Copyright licences for state schools in England
Guidance on copyright licences and how copyright affects schools.
Applies to England
The Department for Education (DfE) buys copyright licences for all state-funded primary and secondary schools in England – covering schools for almost all their copyright requirements.
Purchasing these licences directly means that DfE can save schools money and the administrative time involved in applying for many different licences.
The licences mean you can copy, re-use and share content from a wide range of sources within your school for non-commercial, educational purposes.
Your school leadership (head and chair of governors) needs to make sure that:
- all intended activities are covered adequately by the licences
- all staff follow the terms and conditions
For more information on what content you can use, and how to gain other permissions, contact the relevant organisation from the following list.
The copyright licences cover a range of content from printed materials to radio and TV broadcasts:
- Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), for copying text and still images from most books, journals and magazines plus a range of digital publications
- Printed Music Licensing Ltd (PMLL) provides the Schools Printed Music Licence (SPML) which allows schools to make copies and arrangements of sheet music as part of music education, including instrumental lessons. This licence allows schools to share digital sheet music, including as a PDF file, directly onto a smartboard within a classroom or using a platform (where the terms and conditions refer to the SPML). The Centre for Education and Finance Management (CEFM) operate a helpline to assist with any general queries relating to the SPML. The collection of information on works copied and arranged under the licence is operated by PMLL in partnership with Every Copy Counts. Further information about the licence is available from PMLL
- NLA Media Access, for copying from newspapers and magazines. The Copyright Licensing Agency administers this licence and has information on copying from print and digital newspapers
- Educational Recording Agency (ERA), for recording and use of radio and television programmes and clips, including catch-up services like BBC iPlayer, for educational use. The Centre for Education and Finance Management administers this licence and operates a helpdesk for schools providing information about the licence
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Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS), for musical performances, recording and digital music use:
- PRS Performance Licence - covers schools for the public performance of musical repertoire controlled by PRS for Music for use at school activities and school events. CEFM administers this licence
- Schools Digital Licence - covers a school for mechanical, performing and synchronisation use. This includes student performances, creating content containing music for use within schools for stream and download, sharing videos through servers and learning management systems
- Schools Recording Licence - covers mechanical rights for recording and copying carried out by schools. This includes making recordings of student performances containing music, use of personal music services in schools, such as Spotify, creating playlists of music for use in drama, music and dance performance, producing physical products such as CDs and DVDs containing music which can be given away or sold for fundraising purposes and copying or recording music onto school servers
- Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), for playing recorded music. CEFM administers this licence
- Motion Picture Licensing Company for showing films
- Filmbankmedia for showing films. This includes the right for schools to use the IntoFilm platform to digitally stream films for educational and extra-curricular purposes. Into Film+ is fully copyright compliant, meaning that content can be streamed legally and safely in all school settings. The service features over 700 films and was built in partnership with teachers. Content is searchable by age and subject relevance and supported by a catalogue of over 1000 downloadable teaching resources, making it easy to incorporate film into lesson plans and activities such as after-school clubs. State schools in England have access to the Into Film + Premium streaming service
- Christian Copyright Licensing International for copying and projecting hymns and other Christian music
If you require a copy of any of these licences, or further information about them, you should contact the relevant copyright management organisation (or, where applicable, its agent) as listed.
These licences are administered by the copyright management organisations (CMOs) on behalf of multiple copyright owners. These rights are granted through the licences, which provide access to all the materials held by each CMO under the terms of each licence.
CMOs collect data on schools’ usage of copyright materials to allow them to distribute payments fairly among their members to reflect this level of usage. We expect schools which are contacted by a CMO as part of a sample and asked to provide data on their usage of copyright materials to do so. This will support the effective running of the scheme and the fair remuneration of rights holders and artists by CMOs. We also encourage schools to provide reporting on their usage through platforms provided by CMOs.
Some CMOs offer free resources to schools to support the use of these licences and we encourage schools to make the best use of these. Resources available include:
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Educational Recording Agency: this licence offers links to broadcast resources and provides a collection of case studies showing how teachers use television and radio effectively in their lessons
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Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS): The music recording licences held by the department allow schools to make recordings of student performances for sale or giving away to students, family, friends or to raise funds for the school or recordings solely used for the giving and receiving of tuition or student films that are shown only as part of the students’ course work, educational assessment, student competitions and the students’ personal portfolio. Commercial manufacture and sale are not covered by the licences and would require an Audio Product (AP2) Licence
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Copyright Licensing Agency: CLA’s Check Permissions tool enables you to check whether you can copy from a particular publication under the terms of the CLA and NLA Media Access licences. (Note that images copied under these licences are covered for internal distribution within the school, but not for sharing on a public facing website.) It also helps you to check whether you can copy from a particular publication under the terms of the Schools Printed Music Licence. You can also use CLA’s Education Platform if your school is covered by the CLA Education Licence. The platform provides access to digital versions of books, allowing you to copy and share a portion of each book you or your school owns
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Printed Music Licensing Ltd (PMLL): Teachers can access free music-related resources by using Every Copy Counts, the data collection programme for the SPML. Resources available include videos and general guidance on approaches to composing and songwriting, webinars on composers and guides to careers in the music publishing industry. These are available through the resource section of the PMLL portal, in return for submitting information on the works used under the licence. This data provided by schools will support PMLL to accurately distribute payments for the use of copyright materials to its members. The department encourages schools to submit data on their usage of sheet music through this platform
Educational establishments covered by the DfE scheme:
- local-authority-maintained schools (including maintained nursery schools)
- academies
- free schools
- special schools (these are schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities)
- non-maintained special schools
- pupil referral units (these provide education for children who can’t attend a mainstream school)
Educational establishments not covered by the DfE scheme:
- sixth-form colleges
- local-authority-maintained schools that provide only for 16- to 19-year-olds
- academies that provide only for 16- to 19-year-olds
- independent fee-paying schools
Independent fee-paying schools can obtain information from the Independent Association of Prep Schools or the Centre for Education and Finance Management.
Updates to this page
Published 8 April 2014Last updated 3 December 2024 + show all updates
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Updated with information on new licence agreements renewed for 2024 to 2025 and the department’s expectations for schools on reporting usage of copyright materials.
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Added information about the data collection programme Every Copy Counts.
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Update to Printed Music Licencing Ltd. The license is now administered by the Centre for Education and Finance Management (CEFM).
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Added info and a link for the Copyright Licensing Agency's education platform.
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Updated to remove a link to the Schools and Copyright website.
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Updated page to make benefits of the central licencing scheme clearer, and give more detail about what schools can do with their copyright licences.
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Added local-authority-maintained schools that provide only for 16- to 19-year-olds to the list of schools that licences don't cover.
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Updated information on schools not covered by DfE licences and examples of when schools need to buy additional licences.
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Added more licences to the list of copyright licences DfE provides for schools.
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First published.