This is an
essay on
style. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more
WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest.
This information is not a formal
Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. |
This is an
essay on
article content. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more
WikiProjects on how the
content policies may be interpreted within their area of interest.
This information is not a formal
Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. |
Welcome to the article guidelines page of WikiProject Schools! If after reading this, you need feedback or help on a page you are creating, or have edited, please go to
this page.
Coordinators
Coordinators?
The Coordinators keep the project pages on their watchlists, welcome new participants, maintain lists, keep the discussions tidy, on track, and on the right pages, and check for signatures and page links, and develop sub pages and templates as required, etc. — nothing much more than any experienced project member can do. Coordinators offer their own suggestions and opinions in the normal way. |
The WikiProject Schools article advice describes how the content of school articles should be organized, 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 controlling authority.
Notable is defined, in the Collins Online Dictionary as: worthy of being noted or remembered; remarkable; distinguished. [1]
Wikipedia uses the first meaning to decide whether the topic is worthy of inclusion. The school does not have to be remarkable or distinguished, just worthy of being noted. 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 section contains an
essay on
notability, consisting of the advice and/or opinions of one or more
WikiProjects on how notability may be interpreted within their area of interest.
This information is not a formal
Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. |
Individual articles must usually meet either the Wikipedia general notability guideline or the organizations 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.
In practice, articles on high/ secondary schools and school districts are usually kept, as they are almost always found to be notable, unless their existence cannot be verified in order to stop hoaxes. Articles on elementary/primary and middle schools are normally blanked and redirected or merged 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.
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.
In Germany secondary education is complex and varies from state to state. It includes Hauptschule and Realschule which generally educate to Grade 10, Gymnasium which educates to Grade 12 and 13, and Gesamtschule which combines the focus of 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, a "secondary school" or 中学 (which really means any secondary school). The actual Chinese word equivalent to an American definition of a "middle school" (lower secondary) 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. [a]
It is recommended that editors only create a school article when its content shows that it already passes the notability guideline by displaying significant coverage in 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 notability requirements; it should be noted, however, that these pages simply document the current practice and are not in themselves authoritative. 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 will get more attention and help from others. It can then be moved and published into the main space when it is ready. This prevents deletion while the article is being developed.
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, as 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:
Avoid stating names or numbers of students who obtained places at X, Y, and Z universities.
The title of the Wikipedia article will normally be the same as the current name of the school.
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). The talk page also needs to be copied across. Talk:Malvern_Hills_College et c. This can be done by the move tool found on tab on the page header bar.
There is no consensus anywhere whether articles about schools that have ceased to exist should be redirected or deleted. An article that is notable does not become unnotable because its subject is dead or defunct.
The following section names are for guidance only, and may be adjusted to suit local spelling, custom, and organization. Do not use very short sections; very short articles are best kept to a single section only, avoiding unnecessary page clutter.
All school articles should have an infobox. This gives readers quick, concise information about the subject.
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 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. |
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 Code/Zip, 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. More specifically, see {{ infobox school}} for complete list of parameters:
: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 authorized by the owner of the logo. :# It is not replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image of comparable educational value.
| mapframe-custom =
| mapframe-custom = {{Maplink |frame=yes |plain=yes |frame-align=center |frame-width=270 |zoom=13 |type=point |coord={{Coord|51.3775|0.5174}} |marker=school |title=Main Campus |description= |type2=point |coord2={{Coord|51.372559|0.521114}} |marker2=school |title2=Lower School |description2= }}
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.
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 founding name, and affiliation with any larger school system or education organization, 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).
Summarize 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.
== 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}}
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.
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, as well as 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:
{{
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.Try to avoid overcategorization. Generally all of Category:Education, but especially articles in the subcategories of
See also:
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 that 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 Archived 2007-09-15 at the Wayback Machine, while some American schools are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(Note: Following major changes in the UK government in 2010, some UK agencies have changed their focus and/or their websites. See also: Independent School Inspections)
(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.
All alumni information must be referenced. See Wikipedia:Footnoting for technical help. Individual alumni need a citation 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, 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.
For stand-alone lists of alumni, alumni to be included must meet the normal criteria established for that page. Inclusion in Lists of alumni included as part of a large 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).
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.
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. [2]
Alumni may be categorized 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.
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.
Alumni to be included should meet Wikipedia notability criteria, and must be verifiable; a biography page in Wikipedia that does not provide a source cannot be used as a reference. 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).
Athletes:
Local sources:
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.
This is an
essay on
style. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more
WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest.
This information is not a formal
Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. |
This is an
essay on
article content. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more
WikiProjects on how the
content policies may be interpreted within their area of interest.
This information is not a formal
Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. |
Welcome to the article guidelines page of WikiProject Schools! If after reading this, you need feedback or help on a page you are creating, or have edited, please go to
this page.
Coordinators
Coordinators?
The Coordinators keep the project pages on their watchlists, welcome new participants, maintain lists, keep the discussions tidy, on track, and on the right pages, and check for signatures and page links, and develop sub pages and templates as required, etc. — nothing much more than any experienced project member can do. Coordinators offer their own suggestions and opinions in the normal way. |
The WikiProject Schools article advice describes how the content of school articles should be organized, 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 controlling authority.
Notable is defined, in the Collins Online Dictionary as: worthy of being noted or remembered; remarkable; distinguished. [1]
Wikipedia uses the first meaning to decide whether the topic is worthy of inclusion. The school does not have to be remarkable or distinguished, just worthy of being noted. 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 section contains an
essay on
notability, consisting of the advice and/or opinions of one or more
WikiProjects on how notability may be interpreted within their area of interest.
This information is not a formal
Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. |
Individual articles must usually meet either the Wikipedia general notability guideline or the organizations 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.
In practice, articles on high/ secondary schools and school districts are usually kept, as they are almost always found to be notable, unless their existence cannot be verified in order to stop hoaxes. Articles on elementary/primary and middle schools are normally blanked and redirected or merged 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.
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.
In Germany secondary education is complex and varies from state to state. It includes Hauptschule and Realschule which generally educate to Grade 10, Gymnasium which educates to Grade 12 and 13, and Gesamtschule which combines the focus of 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, a "secondary school" or 中学 (which really means any secondary school). The actual Chinese word equivalent to an American definition of a "middle school" (lower secondary) 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. [a]
It is recommended that editors only create a school article when its content shows that it already passes the notability guideline by displaying significant coverage in 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 notability requirements; it should be noted, however, that these pages simply document the current practice and are not in themselves authoritative. 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 will get more attention and help from others. It can then be moved and published into the main space when it is ready. This prevents deletion while the article is being developed.
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, as 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:
Avoid stating names or numbers of students who obtained places at X, Y, and Z universities.
The title of the Wikipedia article will normally be the same as the current name of the school.
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). The talk page also needs to be copied across. Talk:Malvern_Hills_College et c. This can be done by the move tool found on tab on the page header bar.
There is no consensus anywhere whether articles about schools that have ceased to exist should be redirected or deleted. An article that is notable does not become unnotable because its subject is dead or defunct.
The following section names are for guidance only, and may be adjusted to suit local spelling, custom, and organization. Do not use very short sections; very short articles are best kept to a single section only, avoiding unnecessary page clutter.
All school articles should have an infobox. This gives readers quick, concise information about the subject.
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 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. |
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 Code/Zip, 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. More specifically, see {{ infobox school}} for complete list of parameters:
: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 authorized by the owner of the logo. :# It is not replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image of comparable educational value.
| mapframe-custom =
| mapframe-custom = {{Maplink |frame=yes |plain=yes |frame-align=center |frame-width=270 |zoom=13 |type=point |coord={{Coord|51.3775|0.5174}} |marker=school |title=Main Campus |description= |type2=point |coord2={{Coord|51.372559|0.521114}} |marker2=school |title2=Lower School |description2= }}
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.
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 founding name, and affiliation with any larger school system or education organization, 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).
Summarize 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.
== 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}}
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.
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, as well as 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:
{{
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.Try to avoid overcategorization. Generally all of Category:Education, but especially articles in the subcategories of
See also:
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 that 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 Archived 2007-09-15 at the Wayback Machine, while some American schools are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(Note: Following major changes in the UK government in 2010, some UK agencies have changed their focus and/or their websites. See also: Independent School Inspections)
(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.
All alumni information must be referenced. See Wikipedia:Footnoting for technical help. Individual alumni need a citation 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, 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.
For stand-alone lists of alumni, alumni to be included must meet the normal criteria established for that page. Inclusion in Lists of alumni included as part of a large 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).
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.
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. [2]
Alumni may be categorized 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.
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.
Alumni to be included should meet Wikipedia notability criteria, and must be verifiable; a biography page in Wikipedia that does not provide a source cannot be used as a reference. 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).
Athletes:
Local sources:
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.