School Census 2014 to 2015 Known IssuesSeptember 2014

Contents1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of this document

2. New validation checks

Query 1745 – Free school meals

Query 1878 – School lunch taken

Error 1992 – Planned hours

Error 1993 – Planned hours

Error 1994 – Previous planned hours

Error 1995 – Previous planned hours

Query 1996 – Planned hours

Error 1997 – Planned hours

Error 165 – School characteristics’

3. Existing validation checks

Query 1990 – Top up funding

Error 1570 – Unique learner number

Query 1601 – Pupil’s age

4. School summary

Table 31 - Number of learning aims which started this academic year

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of this document

This document is to inform local authorities and schools of any discrepancies, late additions or late amendments in either documentation or software that the Department provided to software suppliers in preparation for the 2014 autumn school census. The validation rules affected are listed below, together with the possible effect of the discrepancies. Details are also provided for any anomalies to the school summary

2. New validation checks

The following validation checks were late additions to the autumn census. Unfortunately due to the lateness of these additions it may be the case that software suppliers may not have had sufficient time to implement them in the latest version of software provided to schools. However these checks will trigger in COLLECT and will be genuine.

Validation rule 1745q

Within each <FSMperiod> node, <FSMstartDate> (100484) should not be the same date as <FSMendDate> (100485)

Error message

Please check.  The start date and end date are the same within a single free school meal period.

Validation rule 1878 q

Where count of pupils [in <NCyearActual> = R, 1 or 2] or [in <NCyearActual> = X and born between 1/9/2007 to 31/08/2010 inclusive] is > 0 then there should be at least one pupil with <SchoolLunchTaken> equal to true or 1

Error message

Please check: No infant pupils are recorded as having a school lunch on census day?

This check 1878q was incorrectly written in the specification and XSLT sent to software suppliers as:

Where count of pupils [in <NCyearActual> = R, 1 or 2] is > 0 then there should be at least one pupil with <SchoolLunchTaken> equal to true or 1

Error message

Please check: No infant pupils are recorded as having a school lunch on census day?

However, please note as the incorrect version of this check should only impact on those special schools who have infant pupils who do not follow the national curriculum and therefore have an NC Year of X, we would only expect that this will affect a few schools. For the small number of schools this may affect, though it may not trigger in school systems it will trigger correctly in COLLECT, therefore any instances of this query will be geniune.

Validation rule 1992

The sum of <QualHrs> and <Non_qualHrs> must be greater than 0 where Pupils have at least one <LearningAim> node where LearningActualEndDate (100258) is blank or after 31 July 2014

Error message

Pupil has at least one learning aim which was active during the current year but there are no planned learning hours and/or planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours recorded for 2014/15.

Validation rule 1993

The sum <QualHrs> and <Non_qualHrs> must not be greater than 0 if there are no <LearningAim> node present

Error message

Pupil does not have at least one learning aim recorded therefore planned learning hours and/or planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours should not be present

Please note there was a mistake in the way this validation rule was written in an in the XSLT provided to software suppliers for the Autumn Census.

Due to the way the check has been implemented in the XSLT it may be the case that the error triggers for schools that do not have a sixth form. However, these schools can ignore this query in their MIS system as the query will disappear when loaded into COLLECT.

Validation rule 1994

The sum of <QualHrsPrev> and <Non_qualHrsPrev> must be greater than 0 where Pupils with at least one <LearningAim> node where LearningStartDate (100256) is before 1 August 2014 and LearningActualEndDate (100258) is blank or after 31 July 2013

Error message

Pupil has at least one learning aim which was active in the previous academic year but there is no planned learning hours and/or planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours recorded.

Validation rule 1995

The sum of <QualHrsPrev> and <Non_qualHrsPrev> must not be greater than 0 if there are no <LearningAim> node present

Error message

Pupil does not have at least one learning aim recorded therefore the previous academic year’s planned learning hours and/or planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours should not be present

Validation rule 1996q

The sum of <QualHrs> and <Non_qualHrs> is less than 4000 hours but should not be greater than 1000 hours

Error message

Please check: The sum of the planned learning hours and the planned employability, enrichment and pastoral is greater than 1,000 hours. Planned hours should reflect the planned hours for the academic year.

Validation rule 1997

The sum of <QualHrs> and <Non_qualHrs> must not be greater than 4000 hours

Error message

The sum of the planned learning hours and the planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours must not be greater than 4,000 hours.

Validation rule 165

There must be one <SchoolCharacteristics> record present 

Error Message

No school details have been recorded

3. Existing validations checks

Validation rule 1990Q

Due to feedback received during the summer school census this check was reviewed with policy colleagues. It was agreed that this check will no longer be applied to special schools and pupil referral units (including AP academies and free schools). Error 1990q may be incorrectly generated within special and PRU school systems for those pupils in receipt of ‘top up funding’ and are not classed as having a 'statement' of SEN or an EHCP. If the query is incorrectly generated within school systems it can be ignored as it will not be triggered incorrectly in COLLECT.

Validation rule 1570

There was a mistake in the way this validation rule was written in an earlier versions of the XSLT provided to software suppliers for the Autumn Census.

Due to the way the check has been implemented in the XSLT it may be the case that the error triggers for pupils who are younger than 14 years and the unique learner is not required, or there may be cases where the error does not trigger for pupils who are aged 14 and above where the unique learner number has not be provided.

However these checks will trigger correctly in COLLECT and should be treated as genuine.

Validation rule 1601q

There is a mistake in the way this validation rule is written in the XSLT provided to software suppliers for the autumn census. The pupils’ age range for academies (School Type 49) is allowing the age range 2-19.

This check was amended from the spring 2014 census to split the age ranges for academies in accordance with the school phase.

Unfortunately the department has not rolled forward the change to this validation in the autumn 2014 XSLT and therefore 1601q may not generate in academy school systems. However this query has been implemented correctly in COLLECT and therefore any instances of 1601q will be genuine.

4. School summary

Table 31 of the school summary report

The table headings for this table were incorrect in the XSLT provided to software supplier by the department. The table incorrectly reads:

Table 31. Post 16 Learning Aims - Number of learning aims which started this academic year ie from 1st August 2014, or continued from previous academic year(s)

On Roll

NC Year Group in 2013/14academic year

Year 12 Year 13 Year 14 No longer on roll(i.e. left between theend of the previousacademic year and

Census Day)

Total

Number of learning aimsstarted from 1st August 2013

0 0 0 0 0

Number of learning aims thatcontinued from previousacademic year(s)

0 0 0 0 0

It should read as follows:

Table 31. Post 16 Learning Aims - Number of learning aims which started this academic year ie from 1st August 2014, or continued from previous academic year(s)

On Roll

NC Year Group in 2014/15academic year

Year 12 Year 13 Year 14 No longer on roll(i.e. left between theend of the previousacademic year and

Census Day)

Total

Number of learning aimsstarted from 1st August 2014

0 0 0 0 0

Number of learning aims thatcontinued from previousacademic year(s)

0 0 0 0 0

Please note that this issue relates only to the table headers and the data contained within the table should be correct.