School estates statistics 2019

Chapter 3: School condition

A school’s condition is the current state of its fabric. The following ratings are used to measure school condition:

• A: Good – Performing well and operating efficiently;
• B: Satisfactory – Performing adequately but showing minor deterioration;
• C: Poor – Showing major defects and/or not operating adequately;
• D: Bad – Economic life expired and/or risk of failure.

In November 2017 new guidance was provided to local authorities on measuring school condition. Condition was recorded using this guidance for the first time in the 2019 School Estates Core Facts Survey. Differences between this and the previous guidance mean that a school’s condition rating may have changed when there has been little or no change to the physical condition itself. Therefore, caution is advised when comparing the 2019 figures with previous years.

Some authorities were unable to implement the new guidance before the 2019 collection and have therefore reported the condition of their schools under the ratings from the old guidance. As a result comparisons between authorities may not be valid. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more details.

The proportion of schools in good or satisfactory condition has increased 6.5 percentage points from 81.8 per cent in April 2013 to 88.3 per cent in April 2019 (Table 3.1). This is a result of investment and reorganisation of the school estate.

Taking into account the number of pupils in each school, there has been a six percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils educated in good or satisfactory condition schools from 83.6 per cent in April 2013 to 89.6 per cent in April 2019 (Table 3.2).

Table 3.1: Condition of schools, 2013-2019⁽¹⁾

1. Condition as reported in April. Changes to the guidance used to measure condition mean that caution should be used when comparing figures between years. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information.

2. Condition was measured using new guidance in the 2019 survey. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information. Condition was not recorded for three schools in 2019 as they were new builds which had not yet been surveyed. No condition was recorded for one other school as it is a special school located in a hospital.

Table 3.2: Pupils by condition of schools, 2013-2019^{(1, 2)}

1. Condition as reported in April. Changes to the guidance used to measure condition mean that caution should be used when comparing figures between years. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information.

2. Refers to pupils on the school roll the previous September except where rolls have been updated to reflect the number of pupils on 1^st April. Schools opened after September but before April will have no pupils recorded for that school year unless they chose to supply this figure during this collection. Please see section 6.1 of the background notes for more information.

3. Condition was measured using new guidance in the 2019 survey. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information. Condition was not recorded for three schools in 2019 as they were new builds which had not yet been surveyed. No condition was recorded for one other school as it is a special school located in a hospital.