On-the-day Pupil Reconciliation error 1000 (Spring census only)

This article provides guidance for schools on resolving the Pupil Reconciliation error 1000 during the spring census. It outlines steps to ensure accurate enrolment figures, including adding part-time students, checking class numbers, and addressing students not scheduled in any classes. Schools must ensure that the number of pupils on roll matches the reconciliation figures before submitting the census.

Schools need to include enrolment figures for students in the spring census. Please note that this error cannot be resolved until on or after census day.

Error 1000: Pupil reconciliation does not match the number of pupils on roll.

What is pupil reconciliation? 

Pupil Reconcliation is used to verify that the number of enrolled pupils included in your return with individual pupil data is consistent with the number of pupils reported in each class. This allows for the fact that some registered pupils may not have been in a class at the census time.

To enable the pupil reconciliation to be carried out, Arbor requests numbers for the following student groups at the time of the census:

• students who are part-time and not required to be in at the time of the census
• students engaged in private study at the census time
• students attending another educational provision at the census time
• pupils attending further education (FE) college – middle-deemed secondary, secondary and all-through schools only
• pupils attending work experience – middle-deemed secondary, secondary and all-through schools only

You can find more guidance on Pupil Reconciliation on the DfE website.

When can we reconcile our students and remove error 1000?

Because pupil reconciliation makes use of on-the-day class numbers, you can only complete your pupil reconciliation on or after census day. This also means you cannot remove this error untill this time. Once you have added your Pupil Reconciliation and checked it is correct, regenerate your census to see the error disappear.

How is the Pupil Reconciliation calculated?

The reconciliation consists of the following calculation:

• The total number of students from this school scheduled to attend classes at the time of the census, across all classes taught.
• Plus, all students engaged in private study at the census time
• Plus, all students in your school who are part-time pupils not scheduled to be in attendance at the school at the selected time. More on this here: Part Time students for the School Census
• Plus, pupils attending another school or education provision at the selected time

This total must equal the number of pupils on roll on census day that you have provided individual pupil data for (not including any guest children). Once this is the case, your pupil numbers are 'reconciled'.

Step 1 - Add in your pupil reconciliation numbers (including part-time)

If you have any students who are Part-Time and are not required to be in school at the time of the census, make sure you add this number into the 'Part time not in' field on this page. 

Part-time students could be Post-16 students not required to be in, or Nursery students who aren't required to attend every session, among other reasons. You can see more information about this here: What makes a student part-time or full-time?

Please note: Arbor is unable to advise on whether a student of compulsory school age on a reduced timetable should be marked as 'part-time not in'. If in doubt, please speak to the DfE for further support.

To add the number of students in each group: 

• Head to your Census Overview
  • Go to School > Data > Export > Data Returns
  • Click on your Spring Census 
  • Click View and fix errors or School Census
• Click Pupil Reconciliation on the left
• Click one of the fields 
• Add the number for each on the slide-over

Step 2 - Check your class numbers

You can see if your enrolled students and students scheduled to be in a class at the time of the census match by checking the Reconciliation Status. If this does not match, the field shows 'Pupil numbers not reconciled. Click for more info.'

If this is the case, click the Reconciliation status field to see the number of students who are enrolled in your school that are not reconciled. Before you submit your census, you’ll need to get this number down to 0. For classes where the number of Home pupils given and Actual students in the class match, no action is needed. The next subsections take you through the things you may need to check.

Classes show a discrepancy between Home and Actual students

If you see a discrepancy for a given class, please check that the Home pupil numbers added in the Classes section on the left-hand side for the class are correct, accounting for any enrolled part-time students who are not required to be in and guest students. More on this here: Class information for the Spring Census

Once you are confident the numbers are correct, continue to resolve any further issues flagged on the slide over.

Classes are not taking place during your census time

You might find that the slide-over does not show any class information at all.

Your census time is generated by Arbor based on the last digit of your school's departmental establishment number. If your census time is during a period when your school has no lessons scheduled - for example, if your census time is 11:00 and your morning lessons end on or before 11:00, then you can amend your census time to a time when all of your students are in lessons.

See our article here for more information: Can I change the time or date for our spring census?

Students are scheduled to be in more than one class

You may have students who should be enrolled in more than one class at the time of the census, but they usually only attend one lesson out of the two.

In these scenarios, you will need to add a Student Timetable Slot Exception: Fix clashes where students are enrolled into multiple lessons

For students added to classes by mistake, you need to remove the extra from the Enrolment section of the student's profile.

You can then amend the enrolment dates, or remove the enrolment (only do this if they were added to the course by mistake and they never attended).

Make sure you amend the number of students in the class from the Classes section of your census.

Students not scheduled to be in any classes

Any students who are not scheduled into any classes at the time of the census will be flagged for you. Click on their name to resolve them.

1. The student should not be on-roll and has been enrolled in the year incorrectly - follow these instructions to remove them.
2. The student has been missed off from being enrolled in a class - follow these instructions to add the enrolment.
3. The students are only scheduled for Interventions. As the census won't pull in Interventions, you will need to create a dummy course for this student with a single lesson that falls on the time of the census: Set up a course
4. You’ve added nursery students from a legally separate school to your site - follow these instructions to exclude them.
5. Your school has not scheduled classes correctly for primary age students - you’ll need to make sure your timetable slots for your primary classes last the whole morning (until the start of lunch), and your afternoon session lasts the whole afternoon (until the end of the day) from School > Timetable > Timetable Administration > Timetable Slots. Select the periods to edit, and click the Bulk action button to choose Edit Start and End Time.