It was already the case that Nexus provided termly attendance analysis based on school census import (and therefore up to 2 terms in arrears), but as the name implies Weekly Attendance will be much more timely and up to date.
The information below is intended to help you understand the calculations used by the Weekly Attendance analysis and where it differs from either DfE methodology or from Termly Attendance analysis in Nexus.
Weekly Attendance in Nexus will follow the DfE methodology for calculating attendance and absence. However, it will deviate in the following ways. Nexus will:
not be using the DfE’s Live Attendance Persistent Absence methodology that discounts pupils with 10 sessions or less. Instead we will use the approach used in Nexus Termly (Census) reporting.
include pupil entering a school in the 6th half term, following the Live methodology and deviating from the Termly (Census) methodology
exclude Year 11 year group sessions added during the 6th half term.
Weekly calculation
Weekly Attendance data relies on loading of each week's data into Nexus by member Local Authorities. When the attendance for that week is calculated it is based ONLY on the Local Authorities that have uploaded the data from the week in question. Even if every prior week's file had been loaded in by that LA and only the current week is missing, they are excluded from that week's calculation. This explains why it is so important for each LA to download from DfE and then upload the attendance to Nexus to maximise the value of this development. This only applies to the Latest Available Week time period.
Social care cohorts
Social care cohorts for Weekly Attendance (initially limited to Children Looked After) are defined by the import of the Weekly Attendance Social Care cohort.
Despite the name, this cohort does NOT need to be updated weekly. The calculations in Nexus relating to that cohort will use the last imported cohort, regardless of when that was. If you determine that the reporting is not accurate for some reason then the first check that should be performed is whether there are additional pupils who should be added or removed and a new Weekly Attendance Social Care cohort imported.
Calculations table
Calculations are as follows:
Page |
Calculation |
Detail |
|---|---|---|
All Pages |
Week Ending dd/mm/yy (##) in the title |
This will reflect the selection in the “Time Period” dropdown. Latest Week will show the week number in brackets with the date of the Friday also displayed, while the termly option will show the value of the option selected. |
All Pages |
LA Import Status |
This should reflect the percentage of LAs that have imported the data for any week. |
Summary |
Overall Attendance |
SUM(Present Sessions) / SUM(Possible Sessions) |
Summary |
Gap to National (%) |
[Local Percentage Value] - [Comparator Percentage Value] |
Summary |
Yearly Trend (%) |
[Local Percentage Value for Week X This Year] - [Local Percentage Value for Week X Last Year] The values should be the year to date for that week. During the first year the majority of LAs will be importing a Full year file to provide a benchmark value for this calculation i.e: [Local Percentage Value for Week X this Year] - [Local Percentage Value for End of Last Year] |
Summary |
Recent Change (%) |
[Local Percentage Value Sessions of just Week X This Year] - [Local Percentage Value year to date for Week X-1 This Year] |
Summary |
Gap to National (Sessions) |
[Comparator Percentage Gap] * [Local Possible Sessions] |
Summary |
Yearly Trend (Sessions) |
[Yearly Percentage Gap] * [Local Possible Sessions] |
Summary |
Recent Change (Sessions) |
[Weekly Percentage Gap] * [Local Possible Sessions] |
Summary |
Trend Chart |
The data points will be the weekly session percentages. |
Summary |
Overall Absence |
SUM(Absent Sessions) / SUM(Possible Sessions) |
Summary |
Authorised Absence |
SUM(Authorised Absent Sessions) / SUM(Possible Sessions) |
Summary |
Unauthorised Absence |
SUM(Unauthorised Absent Sessions) / SUM(Possible Sessions) |
Summary |
Persistent Absence (10%) |
For each enrolment: IF(SUM(Absent Sessions) / SUM(Possible Sessions) >= 10.0, ‘TRUE’, ‘FALSE’) For Aggregations: SUM(IF(PersistentAbsentee = ‘TRUE’, 1, 0)) / SUM(Enrolments) |
Summary |
Severe Persistent Absence (50%) |
For each enrolment: IF(SUM(Absent Sessions) / SUM(Possible Sessions) >= 50.0, ‘TRUE’, ‘FALSE’) For Aggregations: SUM(IF(SeverePersistentAbsentee = ‘TRUE’, 1, 0)) / SUM(Enrolments) |
Summary |
Special Education Needs |
The calculations should follow the above value methodologies. Inclusion will be based on the Attendance file values only, and a child will be SEN if either the sen support and EHCP fields are true. |
Summary |
Disadvantaged |
The calculations should follow the above value methodologies. Inclusion will be based on most recent Pupil Premium file available supplemented with subsequent census data. |
Summary |
Minority Ethnicity |
The calculations should follow the above value methodologies. Inclusion will be based on the Attendance file values only. |
Summary |
English as an additional Language |
The calculations should follow the above value methodologies. Inclusion will be based on the Attendance file values only. |
Other Weekly Attendance Guide articles
These articles tell you more about the functionality of Weekly Attendance in Nexus
- Weekly Attendance - Overview
- Weekly Attendance - Insight Analysis - Summary
- Weekly Attendance - Insight Analysis - Matrix
- Weekly Attendance - Keypas grid
- Weekly Attendance - Imported Data Items