'Other' schools which had a high proportion with no site and a similar high proportion with 3 or more sites.

Table 2.19 Number of library sites by type of school

2.20 There were significant differences with respect to the number of library sites, with small schools containing fewer than 100 pupils often having no library (nearly 18% of schools with fewer than 50 pupils and just over 12% for those with between 50 and 100 pupils had no library site). The very large schools often had two library sites (31%). There were no real differences in the 3 plus category in relation to size. An earlier finding noted a large proportion of independent schools had three or more library sites. The differences might, then, be due to structure rather than size.

Table 2.20 Number of library sites by size of school

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