Latest News
Pupil Premium Allocation Date Change
Pupil premium 2021-2022
On 17 December, the Government announced that the pupil premium rates will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021-22 and that, from 2021-22 onwards, pupil premium allocations for mainstream and special schools will be based on the October census. Pupil premium funding for the financial year starting on 1 April 2021 will therefore be based on the October 2020 census instead of the January census as would have previously been the case. We have now published further information on this administrative change on www.gov.uk. It can be found under “allocation changes from 2021 to 2022”
This administrative change brings the pupil premium in line with how the rest of the core schools’ budget is calculated and going forward it will provide both schools and DfE with greater certainty around future funding levels earlier in the year.
Total pupil premium funding is expected to increase to more than £2.5 billion in 2021-22 as more children have become eligible for free school meals as a result of the impact of the pandemic.
Pupil premium COLLECT report
As the spring school census will only be used to inform the pupil premium allocation for PRUs, AP academies and AP free schools, the report will only return pupil numbers for these school types. For all mainstream schools and special schools, the pupil premium report will be made available in the autumn census.
**Updated DfE Guidance (02/02/2021) - Restricting attendance during the national lockdown: schools**
Restricting attendance during the national lockdown: schools - Guidance for all schools in England
Please click on the link below to access updated GOV.UK guidance for schools during the national lockdown including changes to attendance recording:
SIMS Newsletter - January 2021
Please click here to access the January 2021 issue of the SIMS Newsletter
Spring 2021 School Census - 21st January 2021
Please login and select the School Census Category to download the relevant production notes for your school.
Key Stage 1: administering the phonics screening check to year 2 pupils in 2020 autumn term
Key Stage 1: administering the phonics screening check to year 2 pupils in 2020 autumn term
Please click on the following link to access statutory guidance published on the GOV.UK website regarding phonics screening checks for year 2 pupils during the second half of the 2020 autumn term:
School Census Collection Dates - Academic Year 2020/2021
School Census collection dates for academic year 2020/2021 are:
Autumn Term: Thursday 1st October 2020
Spring Term: Thursday 21st January 2021
Summer Term: Thursday 20th May 2021
DfE Guidance for Full Opening of Schools
Please click on the link below to access DfE guidance regarding schools opening fully. Please refer to Section 2: School operations for guidance on managing pupil attendance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#section-2-school-operations
Parents Email Report
Parents Email Report Design
Please click here to access the routine to design a report to show parent email addresses for use in case of emergency.
Attendance Report for Local Authority Monthly Return
Please see below the routine for producing the required information for the whole school session attendance section of the monthly return spreadsheet:
Attendance whole school: from start of academic year to current month
This can be obtained via route: Reports | Attendance | Group Reports | Group Analysis by Attendance Category Report then:
- Enter the required date range
- Select Group Type of Whole School
- Click Search
- Click Print and OK
Patches to delete data no longer collected by DfE Census
As the DfE census will no longer collect Proficiency in English, Pupil Country of Birth or Pupil Nationality data, Capita SIMS have released three patches to delete data that is no longer collected from school databases:
- Proficiency in English Patch - Deletes all records for Proficiency in English information for all past, present and future students. Where a student has multiple proficiency entries, the patch will remove all instances of this.
- National Identity Patch - Deletes the National Identity for all past, present and future students.
- Country of Birth/Nationality Patch - Deletes the Country of Birth and where present the Nationality (actually called Nation inside the expanded Nationality and Passport Details record, only where passport details are blank) for all past, present and future students.
If you would like any or all of these patches to be applied to your school Sims database, please contact the SimsforSchools team via email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.