Guidance

School census 2015 to 2016: technical information

Technical specification, XML schema files and validation rules for submitting 2015 to 2016 school census data.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 19 February 2015
• Last updated: 18 May 2016 — See all updates

This publication was withdrawn on 2 August 2019

These documents are for the 2015 to 2016 school census. For the current census, visit our guide to submitting data for the school census.

Applies to England

Documents

School census 2015 to 2016: business and technical specification, version 2.1

Ref: DFE-00071-2015

PDF, 4.79 MB, 130 pages

School census 2015 to 2016: validation rules, version 2.7

ODS, 107 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

School census 2015 to 2016: validation rules, version 2.7

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 315 KB

School census summer 2016: XML schema files

14.6 KB

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Details

This is technical information about submitting data for the school census 2015 to 2016.

Use this if you’re a:

• supplier of software for school management information systems (MIS)
• user of school MIS software

The specification contains:

• changes to the previous year’s census collection
• what data schools should supply at school level and pupil level
• how to structure the data in XML
• how to check the data against the validation rules

Software suppliers should use:

• the schema file so that schools can provide data in the correct XML format
• the list of validation rules so that schools can validate the data they submit

You should also read the common basic data set (CBDS). This defines common data items that schools use in MIS software and that we use in our data collections.

More guidance on submitting school census data is also available.

Published 19 February 2015
Last updated 18 May 2016 + show all updates

1. 18 May 2016

   Replaced XML schema files from the autumn 2015 school census with summer 2016 schema files.

2. 31 March 2016

   Updated validation rules document to version 2.7. Changes are described in the document's version history.

3. 18 February 2016

   Updated validation rules document to version 2.6. Changes are described in the document's version history.

4. 31 December 2015

   Updated validation rules document to version 2.5.

5. 9 December 2015

   Replaced the business and technical specification document with version 2.1. The document's version history explains the changes.

6. 8 December 2015

   Updated validations document to version 2.3. Changes are described in the document's version history.

7. 20 November 2015

   Replaced the validation rules document. Changes are detailed in the document's version history.

8. 17 September 2015

   Replaced the business and technical validation rules document. The document's version history explains the changes.

9. 8 September 2015

   Replaced the validation rules document. Changes are detailed in the document's version history.

10. 28 August 2015

    Replaced the validation rules document. Changes are detailed in the document's version history.

11. 11 August 2015

    Replaced the business and technical validation rules document. Changes are detailed in the document's version history.

12. 7 August 2015

    Replaced the business and technical specification and validation rules documents. Changes are detailed in the documents’ version histories.

13. 10 July 2015

    Added the school census autumn 2015 XML schema files.

14. 1 July 2015

    Replaced the business and technical specification and validation rules documents. Changes are detailed in the documents’ version histories.

15. 8 June 2015

    Replaced the business and technical specification and validation rules documents. Changes are set out in the documents’ version histories.

16. 10 April 2015

    Updated business and technical specification - updates are described in the version history in the document. Also added validation rules document.

17. 6 March 2015

    Updated document. Changes included in the attachment.

18. 19 February 2015

    First published.