Schools' census results: January 2024

This statistical release presents data collected from the annual census of maintained schools in Wales. Data for independent schools is also shown. It reports information on schools, pupils, ethnicity, free school meal eligibility, additional learning and special educational needs, class sizes, teachers and support staff.

The data in this report is collected by the Welsh Government from local authority maintained schools in an electronic return called the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) and from independent schools in an aggregated return.

• There were 1,460 local authority maintained schools, down 3 compared with January 2023.
• There were 465,840 pupils in local authority maintained schools, down 4,032 compared with January 2023.
• Of the 382,018 pupils aged 5 to 15, 21.3% were known to be eligible for free school meals, down from 22.2% at January 2023.
• 29.3% of pupils aged 5 to 15 were known to be eligible for free school meals or transitionally protected, up from 28.7% at January 2023.
• There were 52,152 pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) or special educational needs (SEN) in maintained schools (11.2% of all pupils), down from 63,089 (13.4%) at January 2023.
• There were 21,319 pupils with Individual Development Plans under the new ALN system in maintained schools (40.9% of pupils with ALN or SEN), up from 10,499 (16.6%) at January 2023.
• There were 24,297 full-time equivalent qualified teachers in maintained schools, down 587 compared with January 2023.

This section presents information on schools and pupils. Local authority maintained schools meet their expenditure partly from council tax and partly from general grants made by the Welsh Government.

For definitions of types of school (including how they are classified in terms of language of teaching (medium)) see definitions.

The table shows that there were 1,460 local authority maintained schools at January 2024, down 3 compared with January 2023. There were 82 independent schools, up 3 compared with January 2023.

Figure 1: Number of maintained schools by local authority and medium, 2024 [Note 1]

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Description of Figure 1: A stacked bar chart showing the number of Welsh medium and English medium schools in each local authority. Cardiff had the highest number of schools overall at January 2024 and Gwynedd had the highest number of Welsh medium schools. 

Number of maintained schools by local authority and medium (MS Excel)

[Note 1] Primary, middle and secondary schools (excluding nursery and special schools)

• There were 442 Welsh medium schools at January 2024, with 106,605 pupils (23%) being educated in Welsh medium schools. 
• Most schools in Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire were Welsh medium schools. In the other 18 local authorities most schools were English medium.

The table shows that there were 465,840 pupils in local authority maintained schools, down 4,032 compared with January 2023. There were 10,126 pupils (2.1% of all pupils) in independent schools at January 2024, up 286 compared with January 2023.

[Note 1] 5 independent schools did not submit data in 2023 and 1 independent school did not submit data in 2024.

All the data that follows in this release relates to local authority maintained schools only.

Figure 2: Pupil teacher ratio (PTR) by sector, 2008 to 2024

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Description of Figure 2: Line chart showing PTRs for each sector. The chart shows that over the last 17 years, primary schools have had the highest pupil teacher ratio. 

PTR by sector (MS Excel)

The PTR in January 2024 was highest in primary schools at 21.3 and lowest in special schools at 6.7. The ratio in secondary schools was 17.0. 

The PTR has increased in nursery, primary and secondary schools in 2024, but is lower in all sectors compared with 2021. This may be partly due to the Welsh Government funding provided to schools under the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards (RRRS) plan to recruit extra staff to support pupils during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Welsh Government provided the RRRS funding to schools during the pandemic and the recovery period up to 2023-24, though the amount distributed decreased since the initial funding in 2020-21.

This is the ethnic group with which the pupil identifies themself.

The table shows that 84.8% of pupils aged 5 and over identified as White British at January 2024. This figure has been falling slightly for each of the past five years with pupils of most other ethnic backgrounds showing increases over the same period. 

Of those pupils from a minority ethnic background the largest groups are those from a mixed ethnic background (16,183 pupils), a White background other than White British, Traveller or Gypsy/Roma (14,482), Asian (12,233) and Black (6,885); whilst 6,625 pupils identify as another ethnic group.

Pupils are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments.

Universal primary free school meals (UPFSM)

The Welsh Government has committed to providing all primary school children in Wales with FSM by 2024. The rollout began in September 2022. 20 local authorities have now completed the rollout and the remaining 2 local authorities are on track to complete the rollout by September 2024. 

Whilst this rollout of FSM to those not previously eligible for them has started, the data presented in this release does not reflect the total number of pupils receiving FSM in January 2024. Instead, it includes only the number of pupils who are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain benefits (as reported in previous years) or those who are transitionally protected. Please see the free school meal information guide for full details of eligibility criteria and benefits.

Figure 3: Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM, 2008 to 2024 [Note 1]

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Description of Figure 3: A line chart showing that the percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM was higher in 2024 than in the years before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM (MS Excel)

[Note 1] Pupils eligible if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may have impacted on the quality of this data and may have resulted in over recording of this data in 2020 to 2022. Please see our Chief Statistician’s update on this. In 2023 and 2024 we allowed additional time and implemented new validation rules and procedures to ensure data of the highest possible quality.

[Note 2] Age as at 31 August of the previous year.

• There were 81,316 pupils (21.3%) aged 5 to 15 known to be eligible for FSM at January 2024, down from 85,057 pupils (22.2%) at January 2023. 
• There were 90,108 pupils (19.3%) of all ages known to be eligible for FSM at January 2024, down from 95,187 pupils (20.3%) at January 2023.

On 1 April 2019 the Welsh Government introduced a new transitional protection for FSM policy. This was brought in to ensure that pupils have their FSM protected during the Universal Credit rollout period.

This protection applies to individual pupils and will continue until the end of their current schools phase, being the end of primary school or end of secondary school.

Any pupil that was eligible for free school meals on the introduction of the policy on 1 April 2019 should also be transitionally protected. In addition, any pupil that has become eligible at any point during the Universal Credit rollout up to 31 December 2023 under the new eligibility criteria should also be transitionally protected.

The tables show that there were 111,805 pupils (29.3%) aged 5 to 15 known to be eligible for FSM or TP at January 2024, up from 109,977 pupils (28.7%) at January 2023.

There were 122,101 pupils (26.2%) of all ages known to be eligible for FSM or TP at January 2024, up from 121,550 pupils (25.9%) at January 2023.

[Note 1] The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may have impacted on the quality of this data and may have resulted in over recording of this data in 2020 to 2022. Please see our Chief Statistician’s update on this. In 2023 and 2024 we allowed additional time and implemented new validation rules and procedures to ensure data of the highest possible quality.

A person has ALN/SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or otherwise) which calls for additional learning provision or special educational provision. Learners with ALN will have their needs identified in individual development plans (IDPs) which are statutory plans created under the ALN Act. Learners with SEN may have School Action, School Action Plus or a Statement, which will cease in August 2025 when the implementation of the ALN system is complete.

Changes to special educational needs data following the implementation of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018

The Additional Learning Needs Code for Wales 2021 (the ALN Code) and regulations came into force on 1 September 2021 to ensure children and young people aged 0 to 25 can access additional support to meet their needs that is properly planned for and protected, with learners at the heart of the process.

Implementation of the ALN system is ongoing, with children moving from the SEN system to the ALN system until August 2025. Learners with ALN will have their needs identified in IDPs maintained by either a school or a local authority.

Analysis of the data, along with feedback from local authorities suggest that the fall in ALN/SEN learners over the last three years is due to a systematic review by schools of their ALN/SEN identification and data, both in readiness for and during implementation of the ALN system. Learners supported through School Action and School Action Plus (those requiring the least amount of special educational provision) may no longer be identified as ALN/SEN in PLASC. This is either because their needs are short term, do not require provision additional to, or different from, that which is provided for other learners, that can be addressed as part of holistic provision.

Additionally, schools were asked to stop using the ‘General learning difficulties’ category and to reassess an appropriate category of need for such pupils. This category had become a catch-all for those requiring catch up support, with minor needs and/or where multiple needs existed, instead of its original intent, which was to capture learners awaiting assessment. This has also led to some pupils no longer being identified as ALN/SEN in PLASC. The ‘General learning difficulties’ category was removed from the 2023 and 2024 schools’ censuses.

Welsh Government will continue to monitor the numbers throughout implementation of the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act and work with our partners to ensure the data presents an accurate reflection of the numbers and categories of learners with ALN in Wales.

Figure 4: Number and percentage of pupils with ALN or SEN in maintained schools by type of provision, 2023 to 2024 [Note 1]

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Description of Figure 4: Clustered bar chart showing that the most common type of ALN or SEN provision in 2024 was IDPs. IDP provision has increased compared to 2023, while other types of provision have decreased as pupils move to the new ALN system. 

Number and percentage of pupils with additional learning or SEN in maintained schools by type of provision (MS Excel)

[Note 1] Percentages represent the percentage of all pupils with these types of ALN or SEN provision.

[Note 2] IDPs are statutory plans created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 September 2021. A learner may have either a school maintained IDP or a local authority maintained IDP.

• There were 52,152 pupils with ALN or SEN in maintained schools (11.2% of all pupils), down from 63,089 (13.4%) in January 2023. 
• There were 21,319 pupils with IDPs under the new ALN system in maintained schools (40.9% of pupils with ALN or SEN), up from 10,499 (16.6%) in January 2023. 

Figure 5: Reports of ALN or SEN in maintained schools by type of need, 2024 [Note 1]

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Description of Figure 5: Bar chart showing the number of reports of each additional learning or special educational type of need. Speech, language and communication difficulties was the most common type of ALN or SEN in 2024 followed by behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. 

Reports of additional learning or SEN in maintained schools by type of need (MS Excel)

[Note 1]: Numbers rounded to the nearest 5. From January 2017 maintained schools were allowed to report as many special educational needs for a pupil as required. These reports are not ranked and therefore have no type that can be shown as a pupil’s ‘Major Need’. The chart above shows the number of times each type of need was reported. For example, if types 'Dyslexia' and 'Dyspraxia' are reported for a pupil that pupil is counted twice, once under each type. The number of ALN or SEN reports will therefore be greater than the number of pupils with ALN or SEN.

• There were 75,225 reports of ALN or SEN type made, an average of 1.4 per pupil with ALN or SEN.
• The most common type of need reported was ‘Speech, language and communication difficulties’, representing 35.0% of pupils with some form of ALN or SEN.
• The next highest was ‘Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties’ (31.8%) followed by ‘Moderate learning difficulties’ (22.5%).

The table shows that average infant class sizes remained the same and average junior class sizes increased slightly compared with 2023. 

Infant classes of more than 30 pupils are unlawfully large unless specific circumstances called ‘exceptions’ are satisfied.

Figure 6: Percentage of pupils in lawfully and unlawfully large infant classes, 2022 to 2024

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Description of Figure 6: Clustered bar chart showing that the percentage of pupils in lawfully large classes decreased in 2024 while the percentage in unlawfully large classes increased.

Percentage of pupils in lawfully and unlawfully large infant classes (MS Excel)

• There were 6,199 pupils (6.4%) in infant classes of over 30 pupils in January 2024, down from 6,459 pupils (6.5%) in January 2023. 
• There were 674 pupils (0.7%) in unlawfully large classes of over 30 pupils in January 2024, up from 302 pupils (0.3%) in January 2023.

The School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) was introduced in 2019 to provide more comprehensive information on the school workforce in Wales and help inform Welsh Government policy on issues relating to the school workforce in Wales. The data will be used in workforce planning and used to monitor equality and diversity of the school workforce. Data published in this statistical release (Schools’ census results) is derived using information from the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) and should continue to be used as the official statistics on the school workforce and for comparisons over time. The latest SWAC statistical release was published on 18 July 2024 as official statistics in development. Once the quality of the data collected through SWAC has been assured and any differences explained, the SWAC release will provide the official statistics on the school workforce in Wales. 

From 2021, teacher sickness absence information has been collected through the SWAC. The SWAC collection provides greater coverage of school teacher absences in that it collects data from schools who have opted out of payroll or HR service level agreements with their local authority. For this reason, teacher sickness absence data is no longer collected separately from local authorities and is published as part of the SWAC statistical release only going forward.

Please see the School Workforce Annual Census: background, quality and methodology information report for more details on the SWAC collection and a comparison of data items collected in SWAC and PLASC (relating to qualified teachers, teacher sickness absence and teacher recruitment and retention).

The table shows that there were 24,297 FTE qualified teachers in local authority maintained schools as at January 2024, down 587 compared with January 2023.

There were also 25,018 FTE support staff in local authority maintained schools as at January 2024, down 794 compared with January 2023.

Local authority maintained schools

Schools maintained by the local authorities. The authorities meet their expenditure partly from council tax and partly from general grants made by the Welsh Government.

Welsh medium schools

Primary schools include Welsh medium, dual stream and transitional schools. Middle and secondary schools include Welsh medium and bilingual schools. For further information please see these guidance notes.

English medium schools

Includes English medium and English with significant Welsh.

Independent schools

Schools which charge fees and may also be financed by individuals, companies or charitable institutions.

Nursery schools

Age under 5.

Primary schools

Ages 3/4 to 10.

Middle schools

Ages 3/4 to 16/18.

Secondary schools

Ages 11 to 16/18.

Special schools

Special schools, both day and boarding, provide education for children with ALN or SEN who cannot be educated satisfactorily in mainstream schools.

Full-time equivalent (FTE)

FTE pupil numbers count part-time pupils as 0.5.

FTE of part-time teachers expresses the teachers’ service in hours as a proportion of a school week: 32.5 hours for maintained schools and 26 hours for independent schools.

Pupil teacher ratio (PTR)

Calculated by dividing the FTE number of pupils by the FTE number of qualified teachers (head teachers, acting head teachers, assistant head teachers, deputy heads and other qualified teachers).

Additional learning and special educational needs

Pupils with statements

Pupils for whom the authority maintains a statement of special educational needs under Part iv of the Education Act 1996. A statement may be issued by the local authority after assessment of a child’s needs. 

School action

When a class or subject teacher identify that a pupil has special educational needs they provide interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of the school’s usual curriculum. 

School Action Plus

When the class or subject teacher and the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator are provided with advice or support from outside specialists, so that alternative interventions additional or different to those provided for the pupil through 'School Action' can be put in place. The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator usually takes the lead although day-to-day provision continues to be the responsibility of class or subject teacher.

Individual Development Plans

Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are statutory plans created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 September 2021. A learner may have either a school maintained IDP or a local authority maintained IDP.

Infant class sizes

The Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 and associated regulations placed a statutory duty on local authorities and governing bodies to limit the size of Reception classes to 30 from 1999; Reception and Year 1 classes from 2000 and Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 from 2001. Mixed year or mixed Key Stage classes are subject to the limit, where the majority of the class is made up of pupils in the appropriate year groups; this includes mixed nursery/reception classes.

Official statistics status

All official statistics should show the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics.  

These are accredited official statistics. They were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in July 2010. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. 

It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of accreditation. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. Accreditation can be cancelled or suspended at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.

These accredited official statistics (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.

Trustworthiness

The data in this release relates to all maintained and independent schools in Wales. Data for maintained schools is derived from the PLASC returns supplied by schools open on census day, which is usually in January each year. The returns are authorised by headteachers and validated by local authorities. Independent schools complete an aggregate STATS1 return which is authorised by headteachers.

The data collection and validation is carried out between January and May. The data is normally published in July. 

These statistics are published in an accessible, orderly, pre-announced manner on the Welsh Government website at 9:30am on the day of publication. 

This output adheres to the Code of Practice by pre-announcing the date of publication through the upcoming calendar web pages.

Quality

The published figures provided are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data and applying methods using their professional judgement and analytical skillset. Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistical Authority) and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.

PLASC is an electronic collection of pupil and school level data. Schools record data on pupils and the school throughout the year in their Management Information System (MIS) software. This data is collated into an electronic PLASC return and submitted to the Welsh Government through DEWI, a secure online data transfer system developed by the Welsh Government. Various stages of automated validation and sense-checking are built into the process to ensure a high quality of data to inform policy making and funding.

The census data in this release relate to the position on Tuesday 16 January 2024. DEWi was available for uploading files on 16 January 2024. Schools and local authorities were then asked to validate their data within the validation period, which closed on 31 May 2024. 

Due to the level of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in January 2022, the 2022 census date was delayed to 15 February 2022. School closures between December 2020 and March 2021 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic meant that the 2021 census date was delayed to 20 April 2021.

Last year we carried out additional validation of the data with local authorities on pupils eligible for FSM. Please see our Chief Statistician’s update on this. 

The result of this additional validation showed that some pupils who were only receiving FSM due to transitional protection or through the universal primary free school meal policy had been incorrectly recorded as being eligible for FSM via the means-tested criteria (pupils are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments, see Free school meals: information for parents and carers).

This year we developed additional validation rules which helped to identify any issues with the FSM eligibility data at an earlier stage. We then worked with local authorities during the validation period to ensure that correct data was provided.

Value

These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:

• resource allocation in the Welsh Local Government Finance Settlement and the Pupil Development Grant
• advice to ministers
• to inform the education policy decision-making process in Wales including school reorganisation
• to inform Estyn during school inspections
• the education domain of the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
• to assist in research in educational attainment

This release is accompanied by an Open Document Spreadsheet which can be shared and reused widely and which complies with the Government Analysis Function guidance on Releasing statistics in spreadsheets. More detailed tables are available on StatsWales, a free to use service that allows visitors to view, manipulate, create and download data. The data will also be published on My Local School, a website designed to open up access to school data for parents and all others with an interest in their local school.

The commentary and notes in the release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to the widest range of users. Furthermore, all our school statistics outputs are published in Welsh and English.

Comparability

England

Statistics: school and pupil numbers (Department for Education)

Statistics: education and training UK (Department for Education)

Scotland

School education statistics (Scottish Government)

Northern Ireland

Education statistics (Department of Education, Northern Ireland)

Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. The Act puts in place seven well-being goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the Well-being goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before the National Assembly. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Well-being of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

Statistician: Geraint Turner
Email: school.stats@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 67/2024

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