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Schools Template‑class

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Merged templates Infobox School2 Infobox UK school Infobox US school Infobox high school Infobox HighSchool Infobox K-12 School Infobox middle school Infobox Private School Infobox secondary school Infobox education in Canada Infobox HighSchool (American) Infobox Education in the United States

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Infobox cleanup

This section is pinned and will not be automatically archived.

At the moment we are merging {{Infobox UK school}} into {{Infobox school}} (see #talk above). In this process, we meet some other possible improvements (like: deprecate a parameter). Because such a change is not part of the merge process, and because making unrelated changes needlessly complicates the process, these are postponed. They can be discussed and executed later. -DePiep (talk) 10:32, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

This is good, I was planning to start a discussion on consolidating the proliferation of aliases/synonyms that are currently present which are definitely not needed and will help maintain consistency, will be listing them here. Steven (Editor) (talk) 04:01, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Could someone please add the merger information in a conventional hatnote above on this talkpage for background information? PPEMES (talk) 18:01, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

The Merge and Other subsections of Infobox cleanup have been moved to a new Infobox cleanup continued section in order to simplify this section, for further discussion to take place and to allow for the remaining subsections to be expedited first. Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:15, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

These two subsections have been moved back here as the Merge subsection is complete and the Other subsection will require further discussion and consensus on what should and shouldn't be done, as it is just for other ideas and issues which can be restarted after the Infobox cleanup is finished. Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:14, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Rename and delete

Parameters to be renamed and deleted from template code.

I mentioned about consolidating the proliferation of aliases/synonyms that are currently present which are unnecessary, will help maintain consistency and reduce the clutter in the code. Here is the list and there are also some propositions/info on a proposed deletion for one (or more) of the parameters entirely: "delete" means to remove from template code - the difference being the "entirely" one(s) should discussion agree meaning deletion from articles too. The parameters at the end are the main parameters that are currently present and used. This task would be better handled by a bot and Primefac would be my ideal candidate who has an excellent bot for this task and per the previous bot runs we did for Infobox school (some of these were done, but the difference with this one is that it will require going through the entire 30-35,000+ transclusions, should Primefac be up to it) or whoever would be up for doing this with a bot Steven (Editor) (talk) 00:37, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

• Rename |streetaddress= and |street= to |address= and delete
• Rename |schoolboard= to |school_board= and delete
• Rename |educational authority= to |educational_authority= and delete
• Rename |religion= to |religious_affiliation= and delete
• Rename |schoolnumber= and |number= to |school_number= and delete
• Rename |school code= to |school_code= and delete
• Rename |campus director= to |campus_director= and delete
• Rename |head of school= to |head_of_school= and delete
• Rename |number_of_staff= and |number of staff= to |staff= and delete
• Rename |num_employ= to |employees= and delete
• Rename |age range= to |age_range= and delete
• Rename |avg_class_size= and |class= to |average_class_size= and delete
• Rename |classes offered= to |classes_offered= and delete
• Rename |schedtyp= to |schedule_type= and delete
• Rename |campus size= to |campus_size= and delete
• Rename |campus type= to |campus_type= and delete
• Rename |fightsong= to |fight_song= and delete
• Rename |athletics conference=, |athletic_conference=, |athletic conference= and |conference= to |athletics_conference= and delete
• Rename |team name= and |teamname= to |team_name= and delete
• Rename |testname= to |test_name= and delete
• Rename |testaverage= to |test_average= and delete
• Rename |bar pass rate= to |bar_pass_rate= and delete
• Rename |school_roll= to |roll= and delete
• Rename |annual tuition= to |annual_tuition= and delete
• Rename |ranking= to |USNWR_ranking= and delete

• Free text labels:
  • Rename |free= to |free_text= and delete

|free_1, free_label_1= (For set 1–5): deprecate & softly remove one spelling set. -DePiep (talk) 23:02, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

So keep spelling parameters |free_text1= etc (?, weird long name), that is. Large usage number in both spellings (says TDmer). -DePiep (talk) 23:11, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

I prefer the Infobox school ones which are |free_label1= and |free_text1=, looks a bit more clearer with text and |free_1= looks weird to me haha. What you think? Steven (Editor) (talk) 23:37, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

That is: "What param name do we prefer?" right. I defer for now. Glad to know we agree this is after-merge. -DePiep (talk) 23:44, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

• • Rename |free_1= to |free_text1= and delete
  • Rename |free_2= to |free_text2= and delete
  • Rename |free_3= to |free_text3= and delete
  • Rename |free_4= to |free_text4= and delete
  • Rename |free_5= to |free_text5= and delete
  • Rename |free_label_1= to |free_label1= and delete
  • Rename |free_label_2= to |free_label2= and delete
  • Rename |free_label_3= to |free_label3= and delete
  • Rename |free_label_4= to |free_label4= and delete
  • Rename |free_label_5= to |free_label5= and delete

• Deprecate |LEA= and convert to |local_authority=. There is discussion above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:41, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

  |LEA= should be deleted completely after renaming it to |local_authority=. After checking the monthly error report, there are 81 uses. Note to those unaware: |LEA= was already available in the Infobox school template before the Infobox UK school merger took place. This parameter in the UK one was already renamed during the bot run that took place after the merger discussion was complete. The remainder are UK articles that were not using Infobox UK school at the time or were manually converted to Infobox school but the parameter was not updated. Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:26, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

If there's anything I've missed, feel free to add (please maintain styling) and I'll check again too. Thank you Steven (Editor) (talk) 00:37, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Delete completely

Parameters to be deleted completely – template code and transclusions.

• |r_head= should be merged with |rel_head=. They both mean "current religious leader / head person". – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:59, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

  I agree, but I think we should go with |r_head= because it's used in both infoboxes (also the only one in the UK infobox), used slightly more in Infobox school per the monthly error report and I think this looks better and simpler than |rel_head=. What you think? Steven (Editor) (talk) 04:43, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

  Rel_head and rel_head_name N - this should be deleted completely. After checking the monthly error report, there is only 11 and 12 uses respectively (compared to 408 and 477 for r_head and r_head_label). I was going to change these uses to r_head and r_head_label but they were all being used incorrectly (mainly principal and president, one dean and an assistant headteacher which we don't include) so I've changed them to the equivalent parameters available. This can be safely deleted. Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:12, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

• Deprecate |box_style=? There is some discussion above. N – Jonesey95 (talk) 07:35, 12 November 2018 (UTC)
• box_width N

|box_style= should be deleted completely, I don't think we need CSS styling for the infobox but after checking the monthly error report, the parameter is not being used at all. |box_width= currently has 22 uses but I don't think there is any need to manually adjust the width of the infobox, the default width is perfect and also because of low-use. But if you have a look at some of the articles that are using this parameter, it looks terrible. What you think? Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• ACT, ACT_year, SAT and SAT_year N - these parameters were recently deleted, see discussion below. It was removed from template code but requires removal from articles including blank instances. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• administrator N - is this parameter needed or a different meaning that it should be kept? The principal/headteacher would suffice and also per the school article guidelines and this discussion. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• acting_headteacher N - is this parameter needed? After checking the monthly error report, only 4 uses; a defunct school, an elementary school where this infobox is used in a locality article and likely to be outdated with no citations, and the other two where there are no acting headteachers present so outdated. Acting headteachers are temporary positions so not really worth having a dedicated parameter and it is against the school article guidelines. If this needs to be displayed until a successor is announced, then the _label parameters can be used instead such as head_label. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• alumni_name N - is this parameter needed? It was missing in the documentation, not sure why but I added it back in November 2018 after seeing it in the code. After checking the monthly error report, only 14 uses. I think this parameter should be deleted completely in favour of the current alumni parameter that is available. At present, the description for the alumni parameter in the documentation says "Notable alumni of the school (wikilink all names)." - I don't think it is a good idea to list alumni in the infobox, especially when there are schools that have a lot. These are added to a "Notable alumni" section and I think it would be better for this parameter to be used for the name of the school's alumni and linked to this section. If it doesn't have a name, then it should not be used (as is the case with many schools). Also, some schools are already using this parameter for that purpose and it works well. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I have moved the uses above to alumni, this can be safely deleted. Steven (Editor) (talk) 23:15, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

• officer_in_charge N - is this parameter needed? After checking the monthly error report, only 10 uses after redirecting one to locality. If this position needs to be displayed, the various _label parameters can be used to display this. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I have moved the uses above to head and head_label, this can be safely deleted. Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:35, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

• key_people N - ? I don't think this parameter is needed as we already have many dedicated parameters to describe officials of the school as well as the many _label parameters. There's a 113 uses after checking the monthly error report but many are using this parameter when there is already a dedicated parameter available such as Brighton Grammar School which has founder (mentioned twice as founder parameter is also used) and chairman. I'm happy to go through all these and change them to the relevant parameter(s) and then this can be safely deleted? Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• grade_prek to grade13, other and other_grade_enrollment_1 and 2 N - these appear as bullet points and are used to display enrollment by grade? But is this necessary, would the total enrollment not suffice? It seems that these parameters are used mainly for US schools and I've come across many that are not using these, mainly just the enrollment and enrollment_as_of, cited to NCES which reports the total as well as by grade. Also noticed that it is used by school districts which should be using {{Infobox school district}} and that infobox doesn't have these parameters, enrollment is reported on a total basis. I don't see any use in keeping these and makes the infobox look a bit more messy. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• international_students N - is this parameter needed? Not sure what the purpose of this is for, documentation is just the name of this parameter. But is this for enrolment or to say the school has international students? I don't know, but this parameter seems unnecessary. After checking the monthly error report, only 37 uses and after checking how this is being used, you have " nationalities represented", "None", "Approximately 120", "K-12", "Deepak Zeus 2025", "Yes" ... - don't think there's any worth in keeping this. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• classrooms N - do we need to mention how many classrooms the school has? This can be easily covered in the body of the article, a facilities section. But is this necessary for the infobox? Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• athletics and sports N - are these parameters needed? Per the documentation "What type of athletics are held at the school" / "Main sport(s) at the school" "; or Yes or No." Schools tend to provide many athletics / sports and would this not be better covered in the body of the article rather than infobox? If the school has athletics/sports or not, is this necessary? Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

The need for the athletics parameter which can also be applied to the sports parameter was raised by another editor in 2014, who deemed it as "somewhat unnecessary". Steven (Editor) (talk) 21:17, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

• products N - is this parameter needed? It is displayed as "Key products". Do we need to mention per the documentation "any products the school produces"? Let's not forget the free labels that could be used instead to provide this information and after checking the monthly error report, only 7 uses. After checking these uses, it doesn't look like it's being used correctly. I don't think it is worth keeping this and because of low use. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• information N - surely this parameter is not needed? The infobox has a lot of parameters and free labels, exactly what other information could be provided with this parameter? The documentation says "Information (do not enter phone numbers or email addresses)." - after checking the monthly error report, 801 uses but after clicking on random ones from the list, it seems that it is mainly being used to display a phone number. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:50, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

• mascot_image N - I don't see any value in keeping this parameter. If a mascot image is needed and if it is suitable for inclusion on Misplaced Pages, then it can be simply incorporated into the body of the article. Also per this discussion. Steven (Editor) (talk) 00:57, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

• years taught and years_taught N
  • nursery years taught and nursery_years_taught N
  • primary years taught and primary_years_taught N
  • secondary years taught and secondary_years_taught N

    Are these three parameters necessary to keep? When filled in, they appear as a bulleted list under "Years taught" or individually if |years_taught= is not used. Will |years_taught= not suffice? Are we being too detailed here? Low usage too per the monthly error report: 3, 2 and 22 respectively. I think these should be deleted and if you agree, I think the best way of handling this would be to go through the articles using these and manually move the information (if filled in right) to |years_taught=, which I'm happy to do. It can then be deleted from the code and blank instances removed via bot

    These parameters no longer require renaming. Per what I've said above, I have gone through the articles using these and instead of manually moving the information (if filled in right) to years_taught, I've moved them to grades and grades_label (label used where necessary, and an example of misuse was a U.S. school that was using years_taught when it should be using grades) in line with other schools, as they are redundant to these parameters. These can be safely deleted. Steven (Editor) (talk) 05:11, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

• main feeder schools, feeders and feeder_schools N
• main feeder school for and feeder_to N

Schools have feeder schools and feed to other schools — some will have many. These are better kept in the body of article, it is too much clutter to mention them all in the infobox. Having checked the parameter usage report, they are either linked to schools or plain text only. Steven (Editor) (talk) 05:28, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

• us_nces_district_id N - this parameter is not needed as we already have us_nces_school_id which provides a link to the school's page on NCES. This page also provides a link to the school's district page on NCES. Noting us_nces_district_id is available on Infobox school district. Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:14, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

• years N - ? this parameter is the same issue as the years taught above, and not needed as we already have grades which can be overridden using grades_label. The grades_label is already being used for years and after checking the parameter usage report, there are 337 uses. I will go through these and rename them (if filled in correctly). Steven (Editor) (talk) 06:11, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

Delete completely comments

• Agree with the delete completely ones: I support deletion of ACT/SAT as the fields change every year and are, for most people, too much to maintain. Acting principal/headteacher IMO is unnecessary - just put the acting principal/headteacher in the article. I also agree with deleting the alumni name field as that's best handled in the article text. The others I see don't need to be in the infobox. WhisperToMe (talk) 20:30, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

• I disagree with deleting the "years" field. "Grades" means academic achievement ie A-E in New Zealand (I think it's A-F in the US), so the infobox becomes rather counter-intuitive if we need to use "grades" to mean years.-gadfium 07:34, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi gadfium, I see what you mean, but grades is not for academic achievement but for the years the school offers. The US does not use this parameter for A–F, instead grades is used for K–12 or 9–12 for example (please see these pages). So that’s why years is redundant as you can use grades_label. Hope this clears things up, Steven (Editor) (talk) 09:04, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

I understand that's what it's for, but it's a confusing term for those of us who have a different meaning of "grades". Why not allow a synonym? Also, by allowing "years" there should be no need to specify "grades_label=Years". I think WP:ENGVAR applies here. We allow "principal", "headmaster", "headmistress", "rector" etc, although each of these could be replaced by "head" and "head_label".-gadfium 17:32, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

gadfium, I'm British and we use years here, I don't find this confusing, but then again it's different for everyone. Grades is used on 21,000+ with grades_label being used on 2,000+ which includes 664 for years. Whereas, the individual years parameter is being used on 337. Do you still think we should keep years? We do need to simplify and consolidate parameters, there are far too many head position parameters in the infobox — principal and head has to be kept, this is used on a whopping 20,000+ and 6,000+ respectively. It's the others we need to consolidate on, for example there are 4 additional principal parameters each with labels. I don't understand why we have this many, only the top position should be mentioned in the infobox such as principal/headteacher/president/director. Chairman and chairperson which both have labels is redundant to the chair and chair_label. Steven (Editor) (talk) 19:55, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Merge

Parameters to be merged with another parameter.

• |medium= mediums= medium_of_language= medium of language==: four synonyms, and no warning for double-use. -DePiep (talk) 10:32, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

There is also |language=, which is documented as having the same function as |medium=. These two parameters should probably be merged into one. Also, "medium of language" does not make sense to me; is it standard in British English? – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:26, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

|medium=, |mediums= and |medium of language= should be renamed to |medium_of_language= and deleted. A small discussion was bought up on the naming of this parameter with it being called "Medium of language"; see here. Note that Misplaced Pages has a dedicated article titled "Medium of instruction". Perhaps we opt for changing the display title to simply "Medium" or "Medium of instruction" (possibly linked to its dedicated article) and change all the respective parameters to |medium= or a new parameter, |medium_of_instruction=? The |language= parameter should be merged with it and deleted. Steven (Editor) (talk) 00:37, 14 November 2018 (UTC) –Updated, Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:26, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

These parameters have been merged and resulted in duplicate parameters — I have sorted them all, and the overall aim is to remove the aliases and have only one. Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:14, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

• |colo(u)rs= should be merged with |school_colo(u)rs=. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:59, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Currently used in {{Infobox school}}: |colors, colors, colours= and |school_colors, schoolcolors, school_colors, school_colours, schoolcolours= (check me)

Also, we could consider making plural 'colors' default, and add option |color= etc for singular (exceptional, right?). labeltext should be plural by default. Deprecate all "school"-prefixes: this is infobox school alteasy, duh.

Preferred result: prefered params are |color, colour= (sing) and |colors, colours= (plu, default) -DePiep (talk) 23:31, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

I think all variations/unnecessary aliases for the colors/colours should be removed leaving only current interchangeable |colors/colours= which has high use and no need for singular ones because these are already displayed in the infobox as "Color(s)" / "Colour(s)", which should suffice right? Steven (Editor) (talk) 04:18, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

These parameters have been merged and resulted in duplicate parameters — I have sorted them all, and the overall aim is to remove the aliases and have only one (interchangeable color/colours). Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:14, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

• |enrollment= should be merged with |school_roll= and |students=. They all mean "number of students enrolled in the school". The term "school roll" appears to be used most often in New Zealand – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:44, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

|roll= should be merged with the |enrolment=/|enrollment=/|students=/|pupils= variation parameters (as suggested above by Jonesey95 but using |roll= (already an alias/synonym and displayed as "School roll" in the infobox) instead of |school_roll= as this will fit in liaison with the naming convention of the enrolment variation parameters. An equivalent |roll_as_of= should also be added (the majority of the schools using this parameter have the year, but with the use of brackets added manually which does not follow with current formatting of the other enrolment parameters) Steven (Editor) (talk) 00:37, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

These parameters have been merged and resulted in duplicate parameters — I have sorted them all. Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:14, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

• Merge parameters |homepage=, |url=, and |website= into a single parameter with two aliases. I think this is ready to happen, based on the zero pages in Category:Pages using infobox school with multiple external links. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:29, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

Would it be better if |homepage= and |url= is renamed to |website= and then deleted? There could be a problem for this however as some articles have either two or three of these, but homepage and url should be deprecated in favour of website. There is an issue, if two or three of these are used, the template does not produce a warning with "Using more than one of the following parameters and only one is displayed. So merging the parameters would solve this. Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:26, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

These parameters have already been merged, and the overall aim is to remove the aliases and have only one (website). Steven (Editor) (talk) 22:14, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

• Primefac, about your recent changes "combine established, founded, and opened", did you assume that these were redundant. I have been finding cases where multiples are intentionally used. For example, there are charter schools that received a charter (hense established) in one year but were not ready to open to students until a future date. If you meant for only the most important date (and I'm not sure which one that would be) to be displayed, was there any discussion. I found another one where the school was "established" in the 18th century but the "opened" field was being used for the 20th century building.

Also, established displays with the Established label, but opened and founded date are floating with no label. Is this a mistake? MB 01:37, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

The change was requested by Steven (Editor), and based on previous requests I assumed this was uncontroversial. Should I revert? In the meantime I've fixed the #if statement for founded and opened, had too many pipes. Primefac (talk) 01:55, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Primefac, This is minor, let's wait for S(E) to respond. MB 02:41, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

They mean the same thing and for some reason were not aliases of each other. Where in the documentation does it say that's how these parameters work? I've come across many where the same date was being used. Here's a discussion back in 2017. Steven (Editor) (talk) 05:24, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Can I hook on the problem of refactoring which occurs when a UK school changes from one Multi-academy trust to another, or indeed from an LEA to a MAT. In the Harris Federation there are 28 All-through and Secondary Schools- but only maybe five are new schools, the rest have refactored voluntarily, or forced to whwn being failed by Ofsted. Refactoring usually means mass staff resignations, and all the certainties about the school being ripped up. Mostly editors enter the date that Ofsted says the school was founded (the date of refactoring) and all previous history is lost. Against the trend, Stationers' Crown Woods Academy took on its new name (refactored ) in 2014 which is not in the infobox, while the date of establishment is retained. |Refactored= is not a common word so the caption may also need to be overwritten |Refactored_label=- on that I have no strong views.ClemRutter (talk) 09:56, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Merge comments

• Support all template merges — Preceding unsigned comment added by WhisperToMe (talk • contribs) 20:14, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

Other

Other ideas and issues.

• Add |pupil_name=: "Etonian" for Eton College. -DePiep (talk) 10:32, 4 November 2018 (UTC)
  • I think the proper term might be |demonym=, as is used in {{infobox settlement}}. See demonym. (I could be wrong, though; demonym may only apply to residents or natives of a given place, not alumni of a school. More research may be needed.) – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:24, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

My suggestion is to add this option. Yes indeed exact parameter name is open. -DePiep (talk) 20:46, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Not formally opposing but I do object when we use an child care facility for the obscenely privileged as an example. We have two example schools- we should stick firstly to those. Then we could look at St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy (taken at random) as a more representative institution. (Within the Catholic sector- yes we do have one a more needy field is diocese! ) Why is a nickname seen as infobox material? Have a look as NUAST- the infobox there is awful. That is a school- what are you going to call the alumni (apart from Survivors (POV) )?ClemRutter (talk) 18:20, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

If you're referring to the name of the school's alumni, there is an alumni parameter which would suffice and some schools are already using it for this purpose, including Eton College. There is also alumni_name but I've suggested for this to be deleted completely (see delete completely section above). Steven (Editor) (talk) 18:07, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

• Deal with |dfeno= if it is still around after the merge. See discussion above that resulted in no consensus to delete or keep it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 07:35, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

Add |LAESTAB= as an alias of |dfeno=? See discussion above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:06, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

• Find a way to support "MAT" "Executive headteacher", perhaps in existing fields. See discussion above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:06, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Not needed as there is |trust= and |executive_headteacher=. A possible UID parameter to identify the trust was mentioned but to be discussed. Steven (Editor) (talk) 04:36, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

• Consider using {{Engvar}}: allow one parameter to set engvar (en-GB, en-UK), and behave infobox spelling WP:ENGVAR consistently. -DePiep (talk) 23:33, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
• Figure out what |specialist= is for and possibly give it a less engvar-specific label and description. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:34, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Reading Carlton le Willows Academy, which is about to go GAC, you will see that Specialism refers to Specialist schools programme. There are residual effects of this programme, but whether we need a field is dubious. Carlton le Willows Academy is a useful article that traces recent history, and is well linked. The Judd School (FA) is non typical, being in Kent, remaining a VA school and selective, and having avoided initiatives designed to form academies, specialist schools and trusts. SSAT (The Schools Network) is useful too --ClemRutter (talk) 00:51, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

• Limit deprecated parameter check to article space. – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:24, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
• When coordinates use |display=title, the word "Coordinates" displays in the template with no coordinates after it. See Conestoga High School for a current example. We fixed this problem on multiple templates during the Misplaced Pages:Coordinates in infoboxes project; I don't remember how, but the answer is probably on the project's talk page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:10, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
• Support |publications= in addition to |publication=, to parallel |founders= and similar parameters? – Jonesey95 (talk) 08:33, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
• Comment: One thing I would like have addressed are schools with multiple campuses (currently I use the "address field" and
  for each address), or schools with one campus that has two or more addresses (Instituto Privado Argentino-Japonés) has a single building with two entrances, each with its own address. Also specifying the address of the administration building (if it's a multi-campus school) might be something that helps too. WhisperToMe (talk) 20:26, 5 July 2019 (UTC)
• Could "alumni" variable perhaps ink to Old boy network? PPEMES (talk) 18:00, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

Hi PPEMES, are you suggesting for alumni to be interchangeable with Old boy network or for it to link to that article? The addition of an alumni_label would be the best option to do this, which will allow for any other custom names and linking. Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:03, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

• Could a grades label option be added for the enrollment grades? Also, I think the label "Student to teacher ratio" should be renamed Student–teacher ratio in accordance with the page.17jiangz1 (talk) 20:53, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Mapframe maps

I have added mapframe mapping capability to the sandbox, following the Mapframe maps in infoboxes RFC. Per that RFC, location within the infobox is a matter for local consensus - currently I have put it after the pushpin map, near the top of the infobox. There is also the possibility for the infobox to specify default values when mapframe- parameters are not specified. Currently I have set the default marker symbol to "school". - Evad37  00:23, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

I've been waiting for this, thanks Evad37. I gave it a test and it appears at the top which looks nice, a default zoom is needed as it is too far at present. But having mapframe with pushpin map together definitely doesn't look nice haha — wlll be starting a discussion after consensus of mapframe location and its default values have been determined, on the removal of pushpin maps altogether in favour of using mapframe only. Will mapframe be shown automatically, noticed it's like this for some other infoboxes, with the option to turn it off on a per article basis via parameter? Steven (Editor) (talk) 04:02, 14 October 2020 (UTC) Modified comment 04:57, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

That is possible, the automatic display of mapframe maps, but there wasn't consensus on that issue at the RFC. (Other infoboxes had the automation implemented prior to the RFC.) I wouldn't want to implement it here without a strong local consensus. - Evad37  23:52, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

I would love for the "school" icon to be the default, Evad! User:Steven (Editor) I'm OK if mapframe replaces pushpin entirely since the infobox would be cluttered, so long as mapframe allows a zoomout. WhisperToMe (talk) 13:59, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Implementation and removal of pushpin maps proposal

Hi WhisperToMe, I agree the "school" icon should be the default. I'm proposing the following if you could please let me know on your thoughts and to anyone else interested:

• The default marker symbol is "school" — this can be overridden using the parameter |mapframe-marker=
• The default zoom is 13 (if it should be zoomed more or less, please suggest but I found this amount of zoom to be ok) — this can be overridden using the parameter |mapframe-zoom=. Noting that despite the default zoom, mapframe has plus and minus buttons in the top left that allow you to zoom in and out. There is also a button in the top right that allows you to view the map in full screen which looks really nice
• The mapframe-wikidata is set to yes as default so that it shows the shape/line features from the wikidata item, if any, when |coord= is set — this can be overridden using the parameter |mapframe-wikidata=No
• Mapframe is shown automatically on all school articles that have coordinates. This prevents the need to manually add a mapframe and allow for consistency — this can be overridden using the parameter |mapframe=No
• Pushpin maps to be removed from the template completely in favour of mapframe — having mapframe with pushpin map together doesn't look nice and the infobox would be cluttered (there are also three images that are already displayed at the top — logo, seal and image). Mapframe is better because it is interactive unlike pushpin maps, can be zoomed in and out and viewed in full screen. Another reason is for consistency — mapframes are the same size (can be overridden using dedicated parameters but redundant to full screen viewing) whereas pushpin maps are different sizes depending on the map, with some being small and some huge which look terrible in the infobox

Please see this example of what the mapframe will look like with all the default options above set (had to do it manually with parameters as the defaults have not been set yet) — note the colour of the marker is the pre-set default colour, should we change this? I think this colour is ok but it can be overridden anyway using dedicated parameters. Besides these defaults, mapframe can be customized in the article to suit your preferences; see this list of parameters available. Steven (Editor) (talk) 19:37, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

It seems the buttons to zoom in and out of the map appear only when you click on the map or the button in the top right to view it in full screen. But when viewing the article in preview mode, the zoom in/out buttons are there (where the map is not in full screen). Evad37 is this how it's supposed to be or a bug? Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:06, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

It's a bit of both: it is a bug that preview is different than the saved page, but it's done intentionally for performance reasons. See Q3 of Module talk:Mapframe/FAQ for further info/links. - Evad37  21:12, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

I see, that makes sense, at least visitors can still zoom in and out which is good. Just waiting now for others to comment on the proposal Steven (Editor) (talk) 21:25, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Agree with all items WhisperToMe (talk) 21:35, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

• Sorry if I came late to the party Brilliant suggestions all round. I have been an enthusiastic user of 'module = OSM Location map' see look at St John Fisher Catholic School to see one in action. It is a two site school that needed to be situated on a 'busy' base map. A lot of time was spent on balancing the captions so they didn't overwrite data on the map. I did try different centres and scales. I would want to overwrite the default marker with the red-dot that looks cleaner here. Provision needs to be made for multiple site institution The final code was:

 | module ={{OSM Location map
 | float = centre
 | width = 250
 | coord = {{coord|51.3805|0.5174}} <!-- Centred -->
 | mark-coord = {{coord|51.3775|0.5174}} | label = St John Fisher Catholic School| label-pos = top
 | mark-coord1 = {{coord|51.372559| 0.521114}} | label1 = Lower School| label-pos1 = top
 | zoom = 13}} <!-- marking the school-->

The Judd School is a far simpler case, the site conveniently to the left of maptext. I find the grey splodge for the limit to the grounds as unsightly- useful on enlargement but not necessary in the default.

I have just been doing a de-stubbing binge. While we are looking for perfection, schools articles are often the first attempt of a newby editor, so a simple automatic map switched on by the |coordinates= is a real bonus- and a head ache if the new page patrol can't easily tweak a few parameters. Pushpin_maps should remain as a feature while they are common elsewhere- but will not fire when OSM maps or mapframe is present. OSM maps should overwrite the default mapframe.ClemRutter (talk) 00:12, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi ClemRutter, please clarify what you meant by "grey splodge for the limit to the grounds as unsightly". I remember suggesting to you about using OSM Location map in the module parameter for schools with multiple campuses. There are disadvantages of using this template, it doesn't embed well in the infobox and you should see what it looks like on mobile devices (doesn't look nice). Maps for schools with multiple campuses has been an issue for this infobox — a problem we have with the current pushpin maps. Not all templates have pushpin maps, do you see any value in retaining pushpin maps? I don't see them as being useful and does the same job as mapframe, only difference being that mapframe is better with more functionality.

Speaking of mapframe, have some good news for you, you no longer need to use the module parameter with the OSM Location map. In the list of parameters I linked above for customising the mapframe maps, there is a parameter called |mapframe-custom= which per the doc says: "Use a custom map instead of the automatic mapframe. Specify either a Maplink template, or another template that generates a mapframe map, or an image name. If used, the subsequent mapframe parameters will be ignored." Using this parameter and the {{Maplink}} template, which embeds better in the infobox, please see the result in the St John Fisher Catholic School article you mentioned (you will have to click edit to see the parameters I used). These mapframe maps being implemented has solved the problem for schools with multiple campuses. For the purpose of this example, I used two markers: one with school and the other with number "2" (you can use circle too and change colour etc. — you'll need to look at the Maplink template for customization options). Pinging WhisperToMe to let them know. Steven (Editor) (talk) 06:27, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

I totally approve of the changes to St John Fisher Catholic School. Scratch the comment on splodges. Pushpin-maps were useful because of their speed, and on the shire counties Sackville School, East Grinstead and the London fringe they clarified which council provided the services. Harris Academy Chafford Hundred (stub/start class)- I will happily lose that marginal gain for the benefits of universal mapframes. I edited Carlton le Willows Academy- a GA without a map- it has one now.

The blue marker is fine, the symbol could be used for both sites at SJF, they are both schools and if you are interested in which is the main campus the hover over title will be displayed. The symbol may seem a bit naff for sixth-form colleges- but as it is changeable this is a problem for the documentation not the coding.ClemRutter (talk) 09:26, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

I'm glad you approve and I see, in terms of speed I think it will be faster with mapframe due to it appearing automatically — the user doesn't need to add a parameter and specify which map to use, they only have to provide the coordinates and it'll appear straight away. Awesome and that's true, not only hover over title, you can also click on the marker to reveal the title — if you're using that custom template, you can add an optional description that'll appear under the title when you click on the marker. Yeah the symbol may not be ideal for sixth form colleges that also use this infobox, but by making use of the dedicated category, we can go through these articles and override the marker to something else which I'm happy to do (there is a range of symbols so we'll need to decide which is best but this can be discussed later). Steven (Editor) (talk) 17:48, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Evad37, can this proposal be implemented? It's been a week and no objections, please let me know, thanks Steven (Editor) (talk) 05:18, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

@Steven (Editor): I've updated the sandbox per the above. If you can you check that the new version works as expected on a few articles, and then if its all good I'll make the edit to the live template - Evad37  23:25, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks Evad37, please see The Judd School and St John Fisher Catholic School (using mapframe-custom) — both working perfectly. I checked a few other articles in different countries using preview and not had any issues. This is ready to go Steven (Editor) (talk) 02:06, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Slight snag - error messages are showing up on the testcases page. Will have to investigate when I have some time. - Evad37  08:31, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Evad37, strangely the error message only appears on the testcases page and not on the articles themselves? On any school article, the mapframe works perfectly — I copied The Judd School infobox and went to the testcases page, deleted everything on the testcases page, paste this infobox there and clicked on preview, error message is shown. This is strange Steven (Editor) (talk) 18:50, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

I've found the problem, I knew it had something to do with Wikidata — I went to the sandbox and removed the mapframe-wikidata=yes from the default, then previewed the sandbox on the testcases page using "Preview page with this template" at the bottom, the mapframe works. As this is a testcases page it is unable to pull anything from Wikidata so this is ok? Steven (Editor) (talk) 19:32, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

I think it might be a good idea to remove the mapframe-wikidata=yes as a default for now which can be easily added back another time. The reason why is because I'm just thinking of the school articles that may not have a listing on Wikidata, and I checked the schools that are in the draftspace and you get the same error message as the testcases. I think a rule needs to be added to ignore Wikidata if it doesn't exist and once this is done, then mapframe-wikidata=yes can be added back so the infobox doesn't show this error message? Steven (Editor) (talk) 20:38, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

The lack of a wikidata item does seem to be the problem. I'll take a look at fixing it in the Infobox mapframe module - Evad37  02:39, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Steven (Editor):  Fixed in the module, and so I've  updated this template to implement mapframe maps. I've added the mapframe parameters to the documentation, but probably needs some further cleanup there. - Evad37  03:11, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

Awesome, thanks Evad37 and I'll tidy the documentation :) Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:16, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

Looks nice to me. I will watch how it looks in my recent edits, and how the documentation is holding up. Thanks.ClemRutter (talk) 23:09, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

How to handle improper coordinates?

About 90 schools are showing errors, see articles with script errors. Example: Quest to Learn. I think it's because they have a coordinates parameter, but it is not properly formatted (not using {{coord}}) so the module tries to do arithmetic with values that it can't get. I'm hoping someone has tools to help fix the articles. Johnuniq (talk) 09:44, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

I've turned off the default mapframe for articles without proper coordinates, to prevent the script errors. These articles will be tracked in Category:Pages using infobox school with coordinates not using the Coord template so they can be fixed. - Evad37  10:56, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

I showed pity on Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Subang Jaya from the list: they even gave the Latitude in the lead. Sure enough it was a format error. As there wasn't much to lose, I added |mapframe-zoom = 10 to the infobox and that worked too. The parameters there are all over the place- but I placed it under |coordinates . This seems to me to be a parameter we need to use a lot, with the obvious consequences. ClemRutter (talk) 12:53, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Evad37, the category is now empty, going forward, would it be best to keep this added code and category, or no longer needed? Steven (Editor) (talk) 03:29, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

I think we might as well leave it for the moment, and the category can be occasionally checked to see if there have been any more incorrect usages of coordinates. If in the future there are problems with template or Lua limits, then it can be removed. - Evad37  06:24, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Sounds good Steven (Editor) (talk) 21:20, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

How to handle coordinates defined out side the infobox?

I just had a look at Hallfield Primary School the notable listed building. There was a large gap awaiting a map, the co-ordinate line was in External Links- I moved it into the box, and still a large gap. I added display=title,inline and it is working. Look at the edit history to see how it was rendering. ClemRutter (talk) 16:42, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

this version shows an empty mapframe box. It looks like the code that invokes the mapframe needs to check for coordinates in the infobox before displaying the mapframe box. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:55, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

I think that may have been a glitch with the Kartographer extension rather than the infobox or module. The module does check that it has coordinates, either from the infobox parameter or from Wikidata, and will not attempt to show a map without them. If you click the empty space a full-screen map is shown, so I think the extension just hadn't yet generated a thumbnail image of the map. In the past when this has happened, a few purges and/or null edits seemed to fix it. - Evad37  22:49, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Context

Is there anyway of having some small map of the country/county placed in a corner of the map to give you some quick glance context to show where you are? Even going into full screen, you need to zoom out considerably to get some context for the map. Keith D (talk) 23:33, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

I think that the default zoom level may be too close-up. I edited about 20 or 30 articles to fix coord problems today, and every time I loaded a mapframe map, I had to zoom out to see where I was in the world, or even in a state/province or country. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:52, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

@Keith D: I'm working on implementing overlay (corner) maps in Module:Mapframe/sandbox. See Template:Maplink/testcases/overlays for demos of what I've done so far. - Evad37  09:13, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. Of the testcases the overlay without the repeat of the source detail is best. Keith D (talk) 13:15, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the work so far. True, on each of the articles I have returned to I have been tempted to revise the scale- I have also been tempted to shift the map centre-point so it includes a meaningful label to help orientation. As it stands I find the mini-maps in the examples visually confusing. Is it technically possible to make them appear on a cursor-rollover? If we are looking at this being a default, I see difficulties in predicting which map to use and which scale to use. --ClemRutter (talk) 14:16, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Script errors

The addition of this feature is causing script errors on several pages, such as Norman S. Edelcup/Sunny Isles Beach K-8. Here's a minimized example: {{Infobox school|coordinates={{Coord|25.94479|-80.12314|display=inline,title}}}} Interestingly, while this example fails on that article, it works fine on other pages, such as the sandbox. It's not immediately clear to me what the problem is. @Evad37: ping. Jackmcbarn (talk) 01:28, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Problem when short description includes ref tags

When the parameter values used for the short description include ref tags, the short description is corrupted, as can be see in these 200 articles. The short description looks like:

Secondary school mixed school?'"`uniq--ref-00000000-qinu`"'? school in Zimbabwe

It looks like ref tags need to be stripped from those values, either manually in each of the articles, or in {{Infobox school/short description}}. Pinging Trialpears. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:31, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi Jonesey95, thanks for letting us know of the issue. These will be sorted out manually, there shouldn't be references in these parameters, sourcing the type should be in the lead. Steven (Editor) (talk) 15:49, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

While they shouldn't have references to begin with this is quite a bad failure mode. I've attempted a simple find and replace fix, but it isn't optimal since I've found cases where it didn't work and it leaves control characters in the text which could behave weirdly and don't play nicely with lua. I'll take another look when the list of issues has been refreshed to see why it doesn't always work. --Trialpears (talk) 07:10, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

See this discussion that I started. I think {{short description}} needs to be smarter. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:54, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Looks like it fixed for now. The weird thing is that only Infobox school seems to be affected. Do the others do something to prevent this already? --Trialpears (talk) 12:35, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

It could very well be that infobox school is the only one that uses the logic you've employed to determine the shortdesc. For example, I set a very simple shortdesc for {{infobox country at games}}, which isn't reliant on any input (mostly because I was feeling lazy... I might get around to improving it later). Primefac (talk) 12:54, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Could be, although I feel like {{Infobox Settlement}} and {{Infobox royalty}} should have the same problem. It would be weirder to put a reference for the fields used there though so maybe no one has? --Trialpears (talk) 13:06, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

The short answer is yes - settlement's module and royalty's subtemplate strip out references. Primefac (talk) 13:15, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

How does {{Infobox royalty/short description}} work then? I made it and can't remember or see anything that would strip them out. --Trialpears (talk) 13:22, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Looks like {{#invoke:String|match|s={{delink|1={{{1|}}}}}|pattern=*|nomatch=}} looks for the first full string that doesn't contain what one could consider to be potential "reference" or the non-useful parameters <{; and returns that value. Primefac (talk) 15:10, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

County and U.S. schools

• Template-Class school pages
• NA-importance school pages