The A-Z of terms is the controlled vocabulary developed and maintained by the Department for Education. It was first developed in the 1980s and has been continually updated to reflect new topics and departmental responsibilities.

What is a controlled vocabulary?

A controlled vocabulary is a carefully selected list of words and phrases which are assigned to pieces of information to help you to retrieve what you need when searching. It helps to reduce ambiguity where a concept can be given different names.

What does a controlled vocabulary do?

It groups terms together so that when you search you can see the term that you are looking for in the context of other terms in the vocabulary – this helps you to browse for information.

Terms are listed with all their relationships, plus a scope note (to help define a term and explain how it should be used) where necessary.

This controlled vocabulary is used to tag content added to this website, so that when you look for terms through the A-Z of terms, you will also find the relevant content that has been assigned to those categories.

Where can I find out more?

More detailed guidance explaining how to use the controlled vocabulary can be found in Guidance for using A-Z of terms.