🔎 Ofsted State-Funded Schools Register

Each record carries the URN, school name, phase, region, trust/sponsor, pupil count, and the latest inspection date and OEIF outcome grades, with honest nulls where a school has no current grade.

One structured school_record per row of the Ofsted official management-information CSV of state-funded schools and their latest inspection outcomes. The actor discovers the newest official CSV asset on the GOV.UK publication page, validates its headers, and delivers one record per row. Public, logged-out, robots-honoured.

Output is one school_record row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one school record (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.02 per school record). Source: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, www.gov.uk.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run gwmst2DI1Rg8pVG1M on build 0.1.4 (2026-09-18), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

urn	school_name	phase	type_of_education	region	release_date
100000	The Aldgate School	Primary	Voluntary Aided School	London	2026-08-31
100005	Thomas Coram Centre	Nursery	LA Nursery School	London	2026-08-31
100006	Heath School	Alternative provision	Pupil Referral Unit	London	2026-08-31
100007	Camden Primary Pupil Referral Unit	Alternative provision	Pupil Referral Unit	London	2026-08-31
100008	Argyle Primary School	Primary	Community School	London	2026-08-31
100009	West Hampstead Primary School	Primary	Community School	London	2026-08-31
100010	Brecknock Primary School	Primary	Community School	London	2026-08-31
100011	Brookfield Primary School	Primary	Community School	London	2026-08-31

The run finished with the status message: CAPPED: delivered 50 of 21957 unique rows (maxRecords=50). billable=50

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_type (string) — e.g. school_record
• urn (string/null) — e.g. 100000
• school_name (string/null) — e.g. The Aldgate School
• phase (string/null) — e.g. Primary
• type_of_education (string/null) — e.g. Voluntary Aided School
• region (string/null) — e.g. London
• local_authority (string/null) — e.g. City of London
• trust_or_sponsor (string/null) — null in every sample row
• total_pupils (string/null) — e.g. 229
• latest_inspection_date (string/null) — e.g. 12/06/2024
• latest_publication_date (string/null) — e.g. 11/07/2024
• overall_effectiveness (string/null) — e.g. 1
• quality_of_education (string/null) — e.g. 1
• behaviour_and_attitudes (string/null) — e.g. 1
• personal_development (string/null) — e.g. 1
• leadership_and_management (string/null) — e.g. 1
• safeguarding_effective (string/null) — e.g. Yes
• category_of_concern (string/null) — null in every sample row
• source (string/null) — e.g. ofsted-school-register
• release_date (string/null) — e.g. 2026-08-31
• source_url (string/null) — e.g. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aa0175392e72b8ac437ef37/Manageme
• observed_at (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-18T05:49:25Z
• terminal (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• csv_url (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• raw_seen (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• duplicates (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• unique_found (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• delivered (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row

What you get

One school_record per row, deduplicated on the source-native id. Fields the register does not publish for a row are honest null. A run_receipt row carries the release date, the exact CSV asset URL, and the delivered/duplicate counts. Raise maxRecords for the full register.

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "maxRecords": 50
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 50 × $0.02 school_record = $1.02 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "maxRecords": 5
}

Caps the run at 5 rows — about $0.12 on the Free tier ($0.02 start + 5 × $0.02).

3. A full-size run

{
  "maxRecords": 5000
}

Up to 5000 rows (the schema default for maxRecords) — about $100.02 on the Free tier ($0.02 start + 5000 × $0.02) if the source has that many.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run gwmst2DI1Rg8pVG1M, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_type": "school_record",
  "urn": "100000",
  "school_name": "The Aldgate School",
  "phase": "Primary",
  "type_of_education": "Voluntary Aided School",
  "region": "London",
  "local_authority": "City of London",
  "trust_or_sponsor": null,
  "total_pupils": "229",
  "latest_inspection_date": "12/06/2024",
  "latest_publication_date": "11/07/2024",
  "overall_effectiveness": "1",
  "quality_of_education": "1",
  "behaviour_and_attitudes": "1",
  "personal_development": "1",
  "leadership_and_management": "1",
  "safeguarding_effective": "Yes",
  "category_of_concern": null,
  "source": "ofsted-school-register",
  "release_date": "2026-08-31",
  "source_url": "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aa0175392e72b8ac437ef37/Management_information_-_state-funded_schools_-_latest_inspections_as_at_31_August_2026.csv",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-18T05:49:25Z"
}

🔧 How it works

Source. The actor reads assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, www.gov.uk — endpoints: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/. Public pages and feeds only; nothing behind a login.

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. robots.txt is read first and a disallowed path is never fetched. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Charging. Each school record is charged at the moment it is pushed (school_record); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

How it behaves

The publication page and CSV asset are fetched only if robots allows. A missing asset, a header drift, or an empty official file stops the run loudly and charges nothing. maxRecords caps the count.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
School Record (school_record)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.01

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 8 school records: $0.02 start + 8 × $0.02 = $0.18
• 25 school records: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.02 = $0.52
• 5000 school records: $0.02 start + 5000 × $0.02 = $100.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 4096 MB.

Yield on the sample run: CAPPED: delivered 50 of 21957 unique rows (maxRecords=50). billable=50. maxRecords is a hard ceiling on what is delivered and billed, never a target.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, www.gov.uk. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, keeps to the source's robots rules (checked on every run), identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, www.gov.uk) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How many rows can one run return?
A: Up to maxRecords (default 5000). Raise the cap for a bigger run; you pay per delivered row.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other company registry checks actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, www.gov.uk. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source and honours its robots rules; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Status says CAPPED → your cap (maxRecords) was reached → raise it for a bigger run.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

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