There are three ways to add applicants, as outlined below—please complete only one method for each student.
Please note that:
- We do not currently support importing ADT files. Please ask your LA for an ATF instead.
- You can see our guidance on using CTFs here: Can we add applicants using a CTF?
You reach the Applicants section by going to Students > All Students > Applicants
This will bring you to the Intake Seasons Dashboard. The Intake Season refers to the academic year that these applicants will be joining your school. Before adding any applicants, you must first set up the Intake Season. For instructions on how to do this, read our article on Setting Up the Intake Season.
Click on Applicants on the left-hand side. The applicants' table will indicate whether the applicants have been enrolled, rejected, withdrawn, or newly created.
Option 1 - ATF (Applicant Transfer File)
An Applicant Transfer File (ATF) is a standardised format for transmitting student data to schools, typically used when a student transfers to a new school.
To Import an ATF into Arbor go to School > Data > Import > ATF Import. Click on the +Add in the top right-hand corner.
In the slide over, click Browse to select the ATF file from your computer, then click on the green Upload ATF button.
When you click Upload ATF, you will then be taken to the Import Overview (Shown in the section below).
Once you import your file, you'll see the names have a red x, meaning that the applicants have not yet been fully imported.
If you click on a student, you can specify an intake season if it differs from the rest of the students.
You can also map them to an applicant if they already exist in the intake season. You won't be able to map the import to an existing student, for example, if you are adding a Reception intake and one of the students already attends your Nursery.
If both the original student and the importing student have the same UPN, they will be automatically matched.
If there is no existing applicant to match them to, you can either leave the Update student field blank and click Import applicant, or click Cancel to close the slide-over and import all applicants in bulk (as shown in the next section).
To import students in bulk, click the "Import All Students" button.
Select the intake season to import them into, then confirm the import.
You'll receive a notification in the top right of your screen to let you know when the import has been completed.
If you refresh your page, you'll see that all the students have been imported and new applicants have been created.
These students will now appear in the Applicants section.
To check if you've created any duplicate applicants, you can see which students already exist on Arbor.
- Go to Students > Enrolment > Year Groups. Click the year group to view a list of enrolled students.
- If you have accidentally created a duplicate applicant and they are already a student in the system, you'll need to delete the duplicate applicant. For example, if you've been given an ATF for reception students that includes students who already attend your nursery.
- Just go to Students > All Students > Applicants. Select the intake season, then go to Applicants from the left-hand side. Click the applicant's name that you want to delete.
- Click Edit in the slide over, then on the next slide-over, click the red Delete Application and Student button.
You can then promote the existing students as part of Step 3. Year Groups and Registration Forms of the New School Year Setup process.
Deleting enrolled applicants
If you have already enrolled applicants and have duplicates, you'll need to follow the instructions in this article to remove them.
I cannot import Applicants from the ATF?
This could be caused because of a missing Intake Season. You can find out how to create one by following our guide: Creating an Intake Season. Once this has been set up, you should be able to import the Applicants using the ATF.
Can we remove the ATF?
Please see our guidance here: Can we delete an ATF we've imported?
Option 2 - Manually adding applicants
From the Applicants page, click +Add in the top right-hand corner of the table.
A pop-up will appear, allowing you to select whether the applicant is already a student or a new student.
When clicking on Create Application for Existing student a slide over will display a drop-down with students name, choose the student and fill in any other information you want to add in the slide over and then click on Save Changes.
When clicking on 'Create Application for New Student', a slide-over will load. Add the details of the new applicant and click 'Save Changes'. You will also be asked to create Guardian Details for this new student, so please ensure you have this information readily available.
Registration Forms and Year Groups when adding an applicant
Please note that you will not be able to select an expected year group or complete a registration form if you are adding applicants for the next academic year. This is because the year groups and registration forms have not yet been set up as part of the new school year setup process. This part of Arbor will become available on May 1st, along with the supporting guidance.
Error message when adding applicants
This could be because you will need the Admissions: Administer All Students and Guardians: Administer All Students permissions to add an applicant and to add guardian details to that applicant.
If you receive the error message after adding the applicant's details, the applicant may still be added to the intake season without the Guardian details.
Do I have to add a guardian?
You don't have to add a guardian. For more information, please see: Do I need to add guardian details when adding an applicant?
Option 3 - Uploading Applicants
Go to Applicant Uploads and click the green button to download the template. Download the Template.
Open the template from your computer.
Your spreadsheet will then open on your computer, where you can add in the information. Please do not edit the file by adding more columns.
Registration Forms and Year Groups in the Applicant Spreadsheet
Please note that you will not be able to put an expected year group and registration form for each applicant into the Applicant Spreadsheet. This is because the year groups and registration forms have not yet been set up as part of the new school year setup process. This part of Arbor will become available on May 1st, along with the supporting guidance.
Required fields
Please note that these fields are required to prevent an error when importing: Student Legal First and Last Names, Sex and Date of Birth. You'll also need to include the guardian relationship, or the guardians won't be able to be created.
UPNs in the Import Spreadsheet
Please note that UPNs entered on an import spreadsheet don't transfer into newly created Student profiles. The UPN column in the template is designed solely to map your upload to existing student profiles. You will need to add the UPNs manually or generate them on a student profile or in bulk using our Adding a UPN to a student profile guidance.
To help avoid creating duplicate applicants, make sure you check whether the student already exists in Arbor before uploading the spreadsheet. For example, if you've been given a list of reception students that includes students who already attend your nursery.
Ensure that you do not include any students already at your school, as you can promote these students as part of Step 3. Year Groups and Registration Forms of the New School Year Setup process.
Take a look at the student names you're about to import, and compare them to your existing student lists in the Students > Enrolment > Year Groups section. Click the year group to see a list of the existing students.
Return to the Applicant Uploads page and click "+Add" to upload your template, then confirm and import your Applicants.
If you have accidentally created a duplicate applicant and they are already a student in the system, you'll need to delete the duplicate applicant.
- Just go to Students > All Students > Applicants. Select the intake season, then go to Applicants from the left-hand side. Click the applicant's name that you want to delete.
- Click Edit in the slide over, then on the next slide-over, click the red Delete Application and Student button.
If you have already enrolled applicants and have duplicates, you'll need to follow the instructions in this article to remove them.
Can I add more columns to upload?
Please see our guidance on this here: Can I import additional fields in the applicant upload spreadsheet?
Add information missed in the import
If you've forgotten to include certain details in the report, you can:
- Import email addresses in bulk: Bulk import student, guardian or staff email addresses
- Update phone numbers for guardians with currently enrolled students (so you'd need to wait until they are enrolled): Finding a Guardian Profile, updating contact details or unsubscribing from communications
If you have a lot of information to add, or you didn't add guardians at all, we'd recommend deleting the applicants and re-importing: Delete or merge a student profile
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