Preparations for the May 2012 School Census
Remember: Census Day is the 17th May 2012
The importance of data quality
Many of the former data checking exercises will no longer be taking place. This means that it is essential that schools ensure their data is returned correctly in the School Census as this will be the data used by the DfE for publication.
The following items can no longer be corrected as part of a subsequent data checking exercise:
- Exclusions – the LA will no longer be given the opportunity to correct the data as part of an annual checking exercise by the DfE
- Post-16 Learning Aims – these are now collected once a year in October and the YPLA do not plan to carry out any further annual checking exercises
- School absence data – the Performance Tables (PT) absence data checking exercise will no longer be taking place and schools will not be given the opportunity to suppress their absence data on the PT website
Make good use of your School Summary document
The Census return software generates a report summarising the data in the School Census return automatically. This fulfils a number of purposes:
- It allows school staff preparing the return to check its accuracy and completeness before passing it to the head teacher
- It allows the head teacher authorising the return to check its accuracy and completeness before submitting the return to the LA and/or DfE – as in previous years the School Summary contains information about persistent absenteeism. As there is no FORVUS checking exercise before publication in the Performance tables, this is the school’s only opportunity to check these figures
The summary should be inspected carefully and particular attention paid to those sections that might reveal evidence that some individual pupil data was not entered on to the system before generating the return (or may not have migrated during transfer to a new Management Information System) e.g. free school meals entitlement or number of pupils with SEN.
The DfE also recommends that the school summary be compared to the one for the previous year to highlight any anomalous data between the years.
School Census common issues and errors
These are issues that regularly crop up each year and are things you need to watch out for:
Hours at Setting (for 2, 3 & 4 year olds as at 31st August)
This was a new item for School Census 2010 and will be collected in each term. It is important to align the counting of hours, already used in the private, voluntary and independent nursery provision sector, in order that the Dedicated Schools Grant is properly allocated.
This should be the total number of hours spent in education provision at the school irrespective of who funded the hours. A maximum of 25 hours can be input for each child - for dually registered pupils only record the actual hours attending each school. This will be required for all Reception age and younger pupils.
Hours spent in ‘childcare’ and breaks where pupils are not receiving education should not be included. Extended schools services (e.g. breakfast and after school clubs) should also be excluded.
Funded Hours (for 2, 3 & 4 year olds as at 31st August)
This has been re-introduced from January 2012. The school should record the total number of hours spent in education provision at the school which are funded by the LA under the free entitlement to education for under 5’s. This will be required for all Reception age and younger pupils. Please note that Norfolk LA funds Reception year pupils the maximum 25 hours per week.
Any additional hours which are funded by other means e.g. the parent, should NOT be included against Funded Hours. This situation is only likely to affect some nursery age pupils. Hours spent in ‘childcare’ and breaks where pupils are not receiving education should not be included. Extended schools services (e.g. breakfast and after schools clubs) should also be excluded.
In summary - unless additional hours are purchased by other means the Funded Hours will be the same as the Hours at Setting.
Exclusions
Please ensure your exclusions data is kept accurately & up to date.
When the DfE performed quality checks on the data provided by Norfolk schools, many exclusions were found to be missing from census returns.
Connexions Assent
This field should be completed for all pupils who are aged 12 and above. In a large number of cases we have found that ‘Unsought’ is being returned in the census file. This would indicate that a Privacy Notice (previously called Fair Processing Notice) has not been issued to parents advising them of their (or their child’s) rights.
This is a legal requirement so please ensure these are issued and the field is correctly completed – if not, you will be in breach of the Data Protection Act.
Recording of enrolment status for pupils in SRBs
Pupils who attend a Specialist Resource Base should not be dually registered. They remain on roll at their registration school.
Part time pupils and absence reporting
Use of the part time indicator has caused some confusion. Compulsory school aged pupils should never be on a part-time indicator. On rare occasions a medical condition or re-integration package may prevent a child from attending full time, but by agreeing to a part-time timetable the school is authorising the pupil absences. Therefore pupils of statutory school age must always be recorded in the Census as full-time.
Attendance and absence reporting
For pupils that are present at a supervised educational activity that is off site and approved by the school, it is important the alternative provider and the school have an agreement in place to share attendance information. The onus is on the school to contact the alternative provider and establish these arrangements. The school must not assume that a pupil is present at the ‘supervised educational activity’ just because he/she are expected to be there.
Changes to recording attendance for dually registered pupils
From September 2011 there was a change in the way schools should record dually registered pupils: schools should only record the pupil’s attendance and absence for those sessions that the pupil is scheduled to attend their school. The remaining sessions when the pupil is attending another school will be marked in the register as Code D, which will not be included within the attendance data submitted in the census.
This change does not affect schools’ obligations with respect to safeguarding and they must follow up all explained and unexpected absences in a timely manner.
Attendance Code Y – Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances
Code Y (Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances – not counted in possible attendances) will be collected as part of the School Census from 2012 following changes to the attendance regulations and procedures.
Schools will use code Y to record the sessions where a pupil is unable to attend because:
- The school site, or part of it, is closed due to an unavoidable cause;
- The transport provided by the school or a local authority is not available, and their home is not within walking distance; or
- A local or national emergency has resulted in widespread disruption to travel which has prevented the pupil from attending school.
As part of the changes to the attendance regulations and procedures the use of attendance code # is also being changed to include partial school closure.