This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to generate CTF, CML, or CMJ exports for students, including instructions for individual and bulk generation, as well as tips for ensuring correct school details and address formats. It also clarifies that CTFs cannot be edited once generated and offers solutions for common issues related to importing CTFs.
Permissions
The School: General Admin: Export Data, Admin: Administer All Students and/or Admin: Administer My Students permissions are needed to export CTF, CML or CMJ files.
If you don't have this permission, you can ask your school admin to assign it to you using these instructions.
Generating a CTF
Please note: if a student is leaving full-time education, you don't need to generate a CTF for them. They will be unenrolled at the end of the year when you complete the New School Year Setup process.
Generating a CTF for an individual student
To generate a CTF for a single student - if they are moving to another school, for example - go to the student's profile, scroll to the bottom and find the Admin Functions section, and follow these steps:
- Click the green +Add button
- Select the type of CTF on the pop-up. Your choices are:
- Full CTF Export - this type does not allow you to specify which section to include; all sections are included
- Partial/Custom CTF Export - this type allows you to choose which sections to include in your export
- CMJ (Joiner) Export - this type is a specific style of partial CTF - more on these can be found in the DfE's CTF guidance and the CMJ/CML specific section of this guide.
For Full and Partial CTFs, this takes you through to Step 1 of 2 of a New CTF Export. In this step:
- Set your destination type using the Destination drop-down. Your options are:
- Schools in England or Wales
- Private or independent school
- Unknown destination in England and Wales
- Unknown destination outside England and Wales
- Local Authority
- Click the green Next button to move to step 2
Top Tip: If creating a CTF for the Reception Baseline assessment, select an Unknown destination. You then won't need to select a school in the next steps.
In Step 2, set your destination's details if the destination you specified was a school in England or Wales:
- First, set the destination school's Local Authority (failing to do this will result in an empty School Dropdown)
- Next, select the destination school from the list
Can't select the right school?
- Go to School > Linked Organisations > Educational Institutions to see if the right details are in there for the school you want to send to. If they're not, you can add them.
- Check to make sure the school you want to select is actually open and you have the correct LA number and DfE number from https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. If the information here is incorrect, please ask the other school to get in touch with the DfE.
For all destination types, follow these steps:
- Double-check the listed details
- Add any notes you want to output in the CTF
- For Partial CTFs only, use the tick boxes to Specify Included Fields. UPN, last name, first name, DOB and gender are always included, as these fields are required for the CTF to be valid; the other sections you need to manually select for these to be included. The sections to choose from are:
- Basic Details
- FSM History
- Looked After
- SEN History
- Student Address
- Student Phone Number
- Student Email
- Contacts (Guardians)
- Attendance Data
- Assessment Data
- School History
- Click the green Create CTF button
- Click Yes on the pop-up
Once you have done this, a CTF will generate in the background. You will be notified via the Bell icon in the left-hand menu once the CTF has been generated.
To download the CTF, click the bell, then the notification, and click Download on the slide-over.
Alternatively, you can click the CTF export section on their profile under Admin Function at the bottom of their profile, select the CTF, then click Download.
Once you click Download, the CTF will download to your computer's default download folder, for you to send to the required destination.
Generating CTFs for multiple students
In addition to creating CTFs per student, you might need to create a CTF for multiple students in one go. To do this:
- Go to School > Data > Export > CTF Export.
-
Click on +Add from the Full or Partial/Custom tab.
- Clicking +Add on the Full tab will let you create full CTFs in bulk
- Clicking +Add on the Partial/Custom tab allows you to specify which section of a CTF you do and don't want to include
-
On the slide-over, enter your settings in the drop-downs. All three are required to be completed:
Academic Year allows you to choose which academic year the students included in the CTF are enrolled in. This helps you narrow down which students and groups show in the Students dropdown.
Students allows you to select specific students and groups. You can select multiple. The students and groups you select will be included in the export.
-
Destination allows you to specify who the CTF is for (depending on the destination, the characteristics and identifiers of the CTF will be different). Your options are:
- Schools in England or Wales
- Private or independent school
- Unknown destination in England and Wales
- Unknown destination outside England and Wales
- Local Authority
- Click Next to proceed to the next step.
Top Tip: If creating a CTF for the Reception Baseline assessment, select Unknown destination. You then won't need to select a school.
In the next slide-over (Step 2)
Select the Destination LA and New School name, if needed
Add notes (optional)
-
For partial/custom CTFs only, use the tick boxes to Specify Included Fields. UPN, last name, first name, DOB and gender are always included, as these fields are required for the CTF to be valid; the other sections you need to manually select for these to be included. The sections are:
- Basic Details
- FSM History
- Looked After
- SEN History
- Student Address
- Student Phone Number
- Student Email
- Contacts (Guardians)
- Attendance Data
- Assessment Data
- School History
Click on the green Create CTF.
Can't select the right school?
- Go to School > Linked Organisations > Educational Institutions to see if the right details are in there for the school you want to send to. If they're not, you can add them.
- Check to make sure the school you want to select is actually open and you have the correct LA number and DfE number from https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. If the information here is incorrect, please ask the other school to get in touch with the DfE.
Refresh your page until the table shows that the file is ready for download. Alternatively, you can click the notification on the left-hand menu of Arbor (the Bell Icon) once this appears.
If using the table, click 'Ready for Download' and then the green 'Download' button from the new slide-over.
Creating a CTF does not unenroll a student; this is a separate process. You end the enrolment of your students as outlined in this article.
You can also generate CTFs in bulk when completing Step 2 of the New School Year Setup Process.
How to send the CTF
Please see this article: How do I send the CTF to the destination school?
Can we edit the CTF?
It is not possible to edit the CTF once generated. If you need to generate it for a different school for example, you'll need to generate a new CTF with the new destination.
The record of the original CTF will need to remain. It is not possible to delete this.
The school can't import the CTF we generated?
In the 2nd step of the CTF export, you see the option to choose your Address Format.
Some MISs can have issues with importing student addresses from CTFs with the address format 'Address Lines', causing them to need to add the address manually. If a school has trouble importing, please try the BS7666 address format.
Please note that this option is only available on CTFs, not with CMJ, CML or ULN, as these have not had this issue when importing.
Generating a CML or CMJ
Generating CMJs or CMLs for an individual or student
To create a CMJ, go to the student's profile. At the bottom of the student's profile, there will be an Admin Functions section.
In the Admin Functions section:
- Click the +Add button
- On the pop up, to select CMJ (joiner) Export
- Check the student name shown on the slide-over is correct
- Click the green Create CMJ button
Your CML will generate in the background. Once generated, you are alerted with a notification in the left-hand menu (the Bell Icon). Click on the notification, and click Download on the slide-over to save the CML to your device.
Generating CMJs or CMLs for multiple students
Top Tip: You can only generate CMLs for the current academic year from here. Please use the student profile (detailed above) to generate CMLs for past students.
To generate CMLs or CMJs in bulk:
- Go to School > Data > Export > CTF Export.
- Click on the CML or CMJ tab (going to the CML tab will export CMLs and going to the CMJ tab will export CMJs)
- Click +Add.
- On the slide over, select the student(s) you want to include in the export
- Click the green Create CMJ button
Your file will generate in the background. Refresh your page until the table shows that the file is ready for download. Alternatively, you can click the notification in the left menu of Arbor (the Bell Icon).
Please note that although the notification says that it is a CTF, it will be the format you chose (CML/CMJ). The LA listed is your school's Local Authority.
You can then click on 'Ready for Download' and then the green 'Download' button from the new slide-over.
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