Welcome to the Nexus guide for Key Stage 2 Tests in 2026
- Find out what the KS2 Test looks like in 2026 and what it means for you, your colleagues and your schools.
- Understand the import process for KS2 Tests in 2026, including key dates.
- Find out how you and your schools can benefit from early NCER National figures.
If, for some reason, you need to re-import prior year data into Nexus then the notes below apply back as far as 2023 (though you would obviously substitute the correct import year).
Jump to..
- 2026 Timeline for KS2
- KS2 Test Data
- How to obtain files for Keypas from National Curriculum Assessment Portal
- Nexus Reports & Features
- Your questions answered
LA should always check current DfE guidance.
2026 Timeline for KS2
The first iteration of the KS2 data feed will be available to LAs from National Curriculum Assessment Portal (NCAP) on 16th July. On the same day, the DfE will publish the raw score to scaled score conversion tables.
The DfE will release their initial KS2 statistical publication in early-September through Analyse School Performance (ASP). Thanks to Nexus, your LA has access to NCER National figures, much earlier than DfE published statistics. NCER National figures are subject to change as they are updated with each importing LA, but historically have been accurate and extremely useful in giving LAs a strong indication of emerging national trends. Loading your LA results as soon as possible will improve this NCER national coverage and reliability.
The Data
Pupils will have scaled scores, which are normalised values, a score of 100 will be considered the expected standard.
Pupils will take tests in reading and maths, and grammar punctuation & spelling. They will be awarded raw scores for those tests and the DfE will release conversion tables to produce scaled scores from those raw scores.
The table below shows the data items collected for each pupil.
How to obtain files for Keypas from National Curriculum Assessment Portal
KS2 result files will be available from the National Curriculum Assessment Portal(NCAP).
The link to NCAP is: https://www.ncaportal.education.gov.uk/login
The 2026 KS2 DfE Provisional (July)
Log into NCA Portal > click on ‘Activities’ > select ‘Open’ tab > click on ‘KS2 test results and outcomes’ > then select and download the files as below.
- ‘KS2 test results and outcomes’ tab > select ‘Pupil results summary’ > click on ‘download’ > select ‘CSV’ > scroll to the bottom and click ‘download’ - this will export a zip file ‘results_’, within the zip file is a file called ‘Pupil results summary’
- ‘Schools Control File’ tab > click on ‘download’ - this will export a zip file ‘school_control_file_’, within the zip file is a file called ‘School control file’ > you will need to filter out schools not in your LA > then rename this file to match the requirements of the import wizard.
- Please note that larger local authorities may receive multiple files of pupil results.
- Please also note that the date of birth format expected by Nexus is yyyy-mm-dd which is provided by the file as downloaded. However, if you open the file in excel and save it, excel will update that file format and cause the import to fail. Please ensure that the date format remains yyyy-mm-dd.
If you are unable to locate the file in NCAP then your permissions for that system may not be appropriate. In that case you can check with the main user in your LA (often the KS2 moderation manager) or contact the NCAP helpdesk.
Importing the files into Nexus
Note: In order to import the data into Nexus, your user must have the “Can Access Keypas” and “Can Access Assessment Features” privileges. You can import the pupils/results file without importing the schools file first (skipping steps 5-9 below), but if you get any errors when attempting to do so then you will need to ensure you load the schools file first then reimport the pupils/results file.
1. Log in to Nexus
2. From the navigation bar select “KEYPAS” > “Imports”.
3. Click the “Import New File” button and click the “KS2 DfE (July)” button from the list of choices.
4. Ensure the selected year is “2026”
5. Ensure the selected import is “Pupils File”
6. Click the “Add Related File” button and locate the “Pupils Results Summary.csv” file downloaded from NCAP. For larger Local Authorities who may have received multiple files, please append all of the files at the same time.
7. Click the “Upload & Import Files” button.
8. Click the “Import Files” button.
9. Your import will be added to the queue.
In the event that you receive an error after loading this file, you may need to load the school control file. Only load this file if you have a) errors with the pupil results summary and b) have filtered it down to just your LA schools. If you need to take this step...
10. Click the “Import New File” button once more and again select the “KS2 DfE (July)” option.
11. Again, make sure the selected year is “2026”, but this time change the import to “Schools File”.
12. Click the “Add Related File” button and locate the "School Control File" downloaded from NCAP.
13. Click the “Upload & Import Files” button.
14. Click the “Import Files” button.
15. Again, your import will be added to the queue.
Once your queued files have been processed the KS2 data will now be available in Keypas and Nova.
Please note, Insight is powered by cached data and that cache is updated nightly. Therefore newly imported KS2 data will not be reflected in Insight until the following day.
Schools that should not be included (2026)
In previous years, the KS2 file was known to include Non-Maintained Special Schools and some Independent Schools who had opted into KS2. Prior to 2026, DfE included a flag to allow Nexus to filter these schools out of reporting. However, the 2026 fails to provide that flag while still including pupils from those other school types LA would not usually wish to report. You may notice some schools showing in your results that should not be included. At present it is not possible for Nexus to automatically remove these.
If there are schools that are included in the data from NCA Portal that should not be in the aggregated results then LAs will need to either:
delete these results (this could be done in the file before uploading or done via the Imported Data > Pupils grid in Keypas), or
set the "Exclude" flag for each pupil in the school within Imported Data > Pupils if LAs still want the school results but don't want them included in the aggregations.
Please do bear in mind that you may not wish to just ignore these or use school groups to exclude them from reports. While there may only be a small number of such schools if you leave them in your data then they are affecting the aggregations for Local Authority, Region, Statistical Neighbours and National. Depending on the characteristics of the pupils in those schools they might inflate or deflate your state funded schools expected results.
Key Nexus Reports and Features for KS2 Test
You can make use of valuable Nova reports that analyse your test data, some examples of these are below.
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Nova: KS2 Test Summary (School, LA, Regional & National) View schools, the LA or the NCER National picture in a report that neatly summarises the cohort's test results in all subjects. School improvement colleagues who have access to nova can use this as a real-time report to get a good overview of how the school is comparing to the LA and emerging national. |
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Nova: KS2 Attainment Summary List (School, LA, Regional & National) A list report which visually allows you to compare schools across subjects and multi-subject indicators. Colour coded bars can quickly give an impression of how a schools is performing. Schools can also be compared to LA, regional and NCER National figures. |
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Nova: KS2 Test Gap Discover the gap between a school, the LA & regional average and the NCER National average using the gap report. Various gaps can be explored including sex, SEN and FSM. To visually assist this report comes with a bar charts for easy identification of gaps. |
Frequently Asked Questions
| Do Local Authorities collect this data? | No, the data feed is available for local authorities to download from National Curriculum Assessment Portal from 07 July 2026. |
| Where is the import? | Nexus > Keypas > Imports > Import new file > KS2 DfE (July) |
| When will the 2026 import become available? |
Due to the strong possibility of changes in the DfE file, this cannot be finalised until 07 July 2026
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| What areas does it update? |
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| What are ‘NCER National’ figures? |
The NCER National figures displayed in Nexus are calculated by harnessing the strength that comes from all LAs in England uploading their data into Nexus’ Keypas module. As more LAs load in their data, the figures become more robust. These figures are provisional and unpublished indicators of national benchmarks, however NCER National figures have been robust when compared to official DfE National data over the past 7 years. |
| Is there Test and TA data in the KS2 data feed. |
Yes the KS2 data feed from the DfE contains test and TA data. The Nova test reports will automatically look at the KS2 data feed. The Nova TA reports have a data source setting which you can change to point to the KS2 data feed. |