The areas leading to most calls to our desk are below:
Top up Funding is only available for pupils with special needs where support costs exceed £6,000 (£10,000 in special schools and PRU settings).
Suspensions and Permanent Exclusions with start dates between 01/01/2024 and 31/07/2024 except those where the exclusion is still in the review process, was later overturned or the pupil was reinstated are to be included in the return.
Hours at Setting is the number of hours (funded by any means including parental contribution) the pupil attends the setting during census week. You should not include breaks where pupils are not receiving an education.
Funded Hours is the level of free entitlement of education attracted by the pupil in that setting.
The Eligibility Code Indicator is an 11-digit integer that is required for pupils who claim extended or expanded funded entitlement hours. This applies to all eligible 9-month-olds to 3-year-olds and those pupils aged 4 in year groups ‘E1’, ‘E2’, ‘N1’ and ‘N2’ only, who are on roll on census day. The code confirms the eligibility of working parents to receive the 15 extended funded entitlement hours, or the 15 expanded funded entitlement hours (parents may split this entitlement between 2 providers). When the school is presented with the code by the parent, the school must confirm the code’s validity with their local authority.
Part Time Pupils - Nursery pupils that attend an education provision for 15 hours or less should be flagged as part-time. If a pupil is attending 10 sessions a week in education provision, then they are full time and if they are attending less than 10 sessions a week in education provision then they are part-time regardless of their hours.
FSM Eligibility - Pupils who were in receipt of free school meals on 31 March 2018 should continue to receive free school meals until the end of the universal credit roll out, and then until their phase of education ends. This covers until at least March 2025 and applies even if their circumstances change and they would no longer meet the eligibility criteria. This should only be removed at the request of a parent.
First Language - The first language is the language a child was exposed to in their early years i.e mother tongue. The DfE recommends that schools should record the language which was communicated with the child until s/he is one year old as the child's first language. A first language other than English should be recorded where a child was exposed to the language during early development and continues to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community. If a child was exposed to more than one language (which may include English) during early development the language other than English should be recorded, irrespective of the child's proficiency in English.
Post Looked After - This data item will identify those children on roll on census day who were looked after immediately before adoption, being placed on a special guardianship order (SGO) or residence order (RO). This data item will identify all eligible children on census day who will attract pupil premium funding. It will be up to those who have parental responsibility (adoptive parents, special guardians and carers of former looked after children on residence orders) to decide if they wish to declare their children’s status to schools. Parents should be asked to provide supporting evidence, for example, a photocopy of the adoption order. Parents may conceal sensitive information (e.g. the name of the birth parents) if they wish. Schools are reminded that this is a particularly sensitive data item, and of the need for confidentiality. Schools should ensure that, as for other pupil level data items, they comply with their responsibilities with respect to the Data Protection Act when processing this data.
Private and Unofficial Nurseries - Nursery children solely attending an early years PVI setting (even if it is on the school site) should not be recorded as on the maintained school roll. If you wish to record them in your management information system, their enrolment status should be ‘Guest’. These children would be counted in Early Years data collections and should not be included in the School Census. Only pupils attending local authority nursery classes should be included as on roll in the School Census return to avoid double funding.