Wales PLASC - Pupil Counts

This guide explains the Pupil Counts page. This area is used to reconcile school-level funding, attendance, and special class data.

PLASC Series

This is the fourth guide in our series on completing the Wales PLASC. You can access the other guides in the series here:

• Wales PLASC - General Guide and Overview 
• Wales PLASC - The Classes Page 
• Wales PLASC - Meals and School Characteristics 
• Wales PLASC - Pupil Counts (This guide)
• Wales PLASC - Teachers and Support Staff
• Wales PLASC - Teaching of Welsh 

Permissions

• To access and edit this data, you must have the School: Data Returns: Administer permission.

If you do not have this permission, ask your office staff or administrator to add it to your profile for you.

What is the Pupil Counts Page?

The Pupil Counts page captures aggregate student data as it exists on Census Day. Unlike the detailed individual pupil records found elsewhere in the census, this page looks at totals.

It is divided into three distinct sections:

1. Funding: (Middle & Secondary only)
2. Attendance and Part-Time Enrolments: (Headcounts present on the day)
3. Special Classes: (For schools with LA-designated special classes)

Navigation

• Go to School > Data > Export > Data Returns.
• Select the PLASC
• Select Pupil Counts from the left-hand menu.

Funding (Middle & Secondary Only)

This section records students aged 18 or under (31 August 2025) who are funded through arrangements other than mainstream school funding.

Visibility

This section is only visible to Middle and Secondary schools. It is hidden for Nursery, Primary, and Special schools.

What to enter

• Franchised: Count of students on courses that remain the responsibility of a Further Education (FE) institution.
• Full Cost Recovery: Count of students funded through arrangements other than the mainstream source.
• Other: Count of students funded through any other non-mainstream arrangements.

How to do this

1. Click on any field in the Funding section.
2. The Edit Pupil Funding slide-over will appear.
3. Manually enter the correct headcounts for each category.
4. Click Save Changes.

Attendance and Part-Time Enrolments

This section records the headcount of pupils who were present for at least one session on Census Day.

Visibility & Logic

• Full-Time Attending: Visible for All Phases.
• Part-Time Attending: Hidden for Secondary schools.
• Part-Time Patterns (Morning/Afternoon/Other): Hidden for Secondary schools.

What to enter

• Full-Time Attending Census Day: The total number of full-time pupils present.
• Part-Time Attending Census Day: The total number of part-time pupils present.
• Split (Morning/Afternoon/Other): For part-time pupils, you must break down when they attended (e.g., how many attended in the morning only).

The Attendance Calculator

You do not need to count heads manually. Arbor can calculate this from your attendance registers.

• Warning: Running this process will overwrite any details already present in this section.

• Calculated Fields: The system will populate counts for Full-Time Students Attending and, for relevant phases, Part-Time Students Attending.

How to use

• Locate the Attendance and Part-Time Enrolments section.
• Click the Calculate Attendance & Part-Time Enrolments button
• Click Yes
• The system will check the attendance marks for Census Day and populate the fields automatically.

Note: If you have not yet entered attendance for Census Day, these figures will be zero. Ensure registers are complete before running this calculation.

Part-Time Breakdown

For Nursery, Primary, Middle, and Special phases, you must also provide a breakdown of part-time enrolments. These fields are hidden for Secondary schools.

• Morning Only Enrolments: Part-time pupils attending only in the mornings.

• Afternoon Only Enrolments: Part-time pupils attending only in the afternoons.

• Other Enrolments: Part-time pupils attending under other arrangements.

If the auto-calculated totals require adjustment, you can use the Edit Part-Time Students Attending slide-over to fix the data; all other data should be corrected by adjusting data in Arbor and re-using the automatic calculator.

Special Classes (Not Special Schools)

This section captures data on Local Authority Designated Special Classes. These are specific classes within a mainstream school formally designated by the LA.

Visibility

This section is visible to Nursery, Primary, Middle, and Secondary schools. It is hidden for Special schools (as all classes in a Special school are special classes).

What to enter

• LEA Special Classes: The number of designated special classes in your school.
• Enrolled Pupils in LEA Special Classes: The number of your registered pupils on roll who are in these classes.
• Pupils from Other Schools: The number of guest pupils registered elsewhere attending these specific classes.

The Special Classes Calculator

You can use the calculator to identify Local Authority (LA) designated special classes and the pupils enrolled in them automatically. Some important things to note are:

• Warning: This action will overwrite any previously entered manual data in this section.
• Calculated Fields: The system identifies the number of LA Special Classes and the number of enrolled pupils from your school.
• Manual Verification You must manually check and, if necessary, update the following via the Special Classes slide-over by clicking on any of the fields

• Pupils from Other Schools: You must manually provide the count of pupils from other schools who are attending your LA-designated special classes, as the system cannot calculate this automatically.

How to use

• Head to the Special Classes section.
• Click the green Calculate Special Classes
• Click Yes

Manual entry

To manually enter the details, click any of the fields in the Special Classes section, enter the details on the slide-over before hitting Save Changes.