Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools/Article advice/sandbox

The WikiProject Schools article advice page recommendations on how to select, source, and organise the content of school articles, with the aim of providing general guidance to editors. A school in this context refers to any institution that delivers lower secondary education ISCED 2011 level 2 or upper secondary education ISCED 2011 Level 3 as defined by the ISCE. It is recommended that the guidelines be read fully before starting a new article, in particular, the notability section. Institutions offering ISCED 2011 level 1 will normally not have a separate article, but be placed in a schools section in their controling authority.

Overall article content recommendations

Neutral point of view

Take care to maintain a neutral point of view when describing a school. It is especially important to avoid vague praise, and overly descriptive adjectives, even if sourced. Whether government or privately operated, school articles must never appear to be promotional,

Avoid mission statements and goals. They are generally promotional.

Avoid comparing schools (sports results, exam results) to introduce rivalry or to promote the school. Although written for colleges and universities, the advice in Wikipedia:Avoid academic boosterism also applies here. Some examples that have been found in the past:

• "School X has had a long and glorious tradition."
• "School X has been consistently been ranked as one of the top public high schools in both the state and country."
• "School X has one of the lowest admissions rates in the country."
• "School X has 98% A-level passes, school Y 12 miles away has 75%."

Avoid stating names or numbers of students who obtained places at X, Y, and Z universities.

School district and list of schools articles

Should you wish to create or improve an article on a school district or create a list of schools article, a fine example can be found at Dallas Independent School District, and a list at List of schools of the Dallas Independent School District. A less complicated example list is List of Clark County School District schools.

What not to include

School articles should be written from a neutral point of view and only contain material of encyclopaedic interest; lists should be kept to a minimum; prose with context to the individual school is preferred. Remember that Wikipedia is not a directory, a depository of news links, a host of primary source material, or a place for promotional material or advertising.

Any mention of living people must conform with the biography of living persons policy, including the presumption in favour of privacy. While naming the head teacher or principal is permitted, lists or detailed information about current or former pupils, parents of current or former pupils, administrative staff, school secretaries, current or former teachers etc. is usually inappropriate. Special care should be taken in regards to the mention of individual pupils or providing information that would allow individual pupils to be identified (particularly where they are underage); such disclosures should only occur in exceptional circumstances. School articles must be balanced, and not give undue prominence to events outside the control of the school, that have involved staff or students.

School articles should also specifically not include:

• Excessive amounts of detail about the school uniform or dress code, unless it has seen significant coverage in multiple third-party sources. However, the uniform may still be mentioned briefly without this level of coverage, particularly if it is unusual;
• Trivia which is only of interest to pupils in the school (such as school timetables, bell schedules, class-by-class rules, daily lunch menus, location of the toilets, or a room-by-room description of the school facilities);
• School houses, so beloved by Hogwart fans, pose an interesting problem, they are relevant and should be mentioned if they serve a pastoral function but count as trivia if the are add-ons only rolled out on sport day to form artificial competition.
• Wikipedia articles about schools must be neutral. The purpose is not to bring shame to educational institutions. Any such additions will be removed by the School Project coordinators or any other editor. The fact that such activities may be reported in the press is no business of an encyclopedia. Persistent reinsertion of such content may result in sanctions for the editor. See: WP:NOTNEWSPAPER, WP:UNDUE, WP:NPOV,and WP:BLPCRIME.
• Current school events which are only of short-term interest;
• Telephone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses (postal addresses are acceptable in infoboxes);
• Country or regional flags, including within infoboxes;
• Lists of colleges and universities that have accepted students from the school;
• Copies of the school's mission statement, aims, or goals – these are generally considered promotional;
• Comparisons of sports results, exam results, etc. between schools which introduces rivalry, unless third-party reliable sources themselves make such comparisons; otherwise this is a form of original research. Such content can also be considered promotional, and although written for colleges and universities, the advice in Wikipedia:Avoid academic boosterism also applies here;
• The lyrics of the school song (or school anthem). However, the lyrics may be placed on Wikisource and linked to from the article using {{Wikisource}} if it can be verified that the song is in the public domain or has been released by the copyright holder under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Non-U.S. copyrights for guidance on when material will enter the public domain.

Types of schools

The ISCE has defined lower secondary education ISCED 2011 level 2 and upper secondary education ISCED 2011 Level 3, which in many education authorities are delivered in the same school.

• Primary education: Generally called elementary school in the US, and primary school in most other English-speaking countries (though the latter term is also recognisable to most Americans). Some non-English equivalents are: École primaire (France), and Grundschule (Germany)
• Lower secondary education: examples are middle school, junior high school, collège (France),
• Upper secondary education: high school, senior high school (US, Canada), sixth-form college (UK), lycée (France)

In Germany, secondary education is complex and varies from state to state. It includes Hauptschule and Realschule [note: German capitalises all nouns], which generally educate to grade 10; Gymnasium, which educates to Grade 12 and 13 (and has nothing to do with the English-language sense of that word); and Gesamtschule, which combines all three but may not necessarily include the final years which lead to university entrance standards.

In China, an institution called a "middle school" in English may in fact be, in Chinese, translate to 'secondary school', 中学 (which more literally means 'any secondary school'). The actual Chinese word a Westerner would understand as a middle/junior high/lower secondary school is 初中 chuzhong, while upper secondary/senior high is 高中 gaozhong. A zhongxue often has both levels. Check with Wikipedia:WikiProject China if you are unsure whether a Chinese "middle school" has an upper secondary/senior high school component.

Applicable categories

For the guideline on categories, see Wikipedia:Categorisation. Try to avoid over-categorisation (especially redundant categories: add a specific one but not a more general parent category of it). Generally all of Category:Education, but especially the following subcategories, are frequently applicable to school articles.

• Category:Education by country – this is rather finely subdivided further by sub-national regions and often cities, and also by type/level of school
  • Category:High schools and secondary schools by country for secondary schools and high schools
  • Category:Middle schools for junior high schools and middle schools; has some national and sub-national subucategories
  • Category:Elementary and primary schools by country for elementary or primary schools, as it says
• Category:School districts by country‎ (for schools in Australia, Canada, and the US)
  • Category:School districts by year of establishment
• Category:Private schools by country‎ for private-sector (non–government-operatated) schools
• Category:Public education in the United States for American public school (government-funded) systems, and broader public-education topics, divided by state (separate subcategories for school systems, schools, and colleges/universities)
• Category:Educational institutions by year of establishment categorised by year the school was founded, divided by century, decade, and then year.

Applicable lists

• List of schools by country – every school article should be in one of these lists or a sub-list thereof, unless the applicable list does not exist yet
• List of the oldest schools in the world – for articles that qualify

Sources

See § Acceptable references.

History

Some schools have published histories. Check the online catalogue at WorldCat. For UK schools the best reference is COPAC. Smaller schools might not have deposited a school history with one of the major deposit libraries so check the catalogue of the relevant local library (most are now online). Even if you do not live in the locality it is possible to borrow any book for a modest fee via the inter-library loan system

Many schools have buildings which are of architectural importance. Some English schools have been classified by English Heritage as listed buildings and are included on the Images of England website, while some American schools are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Statistics

Australia

• My School is a website administered by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) which provides access to information about Australian schools.
• SchoolChoice provides information on a number of New South Wales and Victorian schools (mostly private schools), including history, enrolment numbers, facilities, location and occasionally alumni. Please note that fees and revenue information should not be included in Australian school articles.
• Australian Boarding Schools' Association has a fairly comprehensive listing of boarding schools in all the states of Australia. Includes introductory information about schools, enrolment statistics, contact details and year levels offered.
• Australian Schools Directory Provides fairly detailed information on schools with featured pages.

United Kingdom

(Note: Following major changes in UK government in 2010, some UK agencies have changed their focus and/or their websites. See also: Independent School Inspections)

• England:
  • The Department for Education (DfE) on the GOV.UK website has comprehensive information about schools.
    • "Get information about schools" page allows you to search for a school and provides detailed information such as location, enrolment figures, a link to the school’s Ofsted reports page, the school's Unique Reference Number (URN), the name of the controlling multi-academy trust, and other schools that have existed on the site.
      • It also allows you to search for an establishment group, including single/multi-academy trusts and sponsors, and local authority maintained school federations and trusts. It provides some information such as the Unique Identifier (UID) and Companies House number.
  • Schools are inspected by Ofsted (a separate government department independent of the DfE) and independent schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) — reports can be accessed via their websites.
  • Local authorities have comprehensive websites which provide details of school admissions policies and other information. The "Find your local council" page on the GOV.UK website allows you to find your local council by entering a postcode.
  • Many schools are academies and the websites of these schools as well as the "Get information about schools" page has a link to the controlling Academy trust/multi-academy trust. They publish annual reports and financial statements that may be of use.
  • There are school appointments advertised via TES; where concise descriptions of schools are provided, along with maps and official links, brochures etc.

• Scotland:
  • Education Scotland and its "Parentzone Scotland" page on the GOV.SCOT website has comprehensive information about schools.
    • "Find a school" page allows you to search for a school and provides basic information such as location, SEED Number and a link to the school's inspection reports.
    • Schools and ISC-member independent schools are inspected by Education Scotland.
  • The "School Information Dashboard" provided by the Scottish Government allows you to search for a school and provides detailed information such as location, enrolment figures, ratio and full-time equivalent.

• Wales:
  • The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) on the GOV.WALES website has comprehensive information about schools.
    • "My Local School" page allows you to search for a school and provides detailed information such as location, enrolment figures, ratio and full-time equivalent. The "Get information about schools" page on the GOV.UK website can be used to find the URN of the school and provides basic information.
  • Schools and ISC-member independent schools are inspected by Estyn. Stats are published by the Welsh Government.

• Northern Ireland:
  • The Department of Education (DENI) on the GOV.UK website has comprehensive information about schools.
    • Schools Plus page allows you to search for a school and provides detailed information such as location, enrolment figures, ratio and full-time equivalent.
    • Schools and ISC-member independent schools are inspected by Education Training Inspectorate (ETI).

United States

• The National Center for Education Statistics' Search for Public School Districts provides numbers of students, schools, staff, and students; total budget numbers; and more. It can be cited easily with Template:NCES District ID.
• Each state has an education agency that oversees the state's schools & school systems and publishes information reports. i.e. Texas Academic Performance Reports.

Awards

(Note: These are examples only and the list is not intended to be exhaustive. Contributors are welcome to add other notable international or national awards here so that they can be researched and used by other school article editors.)

Awards should only be mentioned if they themselves are notable. Not all awards are genuine awards. Local awards for Beautiful Gardens around the schoolyard, or Good Food for the school canteen do not really count.

In the United Kingdom, information on awards is available at UK teaching awards, and at School Achievement Award Scheme. Budget allocations for a Specialism College (in the UK) are not items for the 'Awards' section.

In the United States, information on awards is available at Blue Ribbon Schools Program run by the United States Department of Education and at Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Program (BRSE). See also Wikipedia article: Blue Ribbon Schools Program.

In Australia, the Citizenship Award Order of Australia in Queensland confers awards to primary and secondary schools in Queensland each year. Such awards could contribute to the level of notability required for primary school articles. People's Choice Awards gives one prize per year for a school video from over 1,100 registered contenders.

Global: The International School Award for cross-cultural school projects is administered by the British Council in the UK and with partners in many other countries.

Alumni

See also: Wikipedia:Namechecking

All alumni information must be referenced. See Wikipedia:Footnoting for technical help. Individual alumni need one or more citations to a) verify that they did indeed attend the school, and b) verify the statement of their notability in their short one- or two-line description. When alumni have their own articles in mainspace, it is not necessary for their notability to be referenced in the list, as long as it is done in the biographical articles. Be sure to check the existing biography article to ensure that it demonstrates alumni status with a cited reference.

Who should be included?

For stand-alone lists of alumni, alumni to be included must meet the normal criteria established for that page. Inclusion in lists of alumni embedded in a school article should be determined by WP:SOURCELIST and the same criteria used to determine the inclusion of other material in the article according to Wikipedia policies and guidelines (including Wikipedia:Trivia sections). Individual notability is usually the inclusion criterion for most embedded or stand-alone lists of alumni on Wikipedia.

All alumni meeting these criteria are to be included on an alumni list, regardless of how much time they have spent on a school roll, from one day to several years, and whether or not they graduated.

See § Notability of alumni, below, for information on biographical notability guidelines that may pertain to alumni of various sorts, including academics and athletes; and more detailed information on why non-notable alumni are usually excluded from Wikipedia articles.

Style of entries

See § Style of alumni entries in the "Style and layout" section, below.

Separate alumni pages

If a list of alumni in a school article becomes quite large, consider moving it to another page entitled "List of...". It is not necessary to include "notable" in the article title, as all articles in the mainspace need to follow notability guidelines. Have a look at other alumni pages in Category:Lists of people by school affiliation, for an example of a separate alumni page see List of Old Malvernians with its summary. If the alumni are listed in a separate article, the alumni section in the school article should link to the list article and provide a brief summary. See Harrow School#Notable alumni or Baltimore City College#Notable alumni for examples of such summaries.

Editors are encouraged to add free images of individuals in stand-alone alumni list-articles. The same is not true of embedded lists of alumni in school articles.

Reliable sources for alumni

Alumni to be included should (unless a specific list has lower inclusion criteria) meet Wikipedia notability criteria, and in all cases must be verifiable; a biography page in Wikipedia that does not provide a source is not itself an indication that the person is notable, as much a page is apt to be deleted. The following is a list of external sources which contain notable alumni from various schools. Ideally this should be used for sources that are selective (separating the most notable from the rest of the alumni). When using information from one of these sources, always try to confirm it with another source (such as a newspaper article specifically about the person) and don't automatically assume any source is comprehensive, even in its field of expertise. Ideally you should confirm something from both sides (e.g. the school acknowledges the individual, and the individual acknowledges the school).

International sources

• Australian Dictionary of Biography – The Australian Dictionary of Biography has a quite comprehensive database of notable Australians. Most bios seem to mention the person's high school and university (if applicable).

United States

Athletes:

• The Baseball Cube has a very extensive database of baseball players, with the data searchable by city, high school, college, team, etc.
• Basketball Reference has a list of NBA players' high schools, searchable by state.
• National High School Baseball Coaches Association contains lists of BCA award winners back to 1992, including National Senior Players of the Year Winners, Coaches of the Year and Assistant Coaches of the Year (by District), and National Groundskeeper/Field of the Year; District and National High School Baseball Coaches Association All American Teams, 2005 through 2007; National, District, and BCA/Louisville Slugger State Players of Year. The BCA Hall Of Fame lists coaches inducted after meeting criteria, including 20 years of varsity coaching experience, and being elected.

Local sources:

• Boston Public Schools – Includes various notable people like Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Lists about a dozen schools.
• Baltimore County Public Schools – Already partly used for Dulaney High School, but not all names could be used yet, either because their notability isn't confirmed, or a particular school doesn't have an article.
• Houston Independent School District - Used as a source in several articles about schools operated by this district

Individual alumni information:

Use this sub-page for recording school alumni who can't yet be placed in an article (e.g. the school article doesn't exist yet). When an article is made, the info can be moved there. By linking from this sub-page, somebody who creates the article would see this in the backlinks.

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Notability

See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes § Education, and Wikipedia:Notability (high schools)

Wikipedia decides whether a school is notable enough for a stand-alone article by assessing whether it "has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". This is known at the general notability guideline (WP:GNG).

It is recommended that editors only create a school article, even in draft form, when its content and available sources clearly show that it already passes the notability guideline, by displaying significant coverage in multiple, independent, reliable sources. Some editors cite the contents of WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES, or this page, as reasons for keeping school articles that don't at face value meet basic WP:GNG notability requirements; it should be noted, however, that these pages simply document the current practice and are not in themselves authoritative. An increasingly common result is to summarise/compress iffy school articles into small entries at broader articles on school systems or communities. It is advised to draft an article in the user space (such as at Special:Mypage/School article), or more preferably in the Draft namespace, where it may get more attention and help from others. It can then be moved and published into the main space when it is ready (usually through the WP:Articles for creation process. This usually prevents deletion while the article is being developed.

In more detail: Individual articles must usually meet either the Wikipedia general notability guideline or the organisations and companies subject-specific notability guideline – note that the notability requirement is to pass one of the two guidelines; there is no obligation to pass both. None of the many discussions over the years have reached a consensus, with the current practice being generally observed as evidenced by thousands of examples.

• School articles are exempt from speedy deletion criterion A7.
• Non-notable school articles are generally blanked and redirected to the school district's article (USA) or to an appropriate section on the article about its locality (rest of the world), after compressing and merging any appropriate content. The {{R from school}} template should be placed on the redirect page, which then also automatically populates the related category. This is an uncontroversial operation which avoids unnecessary use of PROD, CSD, or WP:AfD, and is governed by policy at WP:ATD-R. This sort of merger is an example of the WP:NOT#INDISCRIMINATE policy in action: while a school might not be notable enough for a stand-alone article, some basic facts about it are apt to not be "indiscriminate" trivia, but encyclopedically relevant to retain at least in a list of local schools.

In practice, articles on high/secondary schools and on school districts are usually kept, as they are almost always found to be notable, unless their existence cannot be verified – some hoax articles have been attempted before, so simply assertion of existence is insufficient. Articles on elementary/primary and junior high/middle schools are normally blanked or merged and redirected into the school district article (USA) or the appropriate locality article. There are however 60 stand-alone articles on primary schools in London because they were found 'notable'. Articles on educational establishments are formally exempt from the speedy deletion A7 criterion, but totally inappropriate articles can, and should be tagged for deletion under any other general or article criterion that applies.

Notability of alumni

For more general notes on alumni in school articles and in lists of alumni – and reliable sources for them – see the § Alumni section, above.

Wikipedia's bare-minimum policy for possible inclusion of someone or something in an article on a broader topic is WP:NOT#INDISCRIMINATE, and it is generally a lower standard than WP:Notability, which governs who/what may be the subject of their own stand-alone article. While some lists of certain topics serve as means of keeping short bits of encyclopedically relevant ("not indiscriminate") information that would not each on their own qualify for stand-alone articles, the often promotional nature of biographical entries – even short ones in lists – of questionably notable individuals means that they are usually excluded. Non-notable biographical subjects are also problematic with regard to ensuring that content relating to living persons is accurate, neutral, and entirely verifiable. So, expect any given school or alumni-list article to require full notability for each entry. Exceptions are uncommon, and tend not to last.

The guideline Wikipedia:Notability (academics) may be relevant to the notability of faculty members and of graduates who pursued careers in academia or research. University athletes are covered by Wikipedia:Notability (sports). Most other individuals who may be notable for other activities/careers (professional or otherwise) are covered in the general Wikipedia:Notability (people) guideline, though anyone who qualifies may be notable under the WP:GNG, for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with their academic or post-academic accomplishments (e.g. for a widely reported public controversy, etc.). See also WP:NOTWHOSWHO; Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate list of people, and the average graduate of any institution is not encyclopedically notable.

Staff and faculty

Most of the above also applies to faculty and staff, though verifiable basic information on non-notable individuals is appropriate for lists of key staff (top administrators and department heads, past and present). In short, it is not appropriate to mention that, say, Jan X. McNabbs is the assistant football coach for junior team B at Yoyodyne Community School, but it is appropriate to mention (if the information is verifiable) that Sam Z. O'Dooley was the headmaster there from 1978 to 1983 in a list of the headmasters, even if this person will never be mentioned in any other context on Wikipedia and there is no other information available about the person other than this snippet of work history; we do not want the chronological list of headmasters to have a gap in it.

True notability can override usual, default concerns. As a real example, it is entirely sensible for the article on T. L. Hanna High School not only to mention 1960s head football coach Harold Jones (holding a contextually important position during his tenure, for any such article), but also to have an entire section on James "Radio" Kennedy, an intellectually disabled man who informally worked under Jones as an assistant coach (normally too minor a position to cover). Why? Because Kennedy was the subject of an in-depth profile in Sports Illustrated in 1996, then a major feature film, Radio, in 2003, and received more coverage in The New York Times in 2008. He is arguably the primary "claim to fame" of the school (though it has produced at least 8 notable alumni, and has won some awards).

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Style and layout

General tips

For the Wikipedia guideline on an article's layout, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (layout).

1. Start your article in your sandbox especially if it's your first Wikipedia article, before you post it to the main page where everyone in the world will see it immediately. If you are not sure how to do this, ask a schools project member from the lists at WP:WPSCH/P.
2. Style. Keep the prose "tight". This is an encyclopedia—avoid the use of familiar language, contractions (it's, he's, don't, etc.), and magazine or blog style. Do not use the first person plural 'we'.
3. Avoid advertising. Don't use promotional language about your school or words that boost its image. Remember that this is an encyclopedia - it's not a school brochure, website, or Facebook entry.
4. Avoid stubs. Only add schools that you are willing to do significant research on, and complete most of the generally required page sections. Don't automatically assume that someone else is interested enough in your school to finish it for you. Under certain conditions, very poorly made articles might simply get deleted and your effort will be lost.
5. Avoid short sections. Consider combining sentences into flowing paragraphs of prose. Remember that books don't have one-line chapters. Section headings are large and too many in a small area make the page look ugly. Delete empty sections.
6. Avoid ambiguity. Include the country of your school in the lead section. Wikipedia is read worldwide, and not everyone speaks the same English as you; some words have very different meanings in different countries. Dates should always be written out in full i.e. 4 July 1984 in the body as well as in inline references. Abbreviations must be written out in full at the first occurrence, and local terminology must be explained or wiki-linked, for example, K–12, Twelfth grade, Reception, sixth form. The letter K in the British school system is usually an abbreviation for Key Stage, but in the US is an abbreviation for kindergarten. Kindergarten is a pre-school in most European countries but part of the school system in North America. A prep school in the UK is an independent (private) primary/elementary school catering for students up to the age of 13; whereas in the US, a prep school prepares students for entry to university. A grammar school is a selective secondary school in Europe but an elementary school in North America. A college in the US is usually a university. In the United Kingdom, college has a multiplicity of meanings: Sixth form colleges and further education colleges provide education for students aged between 16 and 19 years. In the tertiary sector the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are made up of constituent colleges. College is also sometimes used to refer to university education.
7. Write a strong lead. Be sure to write a lead that concisely summarises the school into one or two paragraphs which make sense to someone who may know nothing about the school in question, and remember to include the country where the school is located.
8. Support your contributions. Before you start an article on a school, or make additions, it is strongly suggested you first have an adequate amount of verifiable information about the school readily available, written in reliable published sources, independent of the school. This will make meeting the recommended content requirements far easier than trying to find all the information after you have already started the article (or hoping others will).
9. Images.: Using images and school crests, emblems, or logos can greatly enhance articles, but only use them when they help illustrate the topic (e.g. are relevant), and ensure that they are freely licensed or in the public domain (See Wikipedia:Image use policy). In most cases, the only way to accomplish this is for you to take the photo yourself and upload it following the instructions for licensing. For crests, emblems, or logos, see the special instructions in the infobox section.
10. Infobox. Wikipedia Infoboxes are an important element of many page types. They provide an overview of essential school information in a format that is common to all school articles. (See the main infobox section below). Flag icons should not be used.
11. Go back to your new article in a day or two to see if it has been tagged for you to do something urgent to it. Someone might even have listed it for deletion.
12. Return to your article frequently. A Wikipedia article, like all encyclopedias, is always a work in progress. Heads change, the number of students changes, new inspections are published, some former students (alumni) become famous, and someone may have changed your edits and damaged your work.
13. Avoid bulk additions. The mass creation of short school articles is strongly discouraged and can even cause authors to be blocked for disruptive editing.
14. Get help! post a question at WP:WPSCH/H or check out the various lists of coordinators and active members of this project at WP:WPSCH/P and don't hesitate to ask for help on their talk page, many of them are beginners too and you can help each other, while some of the lists are of really cool experts who just love to help out.
15. Be bold! If you have already edited Wikipedia pages, you probably know what perfect articles look like. They cover everything they should without going on forever. Common sense could have told you almost all of the items mentioned above. Ultimately, assume good faith and go out there and write some good articles!

Title

The title of the Wikipedia article will normally be the same as the current name of the school, and in the form (word order, etc.) most commonly found in reliable sources. While Wikipedia has various naming convention guidelines for various topics, it has not needed to develop one for schools; the general Wikipedia:Article titles policy applies.

Changing the title

The UK, and England in particular, has an annoying propensity for renaming or rebranding its schools. A solution is to merge the entire content and leave redirects so that nothing gets lost. Examples are Malvern Hills College, Crown Woods College, and WCG (college). Absent a strong reason not to, Wikipedia uses the most common name found in independent reliable sources (in practice, fairly recent ones), so official name changes are usually not implemented immediately here, but only after time shows sources making the change. This is consonant with the policy to avoid unnecessary article title changes.

Defunct schools

There is no consensus anywhere that articles about schools which have ceased to exist should be deleted or necessarily redirected. A subject that is notable does not become non-notable because its subject is dead or defunct. When an old school has been absorbed by another entity, a merge-and-redirect proposal may be viable.

Focus and relevance

The key to writing a good school article is to explain why the school is unique. What makes it different from every other school? Does it have special programs? A history of championship sports teams? Famous alumni? Has there been a noteworthy event there?

Follow the Wikipedia Manual of Style and only make links that are relevant to the context. Days, months and years should not be linked in school articles unless the inclusion of such a link is of specific relevance to the article, and if a complete date is required, write the date in full, e.g.: 5 November 1985, or (in articles on US schools) November 5, 1985.

Infobox

Any school article should usually have an infobox. This gives readers quick, concise information about the subject. Note, however, that infoboxes are not required by any policy, and a local consensus at a particular article can decide not to include one for good reasons (most often for historical institution, since various statistics that a reader might compare between two extant schools are less relevant for a school defunct for several centuries). The Wikipedia:Arbitration committee has repeatedly determined that a wikiproject or other group of topically minded editors cannot demand that particular articles include infoboxes or other specific layout features, and that edit-warring over such matters is disruptive. The recommendations here are for the typical case, and are not a hard-and-fast rule.

Selecting the correct infobox

Please use one of the existing templates; do not create a new infobox template for any school subject without discussing it at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools first. Do not copy and use infoboxes from other school pages, they may well be the wrong ones, or an older deprecated versions. Infoboxes contain programme code that you cannot see, it is essential that you read the relative infobox documentation and the examples. Below are the shortcuts to the most common templates used for primary and secondary schools:

Article subject	Infobox to use
Schools	{{Infobox school}}
School District (mainly Canada and United States} *	{{Infobox school district}}
Multi-academy trust (mainly England} *	{{Infobox non-profit}}
* Indicates exceptions exist. See the complete listing of infobox templates.

Infobox contents

Provide the basic details about the school, include a street address, and the name of the county (UK, US), state/province (Australia, Canada, India, US, etc.), Landkreis (Germany, Austria), département (France), canton (Switzerland) etc., post/ZIP code, and geographical coordinates. For the UK, use the constituent country: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales – these countries have their own governments/assemblies and education departments. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Infoboxes to know the consistency, consideration, purpose, and usage of what information should be included in infoboxes.

Avoid

• Providing contact information, such as phone, fax, email (policy)
• Listing deputy heads/principals, deputy chairpersons, temporary and associate positions, and other roles that lack lasting encyclopedic significance (policy)
• Adding pre-nominal titles and abbreviations (guideline}}: CEO, Dr, Prof., Fr., etc.
• Adding post-nominal letters (guideline): BA, BSc, MA, PhD, etc.
• Prefixing Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, unless the gender is not obvious (guideline). For example: John F. Doe, Mary Bloggs, J. Doe (Ms), M. Bloggs (Mr). These are spelled with a dot in North American English: Ms. As marital status can change and it is not necessary to know, for females it is most appropriate use Ms/Ms. However, it is best to rewrite to avoid such constructions when possible (e.g., include a gendered pronoun in reference to the person.) Tacking on things like "(Mr.)" and "(Ms)" is primarily a feature of news style, a mode that Wikipedia avoids, as a matter of policy.
• Flag icons

Do include

• A referenced source for the number of students, or at least the year in brackets i.e. (2007) including for faculty and other information that is annually (e.g. budget, student to teacher ratio, teaching staff, or graduates). Round up or down to the nearest 10, and use the abbreviation approx if only very appropriate (optional).
• The school motto. If it is not in English, use the appropriate language template, for example for Latin use {{lang-la|motto goes here}} and then provide a translation.
• The school's crest, logo, seal, emblem and/or coat of arms (generally not larger than about 150 pixels). You can either copy this from a school's website or scan it from a school document. Where possible choose a .png file with a transparent background.
  • The Upload File Wizard leads you through all the necessary questions and prevent you from omitting essential information . You select This is a copyrighted, non-free work, but I believe it is Fair Use option, say This is a logo of an organisation You must provide a source, and the target page. Tell them that it is minimal as it is Used in infobox on one page.
  • Previously all this was copy-pasted as fair use rationale in the fair use/description field, on the file, in the format given below:

:Fair use in '''[[page name]]'''
Though this image is subject to copyright, its use is covered by the U.S. fair use laws, and :the stricter requirements of Wikipedia's non-free content policies, because:
# Source: '''[http:// school website]''' Retrieved '''DD/month/year'''
# It illustrates an educational article about the entity that the logo represents.
# The image is used as a school infobox illustration.
# It is a low-resolution image, and thus not suitable for production of counterfeit goods.
# The logo is not used in such a way that a reader would be confused into believing that the article is written or authorised by the owner of the logo.
# It is not replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image of comparable educational value.

Structure and sections of the article

The following section names are for guidance only, and may be adjusted to suit local spelling, custom, and organisation. Do not use very short sections; very short articles are best kept to a single section only, avoiding unnecessary page clutter.

Lead

In the first sentence give the full official name, common names, and former names of the school in bold text, and its type and location.

• e.g. The Judd School (often known simply as Judd) is a state-funded grammar school in Tonbridge, Kent, southeast England.
• or Stuyvesant High School /ˈstaɪvəsənt/, commonly referred to as Stuy /staɪ/ or Stuyvesant, is the most selective school of the nine specialized high schools in New York City, United States.

Use italic text for names of the school in other languages besides English; and detail about its location (town/municipality, county/state/province, and country).

Add a few facts about the school that make it unique. Provide the name of the founder and the school's original name (if different), and its affiliation with any larger school system or education organisation, if applicable. Include brief statistics on the number of pupils (always state the date when the information is current and be cautious about having too many statistics that will need to be updated frequently).

Summarise the main sections of the article – history, alumni, buildings, etc. Facts always need a reference, but if they are correctly referenced in the sections below you don't duplicate the reference here.

Other sections

== History ==

== Governance ==

== School structure ==

== Admissions ==

== Curriculum ==

== Extracurricular activities ==

== Campus ==

== Awards and recognition ==

== Notable alumni ==

== Notable staff ==

== Former headteachers ==

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website|www.example.com}}

• History – Describe the history of the school, including noteworthy milestones in its development. If the school is named after a notable person, include a wikilink to the article on that person. If the school is named after a non-notable person, include a one- to two-sentence biographical summary. If applicable, describe the namesake's connection with the school.
• Governance – Describe the legal status of the school, its foundation deed if private, and, if state-funded, the controlling authority and the composition of the governing body.
• School structure – Describe how school organises and manages the pupils pastorally, academically and for competive events. Talk about class size, academic streaming or setting, home-school contact policy and special needs provision. Also, if notable the staffing structure can be discussed here. (faculties, departments, year group teams)
• Admissions – If the institution is exclusive, summarize the criteria for admission and the priorities in cases of over-subscription. While Wikipedia is not a price comparison website (and such figures can change rapidly anyway), this part of the coverage could be the place to discuss fees and bursaries, if much is made about them in independent reliable sources.
• Curriculum – Provide a brief description of the school's curriculum. Does it follow a national or state curriculum or does it set its own subjects? Focus specifically on aspects of the curriculum which are unique to the school. Is it the only school in the locality which teaches Mandarin, Latin, or Greek? Does it have a culinary academy? Do not make long lists of every subject taught – people can get that from the school's brochure or website. Do not include school performance tables – people can get that from the school's brochure or website (and Wikipedia is not news, anyway).
• Extracurricular activities – Mention the sports team(s) of the school and what is notable about them. Here is also a good place to mention specific traditions of the school, like students' union/student council activities, a student newspaper, clubs, regular activities, etc. The heading may be changed accordingly in regard to the importance of sports, clubs, traditions, student organisations, etc. For example, alternative headings could be Students' union, sports and traditions or Students' union activities.

Do not include a list of every single club that has only a few members or ones that are only managed by the students (i.e. ones that are not supervised by a teacher) - all schools have clubs and listing them does not add to the basic description of the school that is needed for an encyclopedia.

Specific students should not be mentioned unless they are notable in their own right, such as Daniel Radcliffe who was famous while still in school. Major extracurricular championships should be appropriately listed in a "Sports", "Athletics", or "Activities" section. These can include any achievements that are particularly relevant to the school's reputation, provided that only the highest achievements are listed such that the article does not give undue weight to minor achievements. Individual awards should generally not be listed.

• Campus/school site and properties – Describe the overall shape and size of the school site/campus. Ideally a picture of the school should be included if a free image is available. Mention any famous buildings or stadia and their architects if interesting or notable, and consider creating a Building(s) section where appropriate, as in City of London School#Buildings. Do not include detail of each building, its classrooms, or equipment.
• Awards and recognition – A list of notable awards and recognition received by the school, staff, or students. Such a list should only include awards which are themselves notable, and if the school received the same type of awards in multiple years, they should not be listed separately. If the list becomes too long it should be split into a separate sub-article with a summary left in the main article. Awards and recognition may also be mentioned in other sections of the article at editor's discretion, even if the awards themselves are not notable. For awards/recognition given to school clubs or sport teams, list them in the appropriate section e.g. Sports and traditions. See the guideline under the Extracurricular activities section for details on alternative headings that may be used for information on school clubs and sports. If the school has received only a few academic awards, consider putting them as prose under the Curriculum section.
• Notable alumni – If possible, provide a list of notable alumni of the school with appropriate and sourced detail on each, moving the list to a separate article if it is too large. The section may also include an overview of the school's alumni, providing appropriate details where available, such as the school's reputation for their alumni, the fields in which the school's alumni have had an impact, and any alumni society. See #Alumni for further guidance.
• Notable teachers/faculty/staff – The names of current and former teachers should only be included if they are notable in their own right (for example, they are published authors or they have won a teaching award), or they have been the subject of multiple non-trivial press coverage.
• Former headteachers/principals – A list of former headteachers/principals, with a short description of their achievements, is often useful. Long lists should be split into a separate article (such as the List of headmasters at Eton College).
• Acceptable references – Provide verifiable, reliable sources of information about the school, that are independent of the school itself. An article should not rely solely on what its subject has to say about itself (as with any article in Wikipedia). A school's own website is not an independent source, though can be an acceptable source for basic, non-controversial information sections involving no value judgments, such as school structure, but not claims of awards. References from third-party sources are preferable and particularly important for school awards and contentious statements. For private schools in North America, an accreditation body or government source should be provided to show the organisation is a legitimate school; for the UK this will generally be Ofsted. There is no requirement on Wikipedia for sources used in articles to be online; either online or offline sources can be used as long as they are correctly cited, reliable, and published. If a resource is online, consider the future possibility it will go offline (newspapers often allow free reading only for recent stories), and provide sufficient information so that the story will still be found (author, publication, full article title, date, and if possible the archive URL). Wikipedia:Manual of Style (footnotes) contains technical details on how to correctly format footnotes.
• External links – Give a link to the website of the school, preferably one in the English language. Include other informational links that might interest readers, but whose contents might be beyond the scope of inclusion in the article (for example, links to the school's Parent Teacher Association). For understanding of adding external links to the school article(s), see guidelines of adding external links.
• End matter: Not forming a named section, some things always go at the very end, and (when present) in a specific order, namely: navigation box templates, stub templates, and categories. (See § Applicable categories above for some of the main categories, though check them for narrower subcategories to apply.)

Formatting

Capitalisation

Academic subjects are given in lower case, except where they contain proper nouns such as languages. If referring to a specific named course like Geography 205 Spatial Distribution of Populations, that would be capitalised. Generic names of departments, staff/faculty roles, and other such matter are not capitalised (the art department, her mathematics instructor, the school's physical education and sports curriculum). However, a unique endowment may be capitalised (the Xeres Y. Zounds Chair of Science at the Charter School of Yonderville), as may be a unique program or school (in the sub-institutional sense): Southern District Centre for English Language Learning, Foobar High School Collegiate Jump-start Program, Yojimbo Rothstein Memorial Woodworking Shop, Summer Institute for the Gifted). Academic and other professional titles may be capitalised when directly attached to names: District Superintendent Jaime Ocampo, Girls' Athletics Head Coach Jane Chuan, but Stephen Schein, the former head teacher of mathematics.

The general rule is: capitalise only proper nouns, which amounts to capitalise that which is almost universally capitalised in all reliable sources; do not capitalise that which is often enough found lower-cased in sources; when in doubt, use lower case. People in education tend to over-capitalise subject areas, job titles, and other terms, but Wikipedia does not.

Style of alumni entries

The Wikipedia:Manual of Style (embedded lists) guideline invites consideration of whether information might be more appropriately presented in list or prose form. As the notable alumni of a school typically form an assorted group with little in common, describing all of them in prose would be clumsy. Unless there are very few notable alumni, lists are recommended as the most accessible way of presenting all of them. Adding a prose summary is encouraged, particularly if the list is split off as a separate article.

Entries should be bulleted and have a very brief description of their notability. Links to articles related to an entry are encouraged, but beware of overlinking, for example if many alumni have entered parliament, there is no need to link to the parliament of a certain country more than once. After a description, state when they graduated or what years they attended.

Alumni sections do not include photos of alumni. Stand-alone alumni list-articles may have photos, and this is encouraged.

Alumni may be categorised alphabetically, or according to the field that made them famous: e.g. politics, medicine, academia. It is acceptable to list someone in more than one field, provided that this is mentioned in a side note. Add something like: "(Also listed in sport)".

As all alumni who attended a school for any amount of time must be included across all alumni articles, some attendees will have attended more than one school. Place in brackets the name of any other schools that they attended.

• Most Rev Sir Marcus Loane KBE, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney (1966–1982) (also attended King's School)

For non-style, content advice relating to alumni, see § Alumni, above.

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Notes

References

Return to main project page of WikiProject Schools.