GovData Docs

Education API Reference

Ofsted inspection outcomes for state-funded schools in England.

Base URL: https://api.govdata.dev/v1

Search schools

Returns paginated latest-inspection records for school-search products, local-authority analysts, and education researchers. Find nearby primary schools for a postcode tool, filter schools inspected under the current report-card framework, or compare published judgements within a local authority.

GET /v1/education/schools

Parameters

Name Type Required Default Description
name string No — Case-insensitive partial school-name match.
postcode string No — Full postcode; spacing and case are normalised.
local_authority string No — Case-insensitive partial local-authority match.
phase string No — Exact Ofsted phase, such as Primary, Secondary, or Special.
judgement string No — Matches any current report-card standard or legacy OEIF value (1–4).
has_current_judgements boolean No — true for post-November-2025 report-card records; false for legacy-only records.
page integer No 1 One-based result page.
per_page integer No 25 Results per page; minimum 1, maximum 100. 
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.govdata.dev/v1/education/schools?postcode=NW3%202JB&phase=Primary&has_current_judgements=true&per_page=5"

Response

{
  "data": [{
    "urn": "100025", "school_name": "Gospel Oak Primary School", "local_authority": "Camden",
    "postcode": "NW3 2JB", "phase": "Primary", "inspection_date": "2026-01-13", "publication_date": "2026-02-09",
    "current_judgements": {
      "category_of_concern": null, "safeguarding": "Met", "inclusion": "Strong standard",
      "curriculum_and_teaching": "Strong standard", "achievement": "Strong standard",
      "attendance_and_behaviour": "Expected standard", "personal_development_and_wellbeing": "Strong standard",
      "early_years": "Strong standard", "post_16": "Not applicable", "leadership_and_governance": "Strong standard"
    },
    "legacy_oief_judgements": {
      "overall_effectiveness": null, "quality_of_education": null, "behaviour_and_attitudes": null,
      "personal_development": null, "leadership_and_management": null, "safeguarding_effective": null
    }
  }],
  "meta": {
    "api_version": "v1", "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0", "source": "Ofsted",
    "source_url": "https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/monthly-management-information-ofsteds-school-inspections-outcomes"
  },
  "pagination": { "total": 1, "page": 1, "per_page": 5, "total_pages": 1 }
}

current_judgements contains the report-card standards used from 10 November 2025. legacy_oief_judgements preserves the older numeric OEIF scheme; null means that scheme did not supply a value, not a zero grade. URN 100025 is a real row in the bundled Ofsted development fixture.

Error responses

Search has no endpoint-specific 400, 404, or 422 branch. Unknown filters return an empty 200 response; boolean values use Rails boolean coercion.

Get school by URN

Returns the latest published inspection record for one school, addressed by its stable Unique Reference Number. Use it for a school profile page or to refresh Ofsted fields already linked to a school in your own system.

GET /v1/education/schools/:urn

Parameters

Name Type Required Default Description
urn string Yes — Department for Education Unique Reference Number. 
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" "https://api.govdata.dev/v1/education/schools/100025"

Response

{
  "data": {
    "urn": "100025", "school_name": "Gospel Oak Primary School", "local_authority": "Camden",
    "postcode": "NW3 2JB", "phase": "Primary", "inspection_date": "2026-01-13", "publication_date": "2026-02-09",
    "current_judgements": {
      "category_of_concern": null, "safeguarding": "Met", "inclusion": "Strong standard",
      "curriculum_and_teaching": "Strong standard", "achievement": "Strong standard",
      "attendance_and_behaviour": "Expected standard", "personal_development_and_wellbeing": "Strong standard",
      "early_years": "Strong standard", "post_16": "Not applicable", "leadership_and_governance": "Strong standard"
    },
    "legacy_oief_judgements": {
      "overall_effectiveness": null, "quality_of_education": null, "behaviour_and_attitudes": null,
      "personal_development": null, "leadership_and_management": null, "safeguarding_effective": null
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "api_version": "v1", "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0", "source": "Ofsted",
    "source_url": "https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/monthly-management-information-ofsteds-school-inspections-outcomes"
  }
}

This is the same complete school object returned in search, without pagination.

Error responses

404 — the URN is not present. There are no endpoint-specific 400 or 422 branches.

{"error":{"code":"not_found","message":"Resource not found","documentation_url":"https://docs.govdata.dev/errors/not_found"}}

Data notes

Coverage and cadence: Ofsted-inspected state-funded schools in England only. GovData refreshes from Ofsted's monthly management-information release; it is not a live inspection feed and excludes Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Legacy-OEIF dates: inspection_date and publication_date are null for 19,960 of 21,957 records (91%). The populated dates in the examples are the exception.

Licence and attribution: source Ofsted monthly management information, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Attribute Ofsted and link to the source release.

Ofsted replaced the single overall-effectiveness judgement with report-card standards for inspections from 10 November 2025. Current text standards and legacy OEIF grades (1 outstanding, 2 good, 3 requires improvement, 4 inadequate) are separate schemes; do not combine or rank them as one scale.

Each row is the latest full inspection published in the source, not a complete inspection history. Publication can lag inspection, fields can be null or Not applicable, and academy conversion or school closure can change identifiers and coverage.