Key Stage 1 is no longer statutory. Schools are encouraged by DfE to administer tests from 2024 onwards and Nexus will support LA who wish to collect KS1 assessments from schools. This page has been updated to inform readers who need to make use of it for the coming year but this is NOT a statutory collection.
Welcome to the Nexus guide for Key Stage 1 in 2025/26
- Find out what the KS1 process looks like in 2026 and what it means for you, your colleagues and your schools.
- Understand the data collection process for KS1 in 2026 if the LA opts to participate
- Find out how you and your schools can benefit from NCER National figures.
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2026 Timeline for KS1
Key Stage 1 is no longer statutory - the final statutory year was 2023. The DfE encourage schools to undertake KS1 assessments but they do not have to be submitted to Local Authority or to the DfE.
Nexus is able to keep processing KS1 results files for schools and LAs who wish to make use of the facility. Where this happens the LA can access results and analysis in Nexus and schools who participated can view their results in Perspective Lite.
The LA will need to decide whether it wishes to offer this option to their schools and put arrangements in place for the collection in terms of dates and secure methods of transferring that information. In order to benefit from emerging national figures from other LA/Schools undertaking this collection it is recommended that this timeframe will mirror that used up to 2023 with collection during June.
NCER National results are an accumulated aggregation of data collected from schools by local authorities and become more robust as more LAs load their data. As such these figures are subject to change, it should be noted that NCER National figures are provisional and unpublished indicators of national benchmarks - not official DfE National data. As an optional collection that not every LA will choose to offer (and not every school in an LA will probably participate in) it should be noted that the emerging national figure for KS1 will likely reflect a much smaller proportion of pupils than for statutory collections.
Nexus imports only teacher assessments, not test results.
The Data
In Key Stage 1 in 2026 as schools who opt to assess pupils will continue to use the Engagement Model for pupils below the standard of the Key Stage.
There is a range of possible performance categories for each subject, you can see these illustrated in the tables below.
The target for every child is to be working at the expected standard (EXS). However, there are categories for those working at greater depth (GDS). For those working lower than the expected standard (WTS, HNM, PK1–PK4, EM).
Reading, writing and maths have the same categories. Science does not have a greater depth outcome and everything below the Expected Standard is recorded as Has Not Met (HNM).
The table below shows the data items collected for each child.
Key Nexus Reports and Features for KS1
Once your KS1 data is imported into Keypas, you can make use of valuable Nova reports and Keypas cleaning reports. Some examples of these are below.
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Keypas: Data Errors Quickly identify the issues that need resolving within your data by reading the data errors report that lists each pupil record that has failed a validation check and the reason why. This report is best used alongside the data cleaning grids for rapid resolution of errors. |
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Nova: KS1 Summary (School, LA, Regional & National) View schools, the LA, regional or the NCER National picture in a report that neatly summarises the cohort's achievement 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 NCER National (bearing in mind the more limited comparative data now that KS1 is optional). |
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Nova: KS1 Pupil List Quickly list each pupil per school with the option of using filters to pick out particular pupil groups. |
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Nova: KS1 Gap Analysis Discover the gap between a school, the LA & regional averages and the NCER National average. See the proportion of children achieving an expected level or above in each subjects and in multi-subject indicators. Use the bar charts for a quick comparison between subjects. |
Frequently Asked Questions
| Do Local Authorities collect this data? |
No, the statutory duty ended after the 2023 assessments. From 2024 onwards LA can opt to offer a service to their schools to collect and load this into Nexus (if the schools wish to participate). |
| Where is the import? | Nexus > Keypas > Imports > Import New File > KS1 |
| What are the expected import file types? | XML (CTF) or CSV (template available from DfE). Also see this article about the XML formatting |
| When will the 2026 TA import become available? | May 2026 |
| What areas does it update? |
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| Where is the return process? | No longer required |
| What is the returns destination? | No longer required |
| Are there KS1 Tests? | Pupils do undertake KS1 tests which are used to inform the teacher assessment, but there is no facility in Nexus to collect them. |
| What are ‘NCER National’ figures? |
The NCER National figures displayed in Nexus are calculated by aggregating the results from those LA that opt to participate in this optional collection (and the schools in those LA who do likewise) As more LAs participate, promote this to their schools and load in their data, the figures become more robust and can be offered back to schools as part of a traded service offering or SLA |