Welsh Schools’ Post-16 Census/Data Return

The Post-16 Data Return feature in Arbor Wales allows schools to generate their annual statutory Post-16 Data Return as required by the Welsh Government. This process is essential for schools in Wales to fulfil their legal obligations regarding data submission.

This is a statutory data collection requirement for all maintained secondary and middle schools in Wales that had pupils in National Curriculum Year (NCY) 12 or above at any time in the previous academic year. It collects data at a pupil, programmes of study, and learning aim level for the entire academic year, including any changes to the programmes of study and/or learning aims being studied.

Note: Pupils aged 20 or over as of 31 August in the relevant academic year are not included in the return.

Schools submit their completed returns to their local authority, which then sends the data to the Welsh Government for statistical analysis at school, local authority, and national levels, as well as informing policy and practice. This data is used to calculate future years’ funding allocations, monitor programme delivery, and support the development of consistent performance measures for Post-16 learning, including retention and achievement rates for A-level, vocational, and Welsh Baccalaureate programmes. 
 

Who can access this feature?

It is available to staff with the permission: School: Data Returns: Administer. If you do not have this permission, ask your Admin team to assign this to you.

Navigation

Accessing the Post-16 Data Return

To access the Post-16 Data Return feature:

• Go to School > Data > Export > Data Returns.
• Ensure the Academic Year dropdown is set to the correct year
• Click Post 16 in the table

The banner on the Homepage

Once the Post-16 Data Return date (also known simply as Census Day) has passed, staff will see a warning banner on their Homepage as a reminder to submit the Post-16 Data Return. The banner includes a useful Census Help button that links to our Help Centre for further guidance on completing the census.

The banner shows on homepages from the opening date of the return until the return is marked as Submitted or the Return closing date has passed. 

You can find the return and closing dates for a specific return by going to School > Data > Export > Data Returns, clicking on the census/return you are interested in and referring to the Return Details section at the top of the page.

Once you have submitted your return to the Welsh Government, you have the option to add a submitted date and time to your Return Details, which marks your Return as submitted in Arbor and removes the warning banner from your homepage. To add a submitted date:

• Click on Submitted datetime in the Return Details section
• Add a date on the slide-over
• Press Save 

Submitted datetime only shows if you have a return listed in the Active tab. If you have only generated Dry Runs so far, you do not see this field. Adding a Submitted Date will not prevent you from generating a new version of the Return.
 

Key Functionality

The Data Returns feature provides the following key functionality:

• Census Return Overview: Shows the current state of all census returns, linking to each census run and allows generation of a new census and download of the latest successful return and summary files.
• Census Generation Overview: Shows the state of an individual census return and allows the download of its XML and Summary files along with the list of Errors and Queries for this generation
• Dry Run Generation: This allows the generation of census output before the return has opened to allow schools to view errors and queries early or just to become familiar with the process, more errors could be shown here than normal due to the census being generated early
• Census Generation: Becomes available after the census has opened and is otherwise identical to the dry run with the exception that the last date for this data return has now passed, Dry runs and Live census runs are shown separately in the overview
• Census XML Download: The Census XML generated by can be downloaded ready for submission or inspection
• Errors and Queries lists: Shows the list of errors and queries generated by the Welsh Government supplied validation rules to allow schools to correct any data problems and re-run the census
• Welsh Govt. Summary Download: Downloads a PDF summary of the data, schools would normally use this to verify some numbers and the school must physically sign a copy of this that is generated at the same time as their Census XML
• Completer Hours Data Entry: The Welsh Government requires the school to supply information about the total number of hours spent completing the census by their staff for each role. This has a simple data entry feature and will automatically total up multiple entries for a role if they exist; this will then be included in the census output automatically.
   

Using the Census Returns Overview Page

The Census return overview shows the important dates for the selected data return, along with the most recent census generation date and status.

A generation history provides links to all of the generations that exist for this data return.

Dry runs and live returns are listed separately and will automatically switch (from dry run mode) after the return date. Select any row in the generation history table to view a single census generation

The generate button will generate a new census return and summary based on the current data.

Download will automatically download the XML census data for the last successful data return generation

Download Welsh Govt. Summary will download the data return summary tables file (.pdf) for the last successful return generation.

Generating a Census Dry Run & Live Census Generation

What is a Dry Run? - A dry run is a census/data return generation that is created before the “Return Date” (the date set as the day of the census/data return and the end of the data collection period)

The Generate feature will generate either a dry run or live census XML and Govt. Summary file depending on the date.

After triggering the census generation, you can continue working or do something else; the census will continue generating, and then it will send a notification when it is complete.

Any in-progress census generations will be listed in the overview along with their status, so you will see the census generations even if you were not the person triggering the generation.

Census XML Download

The download button will download the XML census output to your computer ready to submit to your LA or Welsh Government, or if you wish to browse the content yourself. Please take care with these files as they can contain a lot of personal information.

Errors and Queries

To view and amend errors/queries, you need to have generated a Dry Run Census or Census.

As a rule of thumb, errors are data items you must correct (there are exceptions to this), queries are data items you need to double-check are correct, but may not actually need adjusting. The goal is to reduce your errors and queries as much as you can, for data accuracy and statutory compliance.

Top Tip: We recommend that you work through your errors and queries in batches and then regenerate after resolving a few to minimise time spent waiting for regeneration. Remember, the errors will only disappear after you’ve regenerated your census!
 

Resolve your Arbor Validation errors first. This will usually clear one or more Welsh Government Validation errors at the same time.

Arbor validations exist to help identify where:

• No Programmes of study exist for a student
• A learning aim does not fit in (by date range) any Programme of study recorded for the student
• No learning aims are found at all for a Programme of study

1. See which students have validation errors and what the error is in the Abor Validations table on the Overview page

2. Click on an Arbor Validation error to open a slide-over or to be taken to the relevant section of the student's profile (this differs per error)

3. Enter the correct information 

4. Ensure to press Save (if applicable) to confirm your choices

Once you have resolved as many Arbor errors as you can, start resolving your Welsh Govt. Validation errors.

In the generation overview, you will be shown the Errors and Queries generated by the Welsh Government’s validation rules for the census generation. For many errors, you can click directly through to the record with the problem. 

Top Tip: Always regenerate your Census before leaving the Census pages to ensure that any work you have done is saved and recorded.

The download feature on the right-hand side can be used if you would like a downloaded version of the errors and queries.

Some tools that may help if you need to check queries or correct errors with student Post-16 Programmes of study and Learning Aim data:

Students > Enrolment > Academic > Programmes of Study

Students > Enrolment > Academic > Learning Aims

Students > All Students > Browse Students > {Student Name} > Enrolment

After making your corrections/adjustments, select Generate to create a new version of the census so the data can be re-checked.

Welsh Government Summary Download

Download the census summary (.pdf) containing tables summarising the data contained within the XML return. This contains the sign-off form and shows the date and time matching the corresponding XML return.

Census Completer hours

The return requires a list of the roles of the staff members who have spent time completing the census and the time spent (in whole hours). This can be recorded with these steps:

• Go to School > Data > Export > Data Returns > [Select Post 16 in the table] > Completer Hours [in the left-hand menu]

• Click +Add
• Enter the number of hours and the role of the staff member
• Click Add Cenus Completer

You may add multiple entries for any role(s), or edit (or delete) an entry by selecting it from the Census Completer Log table. Note: The hours will be automatically summed per role and included in the next census generation.

Data Included in the Post-16 Return

Student data

Only basic student data is included:

• UPN (And Former UPN where present)
• ULN
• Names
• Date of Birth
• Sex
• Enrolment Status (Current or Main only)
• Part-time status (expected to be No for P16)
• National Curriculum Year
• Postcode

Programmes of Study

All Programmes of Study undertaken by each student during the academic year are included, including those that may have finished early (due to a student changing programme). 

A student can have more than one Programme of Study included, but they are not allowed to overlap; this would result in a census error. It is the school's responsibility to accurately record the programmes of study and any changes.

Programmes of Study are found under Students > Enrolment > Academic > Programmes of Study and in the Enrolment section of student profiles. Click on a programme to see and add Programme Instances with the green +Add button. An instance is a time period within which a Programme is delivered.

Click on an Instance to be taken through to the Instance's Overview, from where you can enrol students into the Programme and Instance, and use the Bulk Action to update student statuses or click on individual records to make edits on the slide-over. Find more on adding and managing Programmes of Study here: Understanding Programmes and Learning Activities in Welsh Schools

Learning Aims

The learning aims undertaken by each student are also included in the return. The dates of the aims are used to determine the Programme of Study that each aim fits into. 

Learning aims can belong to 2 (or more) Programmes of study in the event of the student continuing with a learning aim but changing programme. You must accurately record the Learning aims the student has taken during the academic year.

You can find Learning Aims under Students > Enrolment > Academic > Learning Aims and in the Enrolment section of student profiles. Click on a Learning Aim to see and add Learning Aim Instances with the green +Add button. An instance is a time period within which a Learning Aim is delivered.

Click on a Learning Aim Instance to enrol students into the Aim, link courses, link a qualification or bulk update information about the Learning Aim using the bulk action. 

Find more on adding and managing Learning Aims here: Understanding Programmes and Learning Activities in Welsh Schools
 

Link to Qualification Award

Learning Aims must be linked to a qualification award, their QWAD(Qualification Wales Approval Designation No.) and Discount code will be automatically populated from exams data, but if needed can be manually entered in the format QWAD/DiscountCode in the “Placeholder qualification award reference” field. 

Further reading

Please find the Welsh Government Post-16 data collection guidance here. This contains detailed information on all fields returned and guidance on transfers across Programmes of study and Learning aims

Tools for Managing Learning Aims and Programmes of Study

Bulk Actions

Bulk actions are provided in both learning aims and programmes of study.

These help you perform actions on sets of enrolled students as needed; care needs to be taken to select only those students for whom the bulk action is needed.

Both learning aims and programmes of study will usually have their completion status set to completed (some 2-year courses may be ‘continuing’ at the end of their first year). This can be done both individually and as a Bulk Action.

To do this in bulk, you need to select the students you wish to change only with the tick boxes (you can sort or filter the grid by completion status to help) and then select the Bulk action:

If the actual end date matched the planned end date,  no date needs to be entered in the Completion date field.

Example Student, Programme and Learning aim structure

The above is a visualisation of the basic data returned in the census showing a single student, their Programmes of study (e.g. A2) and their Learning Aims (e.g. Biology, Chemistry).

The illustration shows a student who has moved from a 3 A2 (Biology, Chemistry and Maths) Programme to a 2 A-Level Programme (Biology and Chemistry).

In this case, the Biology and Chemistry Learning aims have a single instance each but have date ranges in both Programmes of study.

Submission Deadlines

Each local authority has its own deadline for receiving returns from schools before sending them on to the Welsh Government.  Schools should contact their local authority for details of this deadline.  

For the 2024/2025 academic year, the Post-16 data collection covers the period from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025. DEWi opens for Post-16 data submission on 16 September 2025. The deadline for data submission to the Welsh Government is 10 October 2025. Local authorities may set earlier deadlines for schools to allow time to resolve any errors or missing data.