School website compliance calendar for 2026/27

Keeping a school or academy trust website compliant isn't a one-off job — it's a rolling calendar of statutory and non-statutory deadlines set by the Department for Education (DfE), the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and local authorities. Some requirements apply to academies and FE colleges, others to maintained schools, and a few apply to everyone. Miss one, and you're out of compliance until someone notices.

To help you stay ahead of it, here's our calendar of the key website compliance deadlines for the 2026/27 academic year, in date order.

By 31 July 2026:

PE and Sport Premium report for 2025-26

Primary schools in receipt of PE and Sport Premium funding must publish a report on their website setting out how they spent it during 2025-26, including participation and attainment impact, swimming and water safety attainment for Year 6, and how any improvements will be sustained. Schools that use DfE's digital expenditure reporting return as their published report must make sure it meets accessibility requirements before it goes live on the website. Full detail is in the PE and sport premium conditions of grant and the guidance on completing the expenditure reporting return. If this deadline has already passed you by, it's worth checking your website now rather than waiting for next year's version of this same reminder.

By 31 August 2026:

Music Development Plan Summary and In-Year Admission Arrangements

Two separate items land on the same date. DfE expects all schools to publish a summary of their music development plan for the year ahead on their website — it's not a statutory duty, but it is DfE's stated expectation, and the template guidance is there if you need it.

Separately, and this one is statutory: own admission authority schools and local authorities must publish, by 31 August at the latest, how in-year applications will be handled for the whole of the coming school year — in this case, from 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027. This sits within the school admissions code (paragraphs 2.23 and 2.26).

September 2026:

Admissions arrangements for entry in September 2026 no longer required

Once the September 2026 intake has taken place, admission authorities may remove their published admission arrangements for that entry year from the website. However, the arrangements for September 2027 entry — determined and published back in the spring 2026 cycle — must remain live on the website throughout the 2026/27 admissions round.

October 2026:

Performance measures for Key Stage 4 and 16 to 19

Provisional Key Stage 4 and 16 to 19 (previously badged "16 to 18") performance measures for 2025-26 are expected to be published in October 2026, with a link to the compare school and college performance site required alongside your own results commentary. DfE's statistics release announcement currently shows this as provisional at month level only — check the publication timetable closer to the time for the exact date.

By 1 December 2026:

Accountability statement for FE colleges

FE colleges, sixth-form colleges, designated institutions and local authorities delivering more than £1 million of post-16 provision annually must publish their annual accountability statement — covering the Local Needs Duty — on their own website within three months of the start of the 2026/27 academic year, meaning by 1 December 2026. (The statement itself is submitted to DfE separately, by 31 July before the academic year begins — don't confuse the submission deadline with the website publication deadline.) See college and local authority accountability statements.

By 31 December 2026:

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement and Key Stage 2 performance measures

All schools with a Pupil Premium allocation covering more than five eligible pupils must publish a Pupil Premium Strategy Statement for 2026-27 by 31 December 2026, using DfE's current template and conditions of grant. Every academy within a trust needs its own statement, even where funding is pooled centrally. Note that Recovery Premium ended in the 2023-24 academic year and no longer needs a statement of its own — DfE has removed all reference to it from current pupil premium guidance.

Key Stage 2 school-level performance data is also expected in December 2026 (last year's equivalent release was published on 11 December 2025); the exact 2026 date hadn't been confirmed by DfE as of August 2026, so check the publication timetable nearer the time.

By 31 January 2027:

Annual reports and accounts

Academy trusts must publish their audited annual report and accounts, in full, on their website by 31 January 2027, covering the financial year ended 31 August 2026. This is set out in the Academies Accounts Direction 2025 to 2026 and the academy trust handbook. Worth flagging for trust finance teams: the incoming Academy Trust Handbook 2026 (effective from 1 October 2026) introduces a new requirement for trusts to publish a summary statement showing how funding is distributed across schools within the trust — check with your RSC/ESFA contact on exactly which reporting cycle this first applies to, as it wasn't explicitly dated at time of writing.

By 28 February 2027:

Admission appeals timetable for 2027 intake

Admission authorities must publish their admission appeals timetable for the September 2027 intake by 28 February 2027, as required by the school admission appeals code.

February and March 2027:

Revised performance measures for Key Stage 4 and 16 to 19

Revised Key Stage 4 results are expected in February 2027, with revised 16 to 19 performance and retention data expected in March 2027. As with the October release, DfE's announcement pages currently show these at provisional/month-level status only — confirm exact dates via the publication timetable as they're announced.

By 15 March 2027:

Admission arrangements for September 2028 entry

Academies, free schools and certain maintained schools must determine their admission arrangements by 28 February 2027 and publish them on their website by 15 March 2027 — in this cycle, covering entry in September 2028 (the 2028/29 intake). Full detail is in the school admissions code.

By 31 July 2027:

PE and Sport Premium (or successor scheme) report for 2026-27

Provisional entry — guidance pending. Historically, primary schools have had to publish a spending report for the year's PE and Sport Premium funding by 31 July. For 2026-27, the scheme itself is in transition: government has confirmed PE and Sport Premium funding is being replaced by a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network from spring 2027, with schools receiving a one-off transition payment for 2026-27. DfE's Conditions of Grant and website-publishing requirements for that 2026-27 transition payment had not been published as of August 2026, with guidance expected "at the start of the academic year."

Check gov.uk PE and sport premium guidance from September 2026 onwards to confirm the exact requirement and deadline before treating this as final.

And don't forget the rest!

The dates above cover the time-specific deadlines, but website compliance doesn't stop there. Statutory policies need reviewing on their own cycles, your SEN information report needs updating annually, careers programme information (including your Provider Access Policy Statement) needs to stay current, and any change to governance, leadership or school structure needs reflecting on the site as it happens — not once a year. Compliance is a year-round job, not a set of dates on a calendar.

Use Robin to make this all easier

Keeping track of every deadline above, across every page of a school or trust website, is exactly the kind of ongoing monitoring that's hard to do manually and easy to let slip. You can find out more about the Robin website review here: www.robin.education.