School Census Bulletin 2

School Census Bulletin 2 – Spring 2022

Education Information Team

census@devon.gov.uk

Date:  17th January 2022

 

1. Latest fileset 2003

Scomis have applied this fileset to all hosted schools.  Non hosted schools will need to apply the fileset themselves, please see https://faq.scomis.org/kb463961/ for further information. 

 

2. Fixed Term Exclusions called Suspensions from Autumn 2021/22

This is the first school census where the exclusion type ‘suspension’ should be used.  This census captures exclusions from the summer 2020/21 term and autumn 2021/22 term, however ‘suspension’ should only be used for autumn 2021/22 term exclusions;

• If the start date of exclusions are in the date range 05/04/2021 to 31/07/2021 (inclusive), the exclusion type must be ‘Fixed Term Exclusion’.
• If the start date of exclusions are in the date range 01/08/2021 to 31/12/2021 (inclusive), the exclusion type must be ‘Suspension’.

If the wrong exclusion type is recorded your census will generate error 2275 suspension or permanent exclusion category is invalid.

 

3. Early Years Pupil Premium Known issues 

1845 – early years pupil premium

This is a new error that will trigger if early years pupil premium has been provided for pupils who are not in receipt of funded hours. This error will not trigger in a school MIS but may trigger when loaded to COLLECT.

 

The following EYPP known issues relating to nursery schools only; 

1847 Early years pupil premium must be recorded for 4 year olds in Nursery provision 

This error has been removed from COLLECT and is now covered by error 1848 Early years pupil premium must be recorded for 4 year olds in ‘E1’, ‘E2’, ‘N1’ or ‘N2’.  This change has not been included in the information to software providers and so the error might still be generated in sims but will disappear once uploaded to COLLECT.  Only genuine occurrences will remain under error 1848.

1862 Early years pupil premium not required for pupils aged 4 in reception or above 

This error has been extended to include nursery schools but will not trigger for nursery schools in their MIS.  It will however trigger when loaded to COLLECT.

 

 

4. Funding and Monitoring known issues – all schools

Query 4007Q Please check: no pupils on roll are in receipt of School Led Tutoring

Query 4008Q Please check: no students on roll are in receipt of 16-19 Learner Funding and Monitoring

An issue has been identified in schools’ software whereby these queries will trigger incorrectly when FAM information has been provided.  Queries generated incorrectly will disappear when uploaded to COLLECT and only genuine occurrences will remain.

 

Accessing ‘Update Funding and Monitoring’ in sims

Some schools are experiencing an issue when accessing Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Update Funding and Monitoring, where the error ‘string or binary data would be truncated’ appears.  Scomis advise patch 26911 will resolve this issue and ask schools to email scomis@devon.gov.uk or phone 01392 385300 if they require this patch.

 

5. School Arranged Alternative Provision known issues

Error 2374 Pupils SEN provision on leaving is not required for an open school arranged alternative provision (AP) placement 

Error 2377 The pupil is shown as full-time therefore, sessions per week are not required for a school arranged alternative provision (AP) placement 

There’s a software issue whereby if a pupil has multiple records for a school arranged AP placement, only the first record is being validated.  A fix has been applied to COLLECT so only genuine occurrences will be present when the census is uploaded to COLLECT.

Further information on all known issues is available via https://faq.scomis.org/kb463961/

 

6. Early Years and COVID

The DfE have provided the following guidance in relation to recording of funded hours, extended hours and hours at setting in the census;

• pupils who are in attendance during census week – hours should be recorded as normal
• pupils are absent because they are ill or self isolating – hours should be recorded as the number of hours the pupil would normally be expected to attend during census week
• parents have temporarily chosen not to send their child to nursery, e.g. fear of child catching coronavirus and haven’t informed the school of a permanent change to their hours – hours should be recorded as the number of hours the pupil would normally be expected to attend during census week
• nursery provision has attempted to remain open but has closed for a period of time, or has had to temporarily restrict access for some pupils, for reasons such as
  1. staff shortages due to illness, self-isolation, or staff caring for their own children or dependent who is ill or needs to self-isolate, or
  2. being advised to do so by local public health authorities due to an outbreak at the provider

hours should be recorded as the number of hours the pupil would normally be expected to attend during census week

• parent has requested a change to the funded hours entitlement taken – schools must record the revised funded hours
• the nursery provision has not attempted to remain open and therefore has no expectation of attendance in the setting, for example, a setting has chosen to close and not provide hours entitlements due to limited anticipated attendance or staff caution – hours should be recorded as zero
• the child is not attending because the school has chosen to restrict the attendance of some children for reasons other than those outlined, the funded entitlements are not being offered – hours should be recorded as zero

 

7. Free school meals / school lunches taken and COVID

For pupils absent due to covid related reasons, schools should record free school meals taken and school lunch taken as the normal situation, for example if a pupil would normally have a school meal on a Thursday they should be recorded as such on the census. This includes pupils who are absent due to covid related staff shortages.

Please note however, any pupils who are absent for reasons other than COVID related or who have chosen to have a packed lunch on census day should not be recorded as having taken a school lunch and any of this cohort of pupils who are FSM eligible should not be counted in the free school meals taken figure.

 

8. School childcare and COVID

Schools who provide childcare facilities and due to COVID related reasons have had to temporarily close either some or all of these facilities should record what the school would normally offer.

 

9. Reporting of Afghan children under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS)

The DfE advise that in relation to Early Years hours, for families who remain in bridging accommodation, in order to avoid double funding, schools should:

• record zero funded hours for children who are registered pupils of a school, on the school census; and
• not record children on early years census

However, in situations where families have now moved to permanent accommodation, then they should be counted on the Early Years and Schools Census (with the correct funded hours recorded) in the same manner as all other children receiving funded entitlements hours.

 

If you have any queries please email census@devon.gov.uk.

Kind regards,

Education Information Team (EdIT)