The article details School Census updates mandated by the Department for Education, including replacing the Gender field with Sex and adding an Expanded Hours field for Early Years and Nursery students in the summer census. It also introduces new fields to confirm Post-16 English and Maths minimum study hours, highli removal of Traineeships data collection, and provides guidance links for further information.
Below you will find any changes or updates to the School Census that have been released by the Department for Education.
- For full guidance from the DfE on changes to the census, click here.
- For further information detailing what data your school must return in the Autumn, Spring or Summer census, click here.
Changes 2025/2026
Expanded Hours Field
The Expanded Hours field in the Other section of student profiles has been updated to accept up to 30 hours. Previously, the maximum allowed was 15 hours.
To find the field in question:
- For an individual student, go to Students > All Students > Browse Students > Student Profile > View “Other” [Scroll down to the Expanded Hours field]
- To bulk view and update, go to Students > All Students > Bulk Update > Bulk Update Funded Hours
The expanded hours field only shows on Early Years and Nursery students' profiles, excluding 4-year-olds in Reception. For each individual student, the information required and the maximum number of funded hours allowed depend on the student's age and National Curriculum year. When you generate the census, any incorrect or missing data will be brought to your attention. Please refer to the census documentation for more information on early years funding.
Find more about updating funded and extended hours here: Hours at setting, funded hours, extended or expanded hours and 30-hour funding codes
Post-16 English and Maths Minimum Hours
Two new fields have been added to record the confirmation that a student is studying the minimum hours required for English and Maths. These fields confirm whether the minimum hours are planned for students undertaking eligible qualifications who do not yet have a GCSE grade 4+ or equivalent in the subject.
This change aligns with the Maths and English conditions in the funding guidance for 16- to 19-year-olds. To meet the condition of funding in the 2025/26 academic year, students must study eligible qualifications for a minimum of 100 hours for Maths and/or 100 hours for English.
This support must be delivered as in-person, whole-class, stand-alone teaching.
To Access and update this information, head to one of these pages:
- School > Data > Data Quality > Students > Demographics > Bulk Update GCSE Attainment for Funding
- Student Profile > GCSE Attainment for Funding section
- School Census > Overview > Download Post-16 Report [The report includes the new fields]
Find more on how to use these pages here: Adding prior attainment for English and Maths
Traineeships No Longer Collected
The DfE is no longer collecting information about Traineeships in the School Census.
Note: No changes have been made to how Traineeships are recorded within Arbor.
Changes 2024/2025
Gender Field > Sex
The Gender field has been replaced by Sex. Please see our guidance here: Sex, Gender and Gender Identity in Arbor and statutory returns. Schools can choose to record Gender Identity but this is not returned in the census.
Expanded Hours (Recording Hours in School)
For the summer census, an additional field called Expanded hours has been added for recording hours in school for Early Years and Nursery Students: Hours at setting, funded hours, extended or expanded hours and 30 hour funding codes
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