As Nicholas Hancox wrote in the Glossary of Butterworths' Law of Education, there are 34 separate statutory definitions of 'maintained school' and at least 14 of them are different. Most often, a 'maintained school' is defined as a community, foundation, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided, community special or foundation special school, (see s 20 School Standards and Framework Act 1998). But other definitions of a 'maintained school' exclude special schools and some definitions include either 'maintained nursery schools', or 'pupil referral units', or both.
Section 482 Academies are not 'maintained schools', even though they are funded almost entirely by the state. Academies are largely independent of their local education authority and funded directly by the DCSF.
The Narrative of Butterworths' Law of Education adds:
"Clearly, most schools can be and are categorised in several different ways. A school with a big sign outside that says 'Avenue School' may not be telling the visitor much, but the categorisation exists nevertheless. 'Avenue School' may be:
- a co-educational voluntary aided primary school, or
- a boys' community grammar school for 11 to 19 year olds with specialist college status
- or a foundation middle school operating in a federation with two local primary schools, or
- almost any other combination of categories.
"One easy way to find out is to find the school's status on the LEA, Ofsted or DCSF website. The school's own admissions prospectus ought also to give the answer and its Instrument of Government certainly will.
"Many educational institutions are not 'schools' at all. The London School of Economics provides Higher Education. The Nottingham Law School is part of a university. Pupil referral units in every LEA area provide education to children of compulsory school age, but are not schools. Further Education Colleges teach 14 year olds some of the time, but that does not make them 'schools'. Section 482 academies, on the other hand, are schools for many purposes."
Trust Schools are Foundation Schools with a foundation or trust attached. They are described in section 23A of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (as inserted by the Education and Inspections Act 2006), but, oddly, the phrase "Trust School" does not appear in the Acts at all. Trust Schools are also 'maintained schools'.