Author Archives: Paul Bradshaw

About Paul Bradshaw

Founder of Help Me Investigate. I'm a visiting professor at City University London's School of Journalism, and run an MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University. I publish the Online Journalism Blog, and am the co-author of the Online Journalism Handbook and Magazine Editing (3rd edition). I have a particular interest in Freedom of Information and data journalism.

Data: UCAS applications

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetUCAS have just released the latest statistics on university applications, generating a raft of stories on the impact of fees (a drop of 9.9% for English universities). If you want to dig further into UCAS data, you can download them … Continue reading →

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Data: secondary school A level and GCSE results

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetThe Guardian’s Datablog has published data on secondary school league tables and exam results. It’s available in various formats: Full spreadsheet for local authorities Fusion table as a CSV with key details for each school School spending (raw data) GCSEs, all … Continue reading →

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Document: DfE response to the consultation on changes to the Admissions Framework

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetA document that those following education should be watching. From the DfE site: “Subject to the views of Parliament, these Codes will come into force on 1 February 2012, affecting the 2013/14 admissions intake. 

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Link: academy exclusions and referrals

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetA lengthy BBC report on accusations that academies are excluding pupils “unofficially” is worth reading through for insights into the school system and possible avenues of investigation that pre-date academies:

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Free school meals in Scottish primary schools – data visualisation

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetWe’ve helped scrape data on free school meals in Scottish schools for The Scotsman’s new data blog. As the percentage of pupils registered for free school meals is an indicator of deprivation (although it has notable flaws*) it provides one … Continue reading →

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Link: schools mis-sold leases on computer equipment

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

Tweet5 Live Investigates have been looking in to the leasing of computer equipment to schools on terms that leave them paying up to 10 times what they should: “the Leasing Advisory Service, a claims management company which represents victims of … Continue reading →

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Data vis: the drop in university applications

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetMore from Caroline Beavon, this time on what type of university courses have been hardest hit by the drop in applications. Her visualisation of data from The Guardian’s Datablog is reproduced below:

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VIDEO: Tips on investigating education from Fiona Millar

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetFiona Millar is an experienced journalist and campaigner who publishes The Truth About Our Schools, a website and blog covering the education sector. I met up with Fiona to ask what advice she would give to people wanting to investigate … Continue reading →

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Data: Junior schools by religious denomination

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetCaroline Beavon has visualised the religious denomination of England’s junior schools (link to data here) – it’s embedded below too. Powered by Tableau

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School buses: transport information from Better Transport

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetWe’ve been digging a bit into the recent story generated by The Campaign for Better Transport’s use of FOI requests to investigate cuts to school bus services to see if the data behind it was available for others to build on.

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Investigating academy charities and other nonprofits

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetOver on the main Help Me Investigate blog, Chris Dodd has written a guide to investigating nonprofit companies, including Academy Schools which, Dodd points out: “… are regulated by Department for Education (DfE). It’s worth noting that all three regulatory bodies … Continue reading →

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Link: Now you need permission to protest at Birmingham University

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Paul Bradshaw

TweetBirmingham University has taken out an injunction against anyone occupying its campus in protest. The Guardian reports:

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