Generally speaking it is easier to update school details Nexus as you become aware that they have changed. If you leave it until you have lots of schools that need to be amended, it becomes a more cumbersome task and users of the system may question the validity of the information presented to them because they are aware that a headteacher or school name should’ve been changed some time before.
More importantly, some school details absolutely have to be made in order to present information to a newly established school or one that has become a sponsored academy.
There is a short video below providing more of an overview of the process, or you can find the specifics you may need to undertake it in the text following the video:
(Please note that the the video below does not yet reflect the changes made in the 21st February 2024 release. See notes here)
Accessing the school details
From the Nexus homepage go to:
- Schools > Search for the name of the school you wish to view/edit
While most users can view details of schools, only those with appropriate permissions are able to edit school details. Via the Edit Details button
Situations in which school details need to be edited
- Change of headteacher – you are not able to change the name of the headteacher at a school. Log a request to Nexus Support quoting the name of the school, the DFE number and the name of the headteacher to be assigned. You should also let Nexus Support know if there is a change of email address for the new head and whether you need them to be issued with the username and password for Perspective Lite.
- Change of school name – this can sometimes occur in isolation from other events (like academisation) and can simply be changed via edit details
- Update of contact details – editing the phone number, site address and/or website address can be changed via edit details
- School closes (and does not re-open) – sometimes schools merge with other, existing schools and effectively cease to exist as independent entities or are simply closed. In this situation you can close the school via Edit Details by entering the close date and – it is recommended – appending the suffix (CLOSED) to the end of the school name. You may wish to check if a school it is being merged with (if that is the case) wants access to the old results via Perspective Lite, which can be arranged via Nexus Support by giving them the details of the school and who will subsequently need to be able to access historical results
- School becomes a converter academy – in this situation (where there is no sponsor), the usual practice is simply to change the URN and possibly the school name to reflect its academy status. You can make these changes via edit details. If uncertain of the new URN see ‘Finding new school and academy details’ (below)
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School becomes a sponsored academy – in this circumstance (usually where a school was found to be inadequate or requires improvement in two consecutive inspections, academisation requires closure of the old school and creation of an entirely new academy in Nexus. If uncertain of any details see ‘Finding new school and academy details’ (below)
- Closing the old school – Schools > Edit Details > enter the date on which the old school closed. It can be useful to also update the name of the school to add the suffix (CLOSED)
- Create a new school/academy – Schools > Add School – complete the details of the new school and save. Once created, you will need to contact Nexus Support and provide the details necessary to add the new headteacher (see section above). In addition to possibly asking Nexus Support to provide access to Perspective Lite for the new school, you can also request for the head to be able to access the results for the old school (which they may be interested in during the first year)
Trends across closed/open school identities
When a school becomes a converter academy, nothing changes in terms of the results and Nexus will continue to report under the same DFE number and provide trends across the date of the change.
If a school closes and a new sponsored academy opens in its place then – in theory – there is no connection between the results of the old and new schools and because the old school is closed and a new one created then trend reporting will restart for the new school with no reflection of the old school results. This is correct. However sometimes school leaders – and LA School Improvement teams – may want to show the trends across the two identities. This is possible to achieve by creating a group for the old and the new schools and putting both in it.
You can then run Nova reports for that group. Results for both the schools will be shown separately but the group results would effectively show the trend across the date of change. See other help guides regarding how to put schools in groups and how to report for groups in Nova Reports (please note that schools cannot access that reporting for themselves in Perspective Lite unless published as a batch report)
Finding new school and academy details
Schools have a statutory duty to keep Get Information About Schools (GIAS) updated as it is used by the DfE/STA and other agencies to pull information from. When schools academise or otherwise change their details it is also where DfE publish the details for both old and new school identities.
For the Nexus user this means that you can search for the school and find its current URN number, DFE number, official name the date on which it opened and links to previous (closed) schools from which you can find the close date (though it is usually the day before a successor school opened).
Get Information About Schools is at the following link https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/
It is periodically useful to take a download from GIAS and from Nexus schools list and compare the two to spot any schools where you may need to maintain the record.
Automated Updates to School Details
To lessen the burden of maintaining your school list, details about schools are now automatically updated with the latest Get Information About Schools (GIAS) data.
Weekly, on a Wednesday at 6 am, Nexus performs the following actions:
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Corrects mismatched URN and establishment number combinations:
- After matching schools between Nexus and GIAS via establishment number, a URN is updated when it's current value doesn't exist in GIAS and the GIAS value doesn't already exist in Nexus.
- After matching schools between Nexus and GIAS via URN, we update the establishment number with the value from GIAS if the value still needs to be created in Nexus.
- Updates the URN of converter academies: When schools become an academy converter, their URN changes. We modify the URN to the new value as recorded in GIAS.
- Add missing URNS: After matching schools that lack a URN in Nexus with GIAS via the establishment number, we update the URN with the GIAS value.
- Create missing schools: Based on URN, we create any colleges, maintained schools, academies, free schools, and state-funded special schools in GIAS but not in Nexus, including schools which have academised as a sponsor-led academy, which are considered a new entity.
- Close schools: After matching on URN, we close schools deemed closed in GIAS but not in Nexus.
- Update latitude and longitude: After matching on URN, we convert the Easting and Northing provided in GIAS to a Latitude and Longitude and record this against the Nexus school where it is currently lacking or incorrect.
- Checks for the Headteacher/Principal held in GIAS.
Over time, we will introduce more automated updates that utilise data in GIAS to maintain an accurate school list within Nexus—a vital backbone of the data and analysis we present.
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