Schools' census results: at January 2018

Main points

• Overall, there were 26 fewer local authority maintained schools than at January 2017. This is mainly due to school mergers.
• There were 604 more pupils (467,112) in local authority maintained schools than at January 2017.
• The percentage of pupils aged 5-15 known to be eligible for free meals has decreased from 17.8% in January 2017 to 17.4% in January 2018.
• There were 23,871 full-time equivalent qualified teachers in maintained schools, 39 fewer than at January 2017.
• 8.1% of pupils (8,695) were in infant classes of over 30 pupils, down from 8.2% (8,794) in January 2017.
• 61% of teachers took sickness absence during 2017, compared to 63% in 2016.