Education in England: pupils by race, poverty and language for every local authority

 What kinds of children attend schools in England? Teacher and pupils at Malmesbury school, Wiltshire. Photograph: Sam Frost

What kinds of children attend England's state schools? What does the school system look like across the country?

The latest data our from the Department for Education gives us a complete picture of the children and schools of England (the Department doesn't cover Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland). In fact there are two big datasets out today: schools characteristics (which breaks local authorities down by pupils, types of school, ethnicity and first language) plus a detailed list of appeals against school places decisions by local authority.

We thought it would be interesting to put them together - and click below to see how that map looks:

English education system interactive. Click image for graphic

Jessica Shepherd says the key findings are:

• Primary school appeals have doubled in four years - 42,070 in 09/10 compared to 21,995 in 2005/6. But a lot fewer are successful in primary, with 24.5% decided in parents' favour in 2009/10 compared to 36.1% decided in parents' favour in 2005/06
• There were fewer secondary school appeals - 43,095 compared to 56,675 in 05/06 and fewer successful - 34.4% decided in parents favour in 2009/10 compared to 36.4% in 2005/06
• In 2007 16% of pupils in all state schools claimed and were eligible for free school meals, while in 2011, 18% were. In state secondary schools: 14.4% in 2007 compared to 15.9% in 2011. Interestingly, there a big jump in the number claiming/eligible for FSM in primary between last year and this year - 18.5% in 2010 in state primary and nurseries
• 26.5% of state primary pupils are from an ethnic minority background in 2011, compared to 25.5% in 2010. In 2006, it was 20.6%
• In state primary 16.8% of pupils' first language is not English, compared to 16% in 2010. In 2009, it was 15.2%
• In state secondaries, 12.3% of pupils' first language is not English in 2011, compared to 11.6% in 2010. in 2009, it was 11.1%. in 2006, it was 10.4%

We've extracted the key tables for you below. What can you do with the data?

Click heading to sort table. Download this data

% prim pupils getting free school meals% sec pupils getting free school meals% of sec pupils whose first language is other than English% of sec pupils non-white British% of appeals lodged by parents: sec places

• DATA: download the full spreadsheet

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