School Pupil Census - October 2025

The Autumn School Pupil Census will go ahead on Thursday 15th January. The latest guidance notes, including the SIMS step by step guide and other information to help you complete the January 2026 Census return will be made available prior to census day. 

Please can you ensure that your school meals taken on the census day are listed accurately as to avoid risking any funding.

Date of census: Thursday 15th January

The Final Deadline for submitting census return : Thursday 22nd January (applies to maintained schools only). We stress that this deadline is important to allow us to provide support to schools, check your data and undertake any data cleaning that is required. All Schools must submit to us by this deadline at the latest.

As per the DFE Guidance; 'Schools must provide pupil level data for pupils who are recorded on the school admission register as at census day, irrespective of whether they attended school on that day.'

Please ensure your pupil numbers on roll are up to date and accurate and check that all your Exclusions, SEN, Service Children, Post Looked After and FSM data is all recorded before census day.

• Download a copy of the SIMS step by step guide by going to www.businesssupportservices.org and following the instructions on the email sent by SIMS support
• Carry out the census as in the guide
• For help to resolve any 'errors or queries', please see Errors and Resolutions.
• For any specific data queries, please refer to the DfE guidance notes in the first instance (see link) 
• Maintained schools please submit your census return via Perspective Lite
• The submission of a signed paper copy of the Summary Report is not required. However, please ensure that the headteacher screens the census data to check for anomalies or inaccuracies before submission of the electronic return.
• Provide details of 'acceptable queries' to enable notepad explanations to be added for the DfE - Maintained schools should not be submitting their census to the Data and Analysis Team until all queries have been cleared. The only queries that can remain, are those which cannot be cleared, because they are true - these will require the Data, Analysis and Insights Team to add notepad explanations for the DfE - schools should contact the Data, Analysis and Insights Team if they require further information. Academies need to add their notepad entries on Collect.
• Academies should submit their census to the DfE via Collect. For guidance, please refer to the COLLECT User Guide and Editing Guide which can be accessed via the link on the right.
• For important information on the school census regarding the collection of sensitive data please click here.
• DfE guidance notes - can be accessed via the link on the right.

For further help, contact the Data, Analysis and Insights Team on: 01452 328544 or e-mail: schoolcensus@gloucestershire.gov.uk