This article provides guidance on how schools should report student attendance hours for Early Years and Nursery students in the School Census. It details the process for entering funded hours, hours at setting, and the necessary permissions required. The article also explains how to update these details in bulk or for individual students, including the use of the Thirty hour code and funding basis. It clarifies the definitions of funded hours, extended hours, and expanded hours, and provides instructions on recording hours in the correct format.
In the School Census, your school is required to provide information on the number of hours certain students are attending school, and how many hours they are entitled to.
- This information is required for Early Years and Nursery students.
- This data is not reported for 4-years-olds in Reception, so Reception students are not included in the table on the bulk page.
For each individual student the number of funded hours allowed depends on the student's age and NC year.
You can see full guidance on what to fill in from the DfE - scroll down to the Hours at setting (used for funding) section here: Census data items
Permissions
You'll need the Admin: Administer All/My Students permission to enter and change data in this area. If you don't have the permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.
Using the bulk page
To fill in these details, go to Students > All Students > Bulk Update > Bulk Update Funded Hours.
Top Tip: You can also upload a spreadsheet of these details in bulk: Entity Importer for setting up your site from scratch or adding new data
Update hours in bulk
Tick the boxes next to the students, and use the Bulk action button to select Bulk Updated Funded Hours & Hours At Setting.
In the slide over, you can add the funded hours, hours at setting, extended hours and expanded hours, then click Bulk update.
The table will then update in the background - you may need to refresh your page if you've updated many students.
Top Tip: The Funded Hour Basis and Thirty Hour Code columns will be blank. These need to be completed for each individual student and cannot be done in bulk - you can see how to do this below.
Updating a single student - thirty hour code and funding basis
Click on a student's name to update their funded hours, hours at setting, extended or expanded hours.
From here you can also add the Thirty hour code. You’ll need to ask the parents if you do not know a child’s code. For more information on getting this code, click here.
If a student is 2 and has funded hours, you'll need to add a funding basis. Click the student's name to add a funding basis, as this cannot be updated in bulk. The options are:
- Economic criteria
- High-level SEN or disability - If this option is selected, you should record a SEN status of E (Education, Health and Care Plan): SEN Statuses. Please note that if the student is still undergoing assessment, you will need to contact the DfE for further guidance.
- Looked after or adopted from care
No extended or expanded hours
For students that are not entitled to extended or expanded hours paid for by the government, do not enter anything into the Extended hours or Expanded hours fields. Arbor is unable to distinguish between a number entered in the Extended hours field (e.g. 15:00) and zero (e.g. 00:00).
Hours paid for by the child’s parents or the school should only contribute to the Hours at setting total.
Here is an example of a student only attending school for the 15 hours of funded Universal Entitlement.
On the student profile
Go to the Other section of the student's profile and click on the fields.
You can then update the Hours at setting, Funded hours, Extended hours, Expanded hours, Thirty hour code and Funding basis (if required), then click Save Changes.
How to fill in each field?
You can see full guidance on what to fill in from the DfE - scroll down to the Hours at setting (used for funding) section here: Census data items
It is not possible to use both Expanded hours and Extended hours on a student profile at the same time, although a student can be eligible for both at the same time. As per the DfE Census guidance:
"In some circumstances, 2-year-olds may be eligible for both the 15-hour entitlement for disadvantaged 2-year-olds and the expanded entitlement but can only take up one of these entitlements. In those circumstances, children should be recorded against the disadvantaged entitlement."
Here is a quick summary of what each field is to be used for:
- Funded hours - Hours in school funded by the universal entitlement (maximum 15).
- Hours at setting - Total number of hours they spent in education at the school, no matter who funded the hours. To calculate this, add the Funded Hours, Extended Hours or Expanded Hours and any additional hours paid for by the school or parents.
- Extended hours - Additional hours taken above and beyond the universal entitlement (maximum 15) for 3 and 4-year-olds with working parents. Do not include expanded hours or hours paid for by the school or parents in this number.
- Expanded hours - Additional hours taken above and beyond the universal entitlement (maximum 15) for 2-year-olds with working parents. Do not include extended hours or hours paid for by the school or parents in this number.
- Thirty hour code - Also called the Eligibility Code by the DfE for the Summer 2024 Census. This 11-digit code entitles children of working parents to an extra 15 hours of childcare funding. You need to fill in this field if the number in the Extended or Expanded hours fields are greater than 0.
The below screenshot details how to fill in the fields for a student who has funded hours set for the new 2-year-old working parents entitlement:
Can we use decimals?
In the DfE's Data items guidance, they refer to hours in a decimal format, to 2 decimal places. For example:
- 10 and a half hours, this is recorded as 10.50
- 10 hours and 20 minutes, this is recorded as 10.33
In Arbor, this is recorded as hours and minutes rather than decimal. So for example:
- 10 and a half hours, this is recorded as 10:30
- 10 hours and 20 minutes, this is recorded as 10:20
Comments
Article is closed for comments.