Autumn 2024 – School Census Bulletin

Error Codes 2759 and 2912 – Traineeship

ESS have informed us the above error codes are falsely flagging and will be address in a new Fileset 2804.

They have not confirmed the date of the Fileset as yet, but will endeavour to have it in place before Census.  If this applies to your School you will need to ensure Fileset 2804 is applied before authorising your return and sending to Collect.

DfE Readiness Bulletin 2

ESS have provided a copy of the first readiness bulletin from the DfE because it includes some important messages so we have included a link to the information here:

DfE Summer School Census 2024 Readiness Bulletin no.2

Fileset 2803

ESS have now made Fileset 2803 available – This fileset is required for authorising your return

Non Hosted Schools – the fileset can be found on above ‘Current Fileset’ link

For Hosted Schools the fileset was applied – Date 25/09/2024

Questions and Answers

ESS have supplied answers to the following question(s)

Question 03 (Secondary and other Post-16 schools only)

Why isn’t SIMS collecting information related to the ’16 to 19 tuition fund’ in the FAM (Funding and Monitoring) section of School Census Autumn 2024 when the current (20/09/2024) DfE guidance on GOV.UK indicates that it must be included.

Answer

We have contacted the DfE and they have assured us that no ’16 to 19 tuition fund’ related data will be collected in School Census Autumn 2024. The have also assured us that this incorrect information will be removed from their GOV.UK page next week (week beginning 23/09/2024).

Question 02 (Primary and other Early Years schools only)

If an Eligibility Code is being reported where it is not needed for funding purposes, do I need to find a way to remove it?

Answer

No, it is fine to report an Eligibility Code (formally known as the 30-Hour Code) where it is not needed provided that the hours it could be applied to are set to zero. In reality this is a situation that is only likely to arise for 2-year old’s who would ‘qualify’ for Expanded Hours but won’t receive Expand Hours where they also ‘qualify’ for Funded Hours because of deprivation. In this case the Funded Hours should be entered and the Expanded Hours set to zero. Adherence to these funding rules is checked by the DfE validation.

Question 01 (Schools with Sixth Forms only)

Why do most of my Year 13 leavers have learning aims set to Withdrawn when they actually completed the courses and how do I deal with this?

Answer

The most likely explanation is that both of the following occurred for each of the students who completed their courses, but have their learning aims set to Withdrawn

1. 1. The student left the school, and therefore their courses and learning aims, before the date previously set as their learning aims planned end date. This probably occurred because the wrong end date was used when the student was originally assigned to their classes for delivering their courses and learning aims.
   2. The date of leaving for the student was entered on or after that leaving date. This prevents the ‘Completion Tolerance’ setting for course management from attempting to protect the school from the consequences of an incorrect planned end date.

The best solution is to reflect the expected learning aim completion date when assigning students to classes. However, that solution is not available for Year 13 students who have already completed their learning aims.

Where a Year 13 student has already completed their learning aims, the ‘Use Completion Tolerance to Reset Status’ panel of menu route Tools | Academic Management | Course Manager | Bulk Update Courses can be helpful. However, you should note that this sets the student’s learning aims planned end so that it in line with the actual learning aims end date. It is possible that such a change of planned end date will hinder the ESFA when they link the leaning aim records for this year with the learning aim records for last year. This concern can be countered in the School Census application by agreeing to set the planned end date in line with the schools chosen authorised return from last year.

An alternative approach is to make modifications directly in the Learning Aims panel of the School Census Autumn 2024 application, but this should be done with the utmost care. If you are considering making use of this functionality, you may want to click the button for ‘Compare with Previous Autumn’ before do so. You can also click the button for ‘Compare with Course Manager’ once you have completed your direct changes, as this can provide you with a record of the modifications you have made for the Census which are not in line with course management data.

I’ve found that when I get myself into a mess in this area the best approach is to start on a new return. Hence, you might want to make sure you are happy with the data in the Learning Aims panel before spending time on entering data in other areas.

I suggest that the data for students who have repeated a year for COVID-19 related reasons should be checked very thoroughly, as this area is quite complex for the reporting of learning aims.

Question 01 (Schools with Sixth Forms only)

Why do most of my Year 13 leavers have learning aims set to Withdrawn when they actually completed the courses and how do I deal with this?

Answer

The most likely explanation is that both of the following occurred for each of the students who completed their courses, but have their learning aims set to Withdrawn

1. 1. The student left the school, and therefore their courses and learning aims, before the date previously set as their learning aims planned end date. This probably occurred because the wrong end date was used when the student was originally assigned to their classes for delivering their courses and learning aims.
   2. The date of leaving for the student was entered on or after that leaving date. This prevents the ‘Completion Tolerance’ setting for course management from attempting to protect the school from the consequences of an incorrect planned end date.

The best solution is to reflect the expected learning aim completion date when assigning students to classes. However, that solution is not available for Year 13 students who have already completed their learning aims.

Where a Year 13 student has already completed their learning aims, the ‘Use Completion Tolerance to Reset Status’ panel of menu route Tools | Academic Management | Course Manager | Bulk Update Courses can be helpful. However, you should note that this sets the student’s learning aims planned end so that it in line with the actual learning aims end date. It is possible that such a change of planned end date will hinder the ESFA when they link the leaning aim records for this year with the learning aim records for last year. This concern can be countered in the School Census application by agreeing to set the planned end date in line with the schools chosen authorised return from last year.

An alternative approach is to make modifications directly in the Learning Aims panel of the School Census Autumn 2024 application, but this should be done with the utmost care. If you are considering making use of this functionality, you may want to click the button for ‘Compare with Previous Autumn’ before do so. You can also click the button for ‘Compare with Course Manager’ once you have completed your direct changes, as this can provide you with a record of the modifications you have made for the Census which are not in line with course management data.

I’ve found that when I get myself into a mess in this area the best approach is to start on a new return. Hence, you might want to make sure you are happy with the data in the Learning Aims panel before spending time on entering data in other areas.

I suggest that the data for students who have repeated a year for COVID-19 related reasons should be checked very thoroughly, as this area is quite complex for the reporting of learning aims.

DfE Readiness Bulletin 1

ESS have provided a copy of the first readiness bulletin from the DfE because it includes some important messages so we have included a link to the information here:

DfE Summer School Census 2024 Readiness Bulletin no.1

ESS update in regard to Fileset 2802

ESS have informed us this fileset 2802 is available and will provide version 2024.0.1 Beta of the DfE validation and summary report for School Census Summer 2024.

These Beta files from the DfE will be helpful for dry runs but are not suitable for authorising the return for upload to COLLECT.

Reinstatement from suspension after suspension has been complete

ESS have informed us that where the governing board decides on reinstatement of a pupil from a suspension after the pupil has completed that suspension, the DfE has confirmed that they expect this to be recording in the schools MIS as follows.

1. The record of suspension should be set to reinstatement and will thereby not be reported in School Census.
2. The attendance session codes of E to indicate unable to attend because of a suspension or exclusion should remain and will thereby be reported in School Census.

In this respect the DfE’s approach to reinstated from suspension is in line with its approach to reinstatement from permanent exclusion, in that the permanent exclusion should be set to reinstatement, and is thereby not reported in School Census, while the attendance session set to E are left in place to indicate the pupil did not need to attend for those sessions, and is thereby reported in School Census.

ESS have supplied below screenshots which should help inform early years requirements for Autumn School Census

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 00

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 01

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 02

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 03

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 04

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 05

Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years

Screenshot 06

Early Years Pupil Premium Receipt table of Early Years panel of Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census

Screenshot 07

Early Years Pupil Premium Receipt table of Early Years panel of Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census

Screenshot 08

Early Years Pupil Premium table of Early Years panel of Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census

Screenshot 09

E2 Year Old Basis for Funding table of Early Years panel of Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census

Screenshot 10

DfE Session attendance codes for Academic Year 2024/2025 onwards

ESS hopes the following table will clarify the small impact on School Census Autumn 2024 compared to the significant impact on School Census Spring 2025 and School Census Summer 2025.

NC Year and YTI (Year Taught In) 

ESS have informed us where schools will be funded by the DfE for learners of 2 years and below they may find their administration easier if they make use of more granular NC Year classifications for young children.

Early years data required for School Census Autumn 2024 

ESS hopes the following table will clarify what is required for early years in School Census Autumn 2024.

Early years data required for School Census Autumn 2024 compared to schools census from autumn 2023 to to summer 2025 

ESS hopes the following table will help with any confusion regarding what data the DfE requires for early years in School Census Autumn 2024. The table is based on version 1.5 of the DfE specification for 2023/24 school censuses and version 1.0 of the DfE specifications for 2024/25 school censuses. They will update the table to take account of any changes beyond these versions of the DfE specifications in this area.