If you have any specific questions about what data to enter, please consult your Local Authority or Trust leaders for guidance.
On the spring school census there are manual entry data items.
These are in Admin > Census > Spring Census, in a table headed Spring Census Specific Data.
If the information in the table shows in red this indicates that the information has not been completed yet.
Right click on the image below and select 'Open image in new tab' to enlarge
(Please note that the information you are required to provide may differ dependent on your school phase)
To complete these areas simply click the blue button in the right of the table.
Admissions Appeals
Schools only need to send this data in the spring census.
This data is collected in the spring census only, providing information for a school’s admission appeals against non-admission to the school for the start of the academic year.
Appeals lodged on or after the 1st September in the current academic year are not be included.
For more details please see the Admissions Appeals section of - DfE School Census Data Items
To enter your figures into Scholarpack go to the Spring Census page and under 'Spring Census Specific Data' click on the Admissions / Infant Admissions button
You will be presented with 5 boxes to manually input figures in -
Class information
The class information module requires you to input details of all classes running at a selected time on census day.
This time is based on the last digit of your establishment number.
For example if your establishment number is 1516; the number 6 is the last digit of your establishment number
See Class Information section of - DfE School Census Data Items
To input this data into ScholarPack these go to Admin > Census > Spring Census > Class Details
Right click on the image below and select 'Open image in new tab' to enlarge
To add class details, select Add New.
You can then add details of the class, year group, the subject being taught and the number of students (including those who would have been in the class but have been registered as absent).
Unlawful Infant Classes
This information is only required from Primary and All Through schools and for classes in Reception or Key Stage 1. The DfE require information from the school if the student to Teacher ratio exceeds 30:1.
See:
- The School Admissions (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 2012
- Infant Class Size Exception Codes
To record if a teacher is on PPA/LMT then in the classes area add in the "Teachers on PPA/LMT" column the number of teachers from the class on PPA/LMT
If the students in the class (Pupils in Class + Guest Pupil Numbers) exceeds the ratio 30:1, then for each student over the ratio, an exception must be recorded. An exception can be used more than once.
Example: In the example below there are 32 students in the class for one teacher. Therefore, two exceptions need to be recorded.
Once the correct number of exceptions have been recorded to bring the ratio back to 30:1, you will see the following indications.
In the example above, two Exceptions F have been selected (children of UK service personnel admitted outside the normal admissions round).
Note: Do not record unusual situations (such as class amalgamation or school closure) which may have occurred on census day due, for example, to staff training or absence, severe weather conditions or religious observances.
Pupil Reconciliation
See the Pupil Reconciliation section of the DfE Guidance - DfE School Census Data Items
The reconciliation consists of the following calculation:
- number of pupils from this school scheduled to be in the class at the selected time summed over all classes as taught
- plus, pupils engaged in private study at the selected time
- plus, pupils from this school who were part-time pupils not scheduled to be in attendance at the school at the selected time
- plus, pupils attending another school or education provision at the selected time
This must equal the number of pupils on roll on census day that you have provided individual pupil data for (not including any guest children).
Add students through the classes area plus against each of the additional areas to total the number of students on roll. If the final figure is 0, then your reconciliation is correct.
This information is included in the class details area on the left.
Childcare Details
This is a manual entry which can be found in Admin > Census > Spring Census > Childcare details.
Schools must provide information on the provision of – or signposting to – childcare together with the nature of the childcare provided / signposted.
The school must provide an answer to whether there is on-site provision (and any related information) and whether the school signposts off-site provision for each of the 4 types of childcare.
Where opening / closing times are required, these are provided using the 24-hour clock format (03:00 = 3 am 15:00 = 3 pm)
If a school does not provide on-site childcare and also does not signpost off-site provision they would need to select for each type of childcare a ‘NO’ for on-site and an ‘N’ for signposting.
See the Childcare section of the DfE Guidance - DfE School Census Data Items
School Time
Optional in Spring 2023
This data records the total compulsory time pupils spend in school, in a typical 5 day week to the nearest 15 minutes, recorded to 2 decimal places.
Once you've clicked on the School Time button the page will display as shown below -
Once hours have been entered and saved the page will display as shown below -
See the 'School Time' section of the DfE Guidance - DfE School Census Data Items
Free School Meals
Pupils are recorded as FSM eligible where they meet the FSM eligibility criteria - for these children this area requires a manual entry of the total number of pupils who had a free school meal at lunchtime on census day.
Pupils who are in receipt of a free school lunch due only to the infant pupil universal entitlement are not recorded as ‘FSM’ and not included in the free school meals taken record.
This can be found in ScholarPack via Admin > Census > Spring Census > Free School Meals.
Note: Pupils who are in receipt of a free school lunch due only to the infant pupil universal entitlement are not recorded as ‘FSM’ and not included in the free school meals taken record.
If you use the meals module on Scholarpack, you can check numbers for UFSM and FSM on various dates in the Admin > Meals > Dinner Numbers by Week report.
School Lunch Taken
This area logs which Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 students took a Universal Free School Meal on Census Day. See the 'School Lunches Taken' section of the DfE Guidance for further guidance: DfE School Census Data Items
Top Tip: This area can only be filled in after morning registers have been taken on Census Day itself. This is because the attendance codes are needed to show who is in school to have a meal.
You will be presented with a list of all those students in years Reception to Year 2. The attendance code for each student will be displayed together with any meal choice if using the meals module.
- You can choose to populate the School Lunch taken column with those students who were marked as present for the AM session (/) or late before register closed (L) as having had a UFSM on census day.
- Tick all students who had a school meal on census day and click Save.
- You can bulk enter these using the Pre-Populate button at the bottom of the page, which automatically assigns meals to those with a present code that day, then untick those meals not taken (e.g. home packed lunch).
If the situation at lunchtime was in some way unusual on census day, you'll need to complete this section as if it were a different, unaffected day. More information on Unusual Circumstances can be found on the DfE's site here: Unusual circumstances
School-led Tutoring / Learner Funding and Monitoring
This data item identifies students who are in receipt of school-led tutoring support where their learning has been disrupted by COVID-19, and the cumulative number of hours tutoring they have received this academic year.
Pupils deemed eligible for this funding are in Year 1 to 11 or aged 5 to 15, as at 31/08/2022.
Clicking the Learner Funding and Monitoring button will take you to the Group Updater in ScholarPack where you can enter the number of hours a student has received up to and including on the census day.
NOTE: If students have not received any hours, please leave blank, do not enter 0 hours as the system takes this as being in receipt of school-led tutoring hours.
Please see - How do we record data for the School-Led Tutoring Programme and report on it?
School-arranged alternative provision (AP)
This mandatory data module records information about AP placements arranged by state funded schools, including AP schools (PRU / AP), in state funded and independent settings.
The commissioning / arranging school (including where the PRU / AP school is acting as a commissioner) should record and return these data items, rather than the placement provider.
Where alternative provision has been arranged by the local authority, for example for children with medical conditions, but the pupil also remains dual registered with the mainstream school and the PRU / AP school, then the mainstream school should complete the data items.
Data is requested on all open placements and any that ended between 06 October and Spring Census Day.
Data is requested for both on and off roll pupils and should include:
- any current AP placements and
- any previous placements within the census period, where the pupil has already left an AP placement.
This data is entered in ScholarPack via the individual Student Profile > Support tab.
For more details please read: