Important News from the DfE

25 November 2015

2015 Autumn School Census Post 16 data checking.

The final closing date of the autumn 2015 school census is Wednesday 25th November 2015. Beyond this date there will be no further opportunities to correct your autumn 2015 census data.

This return is used to calculate 16-19 funding allocations for the academic year 2016 to 2017 and so it is imperative your census is return is complete and accurate.

Based on analysis of provisional post 16 autumn census 2015 data we encourage schools to check, for their post 16 return:

  1. A highest GCSE prior attainment grade has been recorded for every student for English and maths and that these fields take account of any recent GCSE achievements where appropriate.
  2. Any maths or English qualifications undertaken to meet the condition of funding are valid and not out of use for the period of learning – you can check maths and English qualification validity on the Learning Aims Reference Service (LARS).
  3. Planned hours are recorded for every post 16 student and reflect both qualification and non-qualification activity.
  4. Only planned hours for the academic year 2015 to 2016 have been recorded for students and that these represent the total planned hours for that year and not the weekly hours. Planned hours for the academic year 2014 to 2015 were returned in the autumn 2014 census and should not be returned this year.
  5. A core aim has been recorded for every student undertaking a vocational study programme and for those undertaking an academic study programme, no core aim is recorded (core aims are only required for vocational study programmes).
  6. Where more than one core aim has been recorded for a student in the year this is because they have undertaken more than one study programme in the year or the core aim for their programme has changed. Also ensure that one core aim follows another and that they don't overlap.

Please use the interactive post 16 school census tool to help you understand the content and usage of the fields recorded for post 16 students and refer to the EFA COLLECT Post 16 reports to guide you in general quality assurance of your post 16 data.

Regards
Data Collection Helpdesk

Contact Details

Management Information
Email: management.information@kent.gov.uk