Data & Information Support Service (previously known as School Census SLA)
Here is what you can expect from us:
- Support with your termly School Census return: - prior to each school census we will keep you informed of any new or deleted data items being collected by the Department for Education (DfE). We will also keep you informed of changes to existing items. During the census submission window, we will remove the burden of working with the DfE COLLECT portal. We will receive and upload your return and perform a comprehensive audit of your data. Throughout the process, we will work closely with you to correct any errors. We will also investigate all data queries and ensure that COLLECT is appropriately annotated with acceptable notepad entries. Following authorisation of your census data by DfE, we will produce an easily digestible summary of both your school and all maintained schools in the local authority. Invaluable benchmarking data will support your school self evaluation, providing insight about numbers of pupils on roll, the prevalence of English as an additional language, analysis of special education needs as well as the level of suspension activity and pupil termly attendance.
- Examination, test and assessment support: - from test registration, to collection and submission of pupil outcomes as well as comprehensive analysis of results, the team will support you. We are only ever an email or telephone call away and you can be assured that when you call, we will respond in a timely and professional manner. Whether its advice and guidance on special consideration, understanding scaled scores or calculating pupil progress measures, we aim to reduce the stress of the annual test and assessment cycle. Subscribing primary schools will not pay any additional charges for the collection of EYFS profile data, Phonics screening check data or KS1 teacher assessment data. We will undertake internal audit of your test and assessment data to ensure that nothing is missing or incorrectly coded. We will also submit pupil outcomes to the Department via COLLECT and offer extensive results analysis.
- Perspective Lite and NOVA reporting: - as a subscriber, your school will benefit from access to NCER (National Consortium for Examination Results) software. Perspective Lite offers performance trends in an easily accessible format. You can also access LA reports to assist with checking pupil outcomes before submission. NOVA reports offer you complete control over reporting of your examination, test and assessment outcomes. In a couple of clicks, you can review the performance of various pupil groups in your school and compare these to both the local authority, regional and national
averages.
- That is not all: - have a question about free school meal eligibility. school holiday voucher payments?, missing key stage results?, pupil attendance and absence codes?, part time timetables? - Or something else? We are here to support you.
Charges for FY 2023-24
The 2023-24 Data & Information service developed from of the original School Census service level agreement (SLA) that was established over a decade ago.
The original SLA was developed for Herefordshire schools, offering comprehensive support with the statutory, termly school census return. Since then, we have expanded the scope of the service to include new and more extensive data audit including most recently, pupil led tutoring and alternative provision placements. Subscribers now have access to Perspective Lite and NOVA reporting. As part of the subscription, primary schools and academies benefit from complimentary collection, audit, submission and analysis of key stage test and assessment data.
We pride ourselves on our local knowledge and an understanding of Herefordshire’s school estate. Unlike many of the commercial support services, we treat every school as an individual. Our history, geography and level of local deprivation all interact to make Herefordshire unique from other local authorities. We understand the impact of small cohorts on your performance data and we recognise the increased costs resulting from Herefordshire’s relative rurality.
Offering the Data and Information service direct to schools and academies means that we are better able to control prices. It also enables us to offer a completely flexible buying period. If you miss the annual subscription process in March, your school or academy can join at any point during the year and you will only be charged on a pro rata basis. Whilst some price increase is inevitable in 2023-24 due to cost pressures throughout the system, we have kept this to an absolute minimum and well below the current rate of inflation.
Charges: Financial year 2023-24
Standing charge - £750.00
Per pupil charge - £000.50
Subscribing is easy.
Simply email: schoolcensus@herefordshire.gov.uk and let us know that ‘you’re in’ and we will acknowledge receipt of your order. If you are unsure how many single and dual main pupils were on your roll as at Autumn 2022, please refer to the accompanying table here.
