# Schools Near Me — Agent Skill Guide

SchoolsNearMe.ai helps people find, compare and research schools using official
Department for Education (DfE), Ofsted, Estyn and Independent Schools
Inspectorate data. The searchable register currently contains **26,976 schools
and education establishments across England and Wales**. Ofsted and DfE
performance measures apply to England; Welsh schools use Estyn data where
available.

This file tells an AI agent what the site can do and how to use it. For a fuller
reference see [/llms.txt](https://schoolsnearme.ai/llms.txt) and
[/llms-full.txt](https://schoolsnearme.ai/llms-full.txt). Machine-readable
interfaces are published as:

- [OpenAPI 3.1](https://schoolsnearme.ai/openapi.json)
- [Agent capability manifest](https://schoolsnearme.ai/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json)
- [Remote MCP endpoint](https://schoolsnearme.ai/mcp)

## What you can do

| Goal | How |
| --- | --- |
| Search by name or local authority | `GET /api/v1/search?query={text}` |
| Find nearest schools | `GET /api/v1/search?postcode={postcode}&phase={phase}` |
| One school's public data | `GET /api/v1/schools/{urn}` |
| One school's profile | `GET /school/{urn}` |
| Schools in an area | `GET /schools-in/{area}/` |
| Compare schools | `GET /compare` |
| Data-driven rankings | `GET /rankings` |
| Use MCP tools | Connect Streamable HTTP to `https://schoolsnearme.ai/mcp` |

`{urn}` is the school's six-digit DfE Unique Reference Number. `{area}` is a
kebab-case place name (`leeds`, `milton-keynes`). URN-only profile URLs redirect
to the canonical slugged form.

The legacy route `GET /api/get-school?urn={urn}` remains available, but new
integrations should use `/api/v1/schools/{urn}`.

## MCP tools

The MCP server is anonymous, read-only and exposes the same public boundary as
an unauthenticated REST request.

- `search_schools`: search by school name/local authority or find schools near a
  UK postcode. Supports phase, radius and result-limit filters.
- `get_school`: retrieve the current public record for one six-digit DfE URN.

The server supports stateless MCP `2026-07-28` (`server/discover`, routing
headers and cache metadata) plus initialization-based `2025-11-25`,
`2025-06-18` and `2025-03-26` clients.

## Read the data correctly

- **snmScore (0–100):** a reproducible composite of current comparable evidence:
  inspection 30%, phase-appropriate attainment 40%, attendance 15% and
  pupil-teacher ratio 15%. Available weights are re-normalised when a source is
  missing. The score is withheld where the evidence is insufficient or not
  comparable; never turn `null` into zero.
- **Ofsted overall:** 1 Outstanding, 2 Good, 3 Requires Improvement,
  4 Inadequate. Always check the inspection date. The post-November-2025
  framework does not publish one overall grade.
- **Progress 8:** not published for 2024/25 because that cohort has no KS2
  baseline. The current export does not surface a historical value as if it
  were current.
- **16–18 destinations:** DfE 2022/23 institution-level cohort data. It covers
  students who completed 16–18 study at that institution, not its Year 11
  cohort. Missing or suppressed values are unknown, not zero.

## Public versus premium fields

Anonymous REST and MCP calls return the public school record. Catchment, fees
and other premium fields remain protected. A school's record is intentionally
variable: phases have different performance measures, some sources do not
cover every school, and small cohorts may be suppressed.

Do not assume the API supports bulk export, writes, bookings, school
applications, account changes or payments. Commercial and higher-volume access
is described at [/for-agents](https://schoolsnearme.ai/for-agents).

## Data vintage and limitations

- Searchable records: 26,976; source records: 27,104 (the latter includes 128
  higher-education institutions excluded from school search).
- Last repository data refresh: **27 July 2026**.
- SATs and absence data are labelled 2024/25 where present.
- Coverage is strongest for England. Wales, offshore establishments and British
  schools overseas do not have the same DfE/Ofsted measures.
- Verify admissions decisions, dates and policies with the school or local
  authority.