Guidance

School preference data collections: technical specification

The requirements local authorities should meet when submitting data for the 2025 school preference data collections.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 6 October 2022
• Last updated: 22 August 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

School preference (child level) data collection 2025: business and technical specification

PDF, 430 KB, 41 pages

Details

This business and technical specification explains:

• what data local authorities should submit
• how to structure the data in XML
• the validation rules that the Department for Education will apply to the data

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

More guidance on submitting data to complete the school preference collections is available.

Published 6 October 2022
Last updated 22 August 2024 + show all updates

1. 22 August 2024

   Added 'School preference (child level) data collection 2025: business and technical specification', replacing the version for 2024.

2. 1 September 2023

   ' School preference (child level) data collection 2024: business and technical specification' replaced the version for 2023.

3. 6 October 2022

   First published.