What makes this Census diffrent?
Hello lovely people, as you know we had our great What You Need To Know - Autumn School Census blog out recently. And as we are all diving into our dry runs and prep for Census day (5th Oct 2023) let’s take a look at some of your questions about what makes this Census different to the others, and why it’s so important for Post 16s, lets get into it!
Why is it sometimes called the Post 16 School Census?
The Autumn Census is sometimes called the Post 16 School Census as it’s the main School Census in the year where data is collected on Post 16 students. This includes data on Learning Hours, Prior Attainment – particularly Maths and English, and on Learning Aims. All of this data is then used to ensure funding for your School.
With COLLECT what is the notepad, why use it and what to say?
When you upload your Census to COLLECT, where there are queries within the Census you use the Notepad to add commentary to explain why the data has been flagged as a query, these are used for queries not errors. By using the Notepad you can ensure that the Census will proceed to Authorised stage by the DfE, without them needing to contact your school directly which can delay the process of funding.
The DfE has produced guidelines for what notes to use, where not to abbreviate notes and more for the Census’s this year. Check out here for their low down and a quick refresher on what to say - it’s a downloadable spreadsheet with multiple tabs at the bottom for different areas covering Pupils, COLLECT only, School, and finally TonT queries.
Working in multiple schools and the Post 16 Report is only in some?
Arbor has the option of generating a Post 16 Report at the bottom of where you can generate your Census. This is only available to certain schools which includes Secondary, All Through, Middle Deemed Secondary and Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). If you’re not seeing the option and you think you should, please feel free to get in touch with us and we’ll help you through the process!
Something to note, this report is only available for the Autumn Census, so if you’re looking for it when doing a different one it won’t be there.
Can you Regenerate and Resubmit the Census?
The simple answer is yes you can!
But we’re going to break this down a bit – there is a difference between Regeneration and Resubmission.
Regenerating the Census refers to creating the Census in Arbor, you can do this as many times as you like (remember dry run generation stops on the day of the Census). We highly recommend doing this as many times as needed to ensure you clear down as many queries and errors as possible before needing to submit to COLLECT.
Resubmitting the Census refers to reuploading the Census to COLLECT, whilst you want to keep this to a minimum should you realise that there’s been a mistake - like some Post 16 course hours have been under-allocated you can resolve this in Arbor by making the appropriate changes, then regenerate the Census and Resubmit to COLLECT.
What is COLLECT?
COLLECT is the DfE’s centralised data collection and management system, schools across the country will use this to submit all of their Census’s throughout the year.
Whilst the DfE has a great many guides and guidelines on their website for specific types of schools stages i.e. secondary, they also have guides covering state and academy and more. We’d recommend digging into these for your particular type of school to be fully up to date.
Check out here for a Video Guide to COLLECT.
There we have it for this edition of Your Questions Answered!
Get in touch for help with your Census or if you would like us to do this school return for you.
Info@swyft.org.uk or call us on 01376 433 633
Let us know your questions for our upcoming Your Questions Answered – our next will no doubt be on the Workforce Census!
Keep It Shiny, Stay Well and Do the Do!
‘Till next time.
Elle
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