Nexus has been providing early KS1 to KS2 progress analysis since 2017 and - because the LA community loads the large majority of KS2 data within days of being released - this is the most complete measure available before the summer. However, there are children who are assessed at KS2 that will not have been in your schools for Key Stage 1. To allow for this, you can load missing KS1 data into Keypas so it's ready for the KS1-KS2 progress reporting both internally and for your schools through Perspective Lite.
Who this is for
Local Authority data team users who need to import the missing KS1 data. Decision makers who need an overview of the process and benefits of having the most complete dataset possible
Benefits of loading missing KS1 data
- Your LA and schools will benefit from access to the earliest available and most robust provisional KS1 to 2 progress scores at school and LA level - much earlier than the release of DfE data in September
- You can inform your schools and senior management, during the summer term, allowing them to understand the implications of the key progress accountability measure for their schools and to plan for the new academic year.
- The LA and schools will know in advance which schools are likely to underperform in progress measures
Data flow
You can undertake many of the steps ahead of the submission period, this reduces the workload at the key point when KS2 results are issued, and allows the multi-LA aggregation to build up faster to the benefit of all LAs.
LAs will load the KS2 from DfE (July) file when released in the second week of July with analysis being available the same or next day (depending on what modules they are looking at)
In any given year, as more KS2 checking data is loaded into Keypas, the progress scores will continue to change and become more robust. Local Authorities will wish to take care to ensure that the dataset has stabilised before making use of the progress scores in Nova and Insight.
In addition, LA Imported Data Details indicates the number of pupils, schools and LAs that have contributed to the emerging national averages for Early Progress analysis. Users should regularly check this source to make an informed decision on when to make use of the results, balancing completeness and accuracy with utility to school leaders before the summer holiday.
Keypas & Nova Process
Matching The Data
Keypas already holds KS1 results for the large majority of pupils who will undertake KS2 tests and teacher assessment in any given year.
The DfE provides each LA with a KS2 results file from National Curriculum Assessment Portal (NCAP); usually on the second Tuesday in July.
The ideal is that all LAs in England should aim to import their KS2 data into Keypas within a couple of days of release. This is used not just for Early Progress but also for attainment reporting.
During the import process, Keypas will try to match each imported KS2 pupil to a KS1 pupil for the relevant historical cohort, this is a cross-border match based on UPN, date of birth and sex.
Where all three identifiers match perfectly then the records will be linked, otherwise no prior attainment data will be available for that pupil. LAs have the opportunity to load in any missing KS1 results for unmatched pupils (see “Filling the Gaps” section of this guide).
Once matched, the pupil's KS1 data is copied for use in progress calculations.
Manual modifications to KS1 data via Keypas grids, are not used in progress calculations.
The matched data is visible to users in the KS2 DfE (July) > Imported Data > Pupils grid in Keypas and should be sampled to check for accuracy in the matching process before any reports are issued.
Missing KS1 Pupils
Any gaps in the KS1 prior attainment (or errors you are aware) can be filled by a manual import of KS1 results. This is likely to be where a pupil UPN number has changed or there was any discrepancy in the stated date of birth or sex that prevented the three-point match mentioned above from occurring.
Pupil Calculations
After importing the KS2 July data from NCAP, the pupil’s prior attainment values will be used to automatically calculate their KS1 Average Points Score (APS) and the prior attainment group that puts them in.
Until the current year prior attainment groups are published by the DfE, Keypas will use the previous year groups and thresholds. For some prior attainment groups this may differ from the current year versions as they can be composed of such small numbers of pupils. NCER will indicate when these have been updated in a forum post and reports should not be made available to schools until these have been updated.
Once pupils are allocated to a prior attainment group, they are ready to be allocated their progress scores. These scores are based on the NCER emergent scaled scores for pupils already loaded into Keypas.
The progress score is best explained as the difference between a pupil’s scaled score in a subject and the national average score for their prior attainment group, which is why the ‘fullness’ of that early national data is an important consideration. Both the national averages and the impact of those on individual pupil results are regularly recalculated during the emerging data period. In the initial weeks this will be done hourly and then daily once the data had stabilised.
In addition to the progress scores, standard deviations are also calculated which allows reports to display the 95% confidence intervals alongside the progress scores.
Steps you need to take for your LA
Before you start
- To import missing KS1 data into Nexus, you need Keypas import permissions. If you cannot see the options described, speak to your Nexus administrator
- The process described below requires access to data from Keypas, National Curriculum Assessment Portal (NCAP), Get Information About Pupils (GIAP) and the ability to use MS Excel for VLOOKUP or MS Access queries.
Timings
Optional - Once January census files for all schools and academies are available
Prepare KS1 data for all Year 6 pupils on your January census. This will allow you to respond quickly to any pupils that cannot be matched from the KS2 checking data back to KS1 Keypas results.
- Download the Keypas KS1 data for your LA from four years before (e.g. the 2025/26 KS2 Year 6 cohort will have sat KS1 as Year 2 in 2022/23). You will also make use of this data in step 2 below.
- Determine which pupils in Year 6 do not have KS1 data available and take steps to secure the missing information (see ‘Filling the Gaps’ below).
It is not necessarily the case that a number of pupils are ‘missing’ as their KS1 data may have been submitted by other Local Authorities, but preparing on this basis will save effort in the key reporting period later when time is more pressing.
July - KS2 Data from DfE (July) release day
Set aside time to undertake the following processes as early as possible after the release of the KS2 Data from DfE (July) files.
- Download the KS2 files from National Curriculum Assessment Portal (NCAP) for your Local Authority.
- Optional - Cross reference the KS2 data with the KS1 data you have prepared in the optional step above using MS Access (linked tables) or MS Excel (VLOOKUP) based on UPN numbers. This is to identify new starters after the January census.
- Any pupils that exist in the KS2 checking data but not in the KS1 data you have available may need to be checked in GIAP if they do not match once imported into Keypas
In Keypas
- Import your KS2 files data as per the KS2 Test Guide
- Import your contextual data (census files) as per the Importing school census into Keypas (if not already loaded)
- If DfE have already made it available, import the pupil premium data for the current year as described in How to import pupil premium data. (If not already loaded)
- In Keypas, check the KS2 (from DFE) > Imported Data > Pupils grid and sample records to ensure that the matching has occurred accurately.
- Import KS1 results for any pupils with gaps in prior attainment that can be determined or to overwrite any incorrect values you are aware of. The template file for this import is available on the KS2 from DFE (KS1 Prior Attainment) Keypas import page (see ‘Filling the Gaps’ below).
- Download the CSV template file
- Update it with the requested information
- Save the file in a location that you can use to import it in the next step
- Use the Keypas Import Wizard > KS2 from DfE (KS1 Prior Attainment) import
- Select the appropriate year
- Drag the file you saved
- Click upload
July - In the day(s) after the KS2 data from DfE release day
- Wait for the data to stabilise and indicate that enough LAs are covered to provide a viable early national average. Ideally this will be around 140+ LAs within a couple of days of the release of the KS2 data.
In the case of early release of early progress data to schools and LA colleagues, data teams should be clear with schools and management as to the limitations of that data (even as an Early Data set) and return to the reports over the next several days as that will improve with time.
- Release appropriate reports to schools, school improvement and management. Any communication with schools should stress the fact that the data is early and unvalidated and may not match DfE figures released in the SFR.
- Due to the pandemic (and the KS1 cohorts in 2020 and 2021 not undertaking assessments) there were no KS1 to KS2 progress measures in 2024 and 2025. KS1-KS2 progress returned in 2026 and 2027 before being replaced by Reception Baseline to Key Stage 2 progress in 2028 (details not yet available)
Filling the Gaps
Pupils not in your LA KS1 data who are on January census for Year 6
Some pupils will not match when the KS2 checking data is loaded into Keypas. There are
several reasons this may be the case and it is fine not to have records for these pupils
- The pupil has no prior KS1 attainment and will be excluded from progress calculations anyway
- The UPN number has changed since KS1
- Their date of birth or sex was incorrectly recorded in KS1 data
For pupils affected by cases 2. and 3., you can take steps to correct this omission. It is important to do so because – particularly in small schools – one pupil can make a large difference to progress scores (positive or negative) and the overall accuracy of reporting for that school will be adversely affected if this is not rectified.
As described above, you can prepare your KS1 data for all pupils several weeks ahead of the import process, saving you time during the key assessment results period. Most of the pupils will automatically match in Keypas but you can discover the identity of most of the potentially ‘missing’ pupils based on your January and May census returns for Year 6.
By extracting the Year 6 UPN, name, sex and DOB details for all pupils in your schools from the census, you can check whether they have matching KS1 records within your own LA by also extracting (and cross referencing in Access or via VLOOKUP in Excel) the KS1 records for the same cohort of pupils from 4 years earlier.
NB: Pupils who exist in the census returns but not in your KS1 data from four years previous will be potentially missing their KS1 starting point when the KS2 results are loaded in.
Knowing this, you can then:
- Use Get Information About Pupils (GIAP) to try and determine what the KS1 data is. You will need to input the UPN initially to try and make a match via a block search. It may be that some pupils still do not match and therefore a name/sex/DOB search may be required to find the accurate match.
- Retain the KS1 information found for loading to Keypas once the KS2 data has become available.
- Update the example file ‘Example KS1 Prior Attainment.csv’ with the KS1 data that needs to be loaded and hold this until you are ready to load it as step 8 of the above process. The example file is available on the KS2 from DFE (KS1 Prior Attainment) Keypas import page.
Pupils in your KS2 checking data that may have joined after the January census and do not match any KS1 data
You may need to repeat the process above from checking in Get Information About Pupils.
Items to note
It is possible that you will still have some pupils without a KS1 starting point. In the official DfE figures it is possible that these may be included. Therefore the missing pupils form a part of your caveats to schools around why there may be differences.
If you need to re-import your KS2 file then you will also need to re-import your KS1 missing pupil data, as this data will be wiped by the re-import process. For this reason you should not delete it until you're certain it is no longer required.
Running Reports
Nova KS1 to KS2 progress reports can provide this Early Progress data. The source of the report will be set to DfE and - until the September/October release - will automatically be providing early progress data. Once the next data becomes available and is imported, the reports will update to use DfE official data published at that time.
Please note that for KS1 to KS2 Progress reports in Nova, the quintiles column will update over night after the KS2 results data is loaded. All other elements of the reports are available immediately.
You will therefore – once you judge the data is robust enough to do so – need to produce and distribute the reports for your schools.
You may wish to add your own annotations to those reports for the purposes of publishing them, but you will certainly want to make sure that schools and LA colleagues understand the unofficial status of the reports and any issues affecting the accuracy in that year. You can update the footnotes of reports in Nexus by going to Nova > Admin > Preferences.
Last reviewed / owner
Last reviewed: August 2026 - Owner: Technical Support Director