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Level The Playing Field – primary schools

Primary schools

There are 1242 primary schools in Wales, with the number per local authority ranging from 19 in Blaenau Gwent to 98 in Cardiff.

In order for our analyses at the local authority level to be statistically robust, we have often had to restrict ourselves to using data for primary schools. For other types of schools we generally look at data across all of Wales.

Special schools

Almost every local authority in Wales has at least one special school (Ceredigion does not). There are 41 in Wales. Analysis of relevant data is limited but informative.

Level The Playing Field – secondary schools

Secondary schools

There are 187 secondary schools in Wales. Most of them have sixth forms. 

All-through schools

All-through schools take children from reception through to GCSEs or sixth form. There are 22 in Wales, mostly in areas where the school population cannot sustain two separate sites and/or leadership teams for primary and secondary education. These are a relatively new development with several such schools opening in the past two years.