LA usage of Nexus & Perspective Lite

This article will hold the hints and tips suggested by member LA to help other LA make the best use of both Nexus and (if rolled out) Perspective Lite. This isn't an overarching guide to the whole of Nexus and Perspective Lite - instead it's a signpost to some functionality you may not have been aware of or may not have thought about in the ways that other LA have made use of it. 

If you have some tips and uses of Nexus that you think may not have occurred to other LA, we'd like you to contribute them. They will be shared anonymously. To do so, please see the section at the bottom of the page. 

Statutory collections

• “Keypas Checking reports are excellent for spotting duplicates during assessment data collections..."
• "We use batch reports to send schools a report of data they have submitted during assessment collections. This helps the LA and schools to pick up errors before sending data to DfE.”

Management reports

Early import and usage of primary phase data

• "The early data imported into NEXUS in the summer term is invaluable to us as an LA. It enables us to pull together provisional data reports required by our Councillors and Scrutiny panel in a timely manner at the start of the Autumn Term well before the official data is released by the DFE. It also enables us to plan appropriate school improvement support to schools that need it before the start of the new term"

Insight Tables

• "Insight Tables allows me to produce several different sets of key indicators in a single extract, removing the need to run the process multiple times and match the data outside the system. Because it's formatted for export rather than looking good (as in Nova), I can work with the export easily. We use this method to help populate our school risk assessment data tables ready for the annual risk assessment exercise."

Brief explainer: Insight Tables is a relatively recent Nexus/Insight development intended mainly for analysts. It allows different data to be put together in a single extract and has recently added the ability bring school census data into that extract. So, for example, you could generate a list of schools (with a national and LA line) with their EYFSP GLD, Year 1 Phonics working at, Key Stage 2 RWM and individual progress scores all into the same export. Previously this would've required at least 4 separate reports to accomplish that example. 

Lower Level Ethnicity (Nova)

• "Only Nexus provides reporting at lower levels of ethnicity that are not included in DfE analysis. These are really useful we can not only see results for our LA, but also with like-for-like comparative data from our region and the remerging NCER nationals"

Brief explainer: Nova reports contain ethnicity and language data down to a very granular level.

Working with schools

Early sharing of data with schools

• "Data is also shared with our schools via Perspective Lite in the form of Nova and Insight Reports, along with key data packs. This enables schools to check their data in advance of the DFE checking exercise and Headteachers are able to share with leadership teams and Governors, including emerging national comparisons before the end of the summer term."

Before building Power BI and Tableau dashboards

• “I would definitely say that we don't promote the functionality of NEXUS enough in my LA. It does feel as there is an appetite within the LA for myself and colleagues in the Data & Analysis team to develop, produce and publish (Power BI) reports and analysis which are already available in NEXUS. I am trying to push back on the requests to build PowerBI dashboards that just replicate what Nexus does already!”

 

Groups - standard

• “Using groups in Nexus is a real timesaver. Our LA has 150 set up!”

• “Before assessment moderation we set up two groups, one for moderated schools and one for non-moderated schools. The School Improvement team and the lead moderator can see outcomes for each group as the data is coming in.”

• “School improvement team can self-serve information on LA geographical groups (districts, Education Improvement Partners, MATs within LA boundary) without the data teams need to create reports”  

Brief explainer - Standard groups are collections of schools, defined by a Nexus user with appropriate permissions, which are fixed. That is to say that the school will remain in the group until it is removed. Schools can be added and removed at any point. 

A Local Authority can have any number of groups. Standard groups are ideal for those that you don't expect to change very often. For example groups based on:

• Geography - ward, constituency or other areas
• Whether the school was moderated in a given year
• Whether the school is part of a certain academy trust or other group of schools
• Whether it is a infant, junior, primary, middle or secondary school (for example)

A school can be part of any number of groups - or none - depending how you set this up, it's completely in your control. 

Groups - dynamic

• "Dynamic groups allow our school improvement team to make changes to records and judgements about schools and have those immediately reflected in reporting, for example where a new head teacher  joins a school and this change is temporarily considered a risk factor. By ticking the TAG for new heads in Nexus themselves, they immediately add that school to the reporting group for new heads (as well as recording that key piece of information about the school)"

Brief explainer - Dynamic groups work slightly differently to standard groups (described above). These are ideal where you expect that the information about the school that makes it part of a group might change or membership might shift. For example groups based on:

• Whether the school has a new head teacher (a status that will end after a certain period)
• Judgement on what the next inspection grade is expected to be
• Whether there are any causes for concern (that you can define)

You could set this up so that any of the types of options suggested for standard groups are also dynamic (though we'd suggest not doing so)

Inspections

Please note that items in this section have been used by LA who have been inspected, but LA should each make their own decisions. Just because it was appropriate for one LA does not mean it is necessarily appropriate for any other or that another Inspection Team will take the same view. 

Though inspections within Local Authorities  only occur every few years, preparation for them can take several months and LA will often be in a  state of constant update of their SEF and expected documents. That will likely include - both for ILACS and SEND inspections - some inclusion of assessment data for the the whole LA and for the groups in focus.

Traditionally this process of preparation has often meant extracting data from Nexus and inputting it into other templates, possibly calculating other values such as gaps and trends which are prone to error and take up a great deal of time. Given the different releases of data for KS2 and KS4, that can mean that several iterations of the same data are required through the year while inspection is expected.

One LA has shared it's recent experience and decision to not constantly be updating data while waiting for inspection in this way, but instead to make a decision that they agree in advance that they would simply use Nexus at the point the inspection is announced and provide the reports direct from the system rather than re-inputting the same data and risking errors being made.

They had made the decision to prepare in that way by sharing reports with those involved in writing the SEF and document provision for the inspection and selecting the most appropriate reports for the task. They were clear what the position of the data was - often an LA will have access to information not yet available to inspectors depending on the point of the year - and understood what the data was telling them and were clear on what actions had been taken, but they avoided the need to constantly transcribe large volumes of data from one format to another.

Their experience - with that inspection team - was positive and use of Nexus reports was accepted.   

Working with wider teams in the LA

Insight exportable data

• "Clicking on hyperlinks in Insight charts creates ready-made exportable pupil lists. You can filter by individual schools. In our LA exportable lists of severe persistent absence for particular schools are a real timesaver for NEET reporting. Graphics saved time vs needing to use Power BI.”

Brief explainer: You may notice when accessing 'spinning' cards as well as within charts there are several items with hyperlinks (shown as underscored text) which can be clicked to produce exportable lists of pupil data.

 

Absence reporting

• ”Absence details reporting is a term in arrears but has all schools in the LA, while other LA systems have patchy results. This data also provides robust benchmarks much earlier than DfE data”
• "We are starting to roll out and promote absence reporting with our schools as part of our traded service to boost content and to increase or retain sales."
• “There is lots of analysis not available in DfE data (WANDE DfE dashboard - can't do too much).”
• “VSH uses Nexus a lot to look up children and monitor their education”
• “Insight enables us to look at trends. We lift analysis out of Insight for management reporting using screenshots” 

Contributing useful hints and tips

If you can contribute anything to this page to help other LA colleagues then please send a description through to [e-mail]