Welcome to the RISE Information Site

RISE believes that there is a great need for accessible unbiased factual information about state education in the UK. Many people are interested in this but do not have time to search the large amount of official information and statistics now available on-line. This information site has been set up by RISE to help you find your way directly to useful information.

The information from a number of sources has been divided into 12 topics, which are listed in the Topic Box that appears on the left of the screen throughout the site. Clicking on a topic will link you to the list of data and to a short commentary about it. The data lists are lists of links to the online data about the topic. These lists are regularly updated. The lists are arranged in sections according to the source of the information, e.g. press releases, statistical bulletins, key reports. An explanation of what is included in each section can be found at How the data is listed.

This is a new service which RISE is still in the process of developing. We would very much like to hear your comments. As a small charity RISE is entirely dependant on donations. If you are able to give a donation, or offer us more continuous financial support, this would help us to make the site increasingly useful.

How to use the site

1. Decide what do you want to know about

First of all have a look at the list of topics (left) to find out where the information you are looking for is listed. For example you might want to know about how much money is spent on schools. So the topic you want is Funding. Clicking on that heading will bring up the Funding data list. Click on the Commentary button at the head of the page for an idea of what is significant about this data. Commentaries include direct links to some of the online data.

2. Look at all the online data on the topic

Under each topic there is a list which links you to all the online data. The list is sorted into sections according to where the data originates – for example, press releases or statistical first releases. Look at the list and follow the links which interest you. Some information is in PDF files, which may take some time to download. (You need to have or download Adobe Reader to open these files).

N.B. Data is added weekly.

3. Use the Search facility

Another way to find sources of data is by using the Search box, which is at the top of every page on the information site. Typing key words related to subjects you are interested in will bring up a list of links to online data on those subjects. Please bear in mind that the search engine does not search the documents themselves, only the brief summaries of them which appear on the RISE site, so it is not guaranteed to find all occurrences of the subjects you are searching for. If you don't find what you are looking for through the search facility, you may still find relevant information by browsing through all the data in a particular topic.