UK Schools MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that provides AI assistants with access to comprehensive UK school data from official government sources.

Features

• Search schools by name, postcode, or local authority (GIAS bulk data)
• Get detailed school information (type, phase, age range, capacity, contact details)
• Find schools near a postcode with distance sorting (Postcodes.io geocoding)
• Compare schools side-by-side
• Browse and query 23+ DfE education datasets (absence, exclusions, performance, SEND, admissions, workforce, funding, destinations, and more)
• One-step dataset discovery: find the right dataset for any education topic
• Get Ofsted inspection grades and judgements from Management Information data
• Links to Ofsted inspection reports

Data Sources

Source	Type	Auth	What it provides
GIAS	Bulk CSV (daily)	None	All ~65k schools: name, URN, type, phase, address, capacity, pupils, head teacher, SEN, etc.
Postcodes.io	REST JSON API	None	UK postcode geocoding (lat/lng) for catchment area searches
Explore Education Statistics	REST JSON API	None	DfE publications: performance tables, absence, exclusions, applications & offers, workforce
Ofsted	Monthly Excel + report links	None	Inspection grades, judgement areas, dates, and report URLs

Installation

Using uv (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/uk-schools-mcp.git
cd uk-schools-mcp
uv sync --all-extras
uv run python -m uk_schools_mcp.server

Using pip

pip install mcp httpx polars pydantic openpyxl

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uk-schools": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/uk-schools-mcp",
        "run",
        "python",
        "-m",
        "uk_schools_mcp.server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

search_schools

Search for UK schools by name, postcode, or local authority using GIAS data.

Example: "Find primary schools in Milton Keynes"

get_school_details

Get comprehensive details for a specific school by URN, including links to Ofsted reports and the GIAS page.

Example: "Show me details for URN 109825"

find_schools_near_postcode

Find schools within a radius of a UK postcode, sorted by distance. Uses Postcodes.io for geocoding and GIAS data for school locations.

Example: "Find all primary schools within 2km of MK9 3BZ"

compare_schools

Compare multiple schools side-by-side by URN.

Example: "Compare schools with URNs 109825, 110234, and 110567"

search_education_statistics

Search the DfE Explore Education Statistics catalogue for publications on school performance, absence, exclusions, applications & offers, workforce, etc.

Example: "Search for publications about school absence"

get_publication_datasets

List available datasets for a DfE publication (use after search_education_statistics).

get_dataset_metadata

Get available filters, indicators, geographic levels, and time periods for a DfE dataset. Essential before querying to discover what data is available and what IDs to use.

Example: "What filters and indicators are available for dataset ds-123?"

query_dataset

Query a DfE Explore Education Statistics dataset with specific indicators, filters, time periods, and geographic levels. Enables access to school-level data on absence, exclusions, performance, admissions, workforce, and more.

Example: "Query the absence dataset for 2023 academic year at national level"

get_ofsted_ratings

Get Ofsted inspection ratings and grades for a school by URN. Returns overall effectiveness grade and grades for each inspection area (Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, Leadership and Management), plus inspection dates, type, and previous grades.

Example: "Get Ofsted ratings for URN 109825"

list_ees_topics

List all 23 available education data topics from the DfE Explore Education Statistics API, organized by category (performance, welfare, demographics, admissions, workforce, finance, destinations, early years).

discover_dataset

Automatically find the publications and datasets for a given education topic. Replaces the manual 4-step workflow with a single call. Returns dataset IDs ready for use with get_dataset_metadata and query_dataset.

Example: "Discover datasets for topic 'absence'" or "Find SEND data"

Available topics: absence, exclusions, ks2_performance, gcse_performance, a_level_performance, applications_offers, workforce, sen, school_pupils_characteristics, free_school_meals, school_capacity, admission_appeals, destinations, children_looked_after, children_in_need, mat_performance, school_funding, la_school_expenditure, further_education, early_years, early_years_foundation, neet, elective_home_education

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/uk-schools-mcp.git
cd uk-schools-mcp
uv sync --all-extras
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check src/ tests/

Project Structure

uk-schools-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── uk_schools_mcp/
│       ├── server.py           # MCP server + tool handlers
│       └── clients/
│           ├── gias.py         # GIAS bulk CSV client
│           ├── postcodes.py    # Postcodes.io geocoding client
│           ├── ees.py          # Explore Education Statistics API client
│           └── ofsted.py       # Ofsted report URL helper
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py
├── NEXT_STEPS.md               # Roadmap for additional data sources
└── pyproject.toml

How GIAS Data Works

On first use, the server downloads the daily GIAS bulk CSV (~65k schools, ~30MB) from:

https://ea-edubase-api-prod.azurewebsites.net/edubase/downloads/public/edubasealldata{YYYYMMDD}.csv

The CSV is cached locally at ~/.cache/uk-schools-mcp/ and refreshed daily. All search and lookup operations run against this cached data using polars for fast filtering.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See NEXT_STEPS.md for planned enhancements.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Built with data from:

• Department for Education (DfE) - GIAS and Explore Education Statistics
• Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) - Inspection reports
• Postcodes.io - Open-source UK postcode geocoding