Average cost of school funding

​​Request 714269400

Please provide a value for the average cost of the following (exclude GoJ fee-paying schools and non GoJ fee-paying schools)

1 - Educating a pupil at a GoJ primary school 

a) in Key Stage 1 

b) in Key Stage 2 

2 - Educating a pupil at a GoJ Secondary school 

a) in Key Stage 3 

b) in Key Stage 4

c) in Key Stage 5

For both 1 and 2 provide: 

- The average

- The average calculated on base funding only

- The average calculated including SEND and LPA funding

For all exclude Jersey Premium

Response

The department have determined that to provide a value for the average cost of Educating a pupil at a GoJ primary or secondary school as requested, would require extraction and manipulation of data to produce new information. A Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) is not required to manipulate and create new data sets in response to a Freedom of Information request therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.  

Information regarding the Funding Formula for Schools can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Education/Jersey%20Funding%20Formula%20for%20Schools%20Report%202025.pdf​

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.​

Internal Review Request

I am requesting an internal review of your decision to refuse my request 714269400 under Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

1. Article 3 is not an exemption

Article 3 merely defines when information is “held” by a Scheduled Public Authority (SPA); it does not provide grounds for refusal. 

2. The information is already held - only a simple extraction is needed

The Jersey Funding Formula report shows that core per-pupil allocations (e.g., £95 teaching & learning materials per primary pupil, £180 per secondary pupil, plus explicit per-pupil staffing and premises rates) are recorded in a structured form. 

Computing an “average” from figures the department already holds amounts to extracting or tabulating existing data – an activity expressly envisaged in JOIC guidance as information that is “held” and must be disclosed.   

3. Public interest and transparency

The requested figures go directly to the transparency of GoJ spending on education. The data are routinely aggregated for budgeting purposes (see Funding Formula), so disclosure cannot reasonably be characterised as creating a “new dataset”.  

Internal Review Response  

This internal review has been conducted by an official of appropriate seniority who has not been involved in the original decision. As part of their review, they will be expected to understand the reasons behind the original response, impartially determine whether the response should be revised, and how so, considering the request and the information held, any relevant exemptions, or other relevant matters under the Law.  

The Internal Review Panel was asked to review the original response and confirm the following:  

Does the FOI request relate to a body to which the Law applies, or information held by a body covered by the Law? 

If the answer is no, all the other questions are not applicable.      

Further questions if above is a yes:   

i. Was the right information searched for and reviewed? 

ii. Was the information supplied appropriately?

iii. Was information appropriately withheld in accordance with the articles applied and were the public interest test/ prejudice test properly applied?  

Following discussion, it was agreed by the Panel that the decision be upheld.