Use sources that answer the question
School fee schedules, admissions policies and regulator reports are the starting point for consequential claims. We record the source, date and scope in supporting records, including the relevant school year and grade.
Independent reporting can add context. Parent forums and school social channels can suggest questions to investigate; a small number of comments or a promotional post speaks for those families, not most families.
Make facts checkable
Source links belong beside the relevant claim or paragraph. A link to a school homepage is not enough when a specific policy or dated document is available.
Fees should state their year, currency and charging period. Calculations should distinguish additional charges from payments credited to tuition and refundable deposits.
Keep uncertainty beside the affected advice
When sources disagree, we compare their dates, definitions and authority. A recent source does not automatically resolve a conflict if it describes a different programme or group of pupils.
If a point remains unresolved, we say what is missing and what a family should ask. We do not treat an unavailable fee schedule, unverified anecdote or unknown waiting-list length as a confirmed fact.
Explain our judgments
Our assessments connect school features with a family’s possible needs. They are interpretations, not promises about an individual child’s experience.
“Our read” sections use High, Medium or Limited confidence to describe the supporting evidence. An official policy can support confidence about a rule while leaving its day-to-day implementation uncertain. Document-based research does not imply a school visit.
Write for parents
Explain acronyms, grade labels and local rules before using them to compare options. Keep useful detail, but separate eligibility, costs, exceptions and the next action into clear sentences and paragraphs.
Protect editorial independence
We do not invent fees, dates, statistics, quotations or firsthand experiences. Schools cannot pay to change our coverage or recommendations. Sponsored placements are labelled separately.
Stories in Notes from the School Gates
Our School Gates stories follow the same rules. They are written to be read, but the facts in them are held to the standards above: dated sources, no invented figures or quotations, and no firsthand experience we cannot support.
Correct errors and update the evidence
Material corrections should update the page, its supporting records and any summaries repeating the claim. A page’s review date does not guarantee that a policy has remained unchanged since that date.
Read our corrections policy to report an error or share a newer source.