Which datasets to use (and why every LA should load every available dataset)

This article will help you understand the changing sets of results in Nexus, why this happens, which to use and why it remains important for every LA to load in each set of data that is published. 

Primary phase statutory assessments (except KS2)

This is really simple. Nearly every LA loaded in the data from their schools as part of the statutory duty to submit on their behalf. That data is aggregated in Nexus and before the end of the academic year, there are robust national comparisons in Nexus for EYFSP and Phonics. 

Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4

KS2 and KS4 are similar in the sense that there are multiple releases of data over time. The first of these is in the form of data released to the LA by the DfE. These files can be loaded into Nexus and are complete for each LA (i.e. every school is included). If we get every LA to load in the data then there are almost complete national comparisons and a high degree of accuracy. 

However, KS2 and KS4 also have a process of appeals and revision built into the process. The first sets of results are 'raw' and unaffected by any appeals (which are particularly important at KS4). While this is the best results data anyone can access at that time, it does need to be updated and when the revised files are issued, these should also be loaded by LA. 

Alongside these DfE files that are loaded by the LA, there are also National Pupil Database sets of results (NPD) that are loaded centrally by Angel Solutions for NCER. The NPD file is one file, containing every LA and therefore has immediate 100% coverage without relying on LA to load in the results. 

There are three key issues with NPD files which is why you should not just wait for those:

1. They usually are much later in being available than the DfE files loaded by LA. 
2. NPD files can be considerably delayed from their planned publication dates and are entirely reliant on the DfE for publication
3. The NPD files also progress through different levels of accuracy, just like LA loaded files. The NPD provisional file for KS4 (for example) has 100% coverage but would not be as accurate as the KS4 DfE revised file loaded by LA. If the NPD Revised file is delayed past its intended publication date, the DfE files that the LA loaded will be the most accurate view of results for pupils and LA. The accuracy for the National comparison though would come from every LA loading in the data.

Loading in these results files future proofs your LA data. If every LA does it then the accuracy and the coverage is there in every release irrespective of whether the DfE releases the NPD on time or not. Lack of confidence in an incomplete dataset is easily remedied if every LA loads in the data that is available.

Key: In the tables below, release is marked in dark purple and the lighter colour is the period in which the data will likely continue to be useful before being replaced by the next release. 

Key Stage 5

All releases for Key Stage 5 are loaded centrally by Angel Solutions, so that's simple!

A note about Virtual Schools and statutory results collections

All of this is important to every virtual school which has children educated across borders in different LA. The heads and officers of those virtual schools need your LA to have loaded data to help them get  some of the most vulnerable children to achieve their best possible outcomes. Since the process of importing data is a matter of minutes for each LA there is a clear benefit to doing so. As a community of members working towards the improvement of outcomes of children and young people, loading data (when it takes just a few minutes) is simply the right thing to do for the benefit of the community as a whole and the children and young people that are being supported within each Local Authority. 

 

Optional results collections

Nexus is able to import Key Stage 1 (non-statutory from 2024 onwards), Multiplication Table Check and KS4 Results Day data. These are entirely optional. There will only be results where LA have opted to offer that collection to schools and where the schools have opted to send results data to the LA. This means that the regional and national comparisons will almost certainly be based on partial sets of results and this means that care must be taken with analysis of those options, however the results for each participating school will be complete (and the completeness of the LA result depends on take-up within the LA which is something each LA has more control over).