Part of National Child Measurement Programme 2024/25 IT system user guide part 2: Setting up schools list

Making changes to your schools list

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Your local authority's school list

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Current chapter – Making changes to your schools list

Editing eligible pupil numbers

Eligible pupil numbers are headcounts showing the number of pupils eligible for measurement. These are initially assigned using DfE census data but should only be used as a guide.

These numbers should be checked and edited to show the actual number of pupils on the school’s reception and year 6 class lists excluding those who are no longer at the school or who are unable to stand on weighing scales and height measures unaided, due to physical or cognitive impairment. This will ensure the calculated participation rates for your Local Authority (LA) are accurate. This can be done before or after visiting the schools, depending on when the correct figures are available.

Eligible pupil numbers can be obtained directly from schools on the day of measurement, or from your education department.

If your LA has not provided headcounts for more than 90% of schools on your list, and has a participation rate of below 90%, then Breaching Headcount Validation will appear on the list of failing indicators on the Submission Status page. It will then be necessary for a breach reason to be selected, or for the issue to be resolved, before the submission can be finalised.

The eligible figures provided by DfE are headcount (or on roll) figures for each year group and not the total measured. The system will work out how many children have been measured and will present this information once you have entered this data into the system

1. View your school list. From the NCMP Public Home Page, click schools on the top menu.

2. Click the edit eligible pupil numbers link.

3. The page the DfE pupil eligible figures for reception and year 6 for each school. Enter local authority eligible figures in the appropriate columns as shown in this diagram.

NCMP screen shot of edit eligible pupil numbers screen with local authority pupil count sections highlighted.

When editing LA headcounts, please ensure you hit the save button in the school headcount list every 5 minutes or so to avoid it timing out.

4. Once all the local authority eligible figures have been entered click save. You will be asked to confirm your changes.

Adjusted headcounts are derived from the figures you have entered into the LA Edited Pupil Count, however if the number of children measured exceeds this number, the Adjusted headcounts total will display the number measured rather than the LA edited total.

The LA edited pupil count will not auto-update in any instances where a non measurement reason code has been applied to a record so please ensure you adjust your pupil counts if any children are not eligible for measurement.

Children considered not eligible for measurement are those who are no longer at school, and those who are not able to be measured due to physical or cognitive impairment. In these cases, decrease the LA edited pupil count for that school by the appropriate amount and if you have left the unmeasured record in place, enter the appropriate non-measurement reason

Amending and adding school details

You can modify the details of any school in your school list.

1. In the schools page, click the name of the school you want to edit the details for.

NCMP schools page with a school highlighted

2. When the selected school details are shown, click the edit school details link.

NCMP school details with edit school details emphasised

3. Now edit the schools details as required and save.

You can use the edit school details to change the school name, address and school type. You can also add notes, record if the school has opted out and record dates relating to the collection's progress.

You cannot change the school URN or DfE number on the Edit School Details page. If one of your schools has a new URN due to changing status (for example becoming an academy) then you must remove the school with the old URN before adding the school with the new URN.

Add a school to your local authority’s schools list

You may need to add schools that do not currently appear on your LA’s list. Common reasons why schools may not appear in your list

you may have taken responsibility for a school from another LA

a new school has opened in your LA area
2 schools have merged, creating a new URN for the school
a school may have changed status (for example become an academy) with a new URN
an independent (not state-maintained) school may voluntarily join the programme
you may not have been assigned the school by your super user

You will need the school’s Unique Reference Number (URN) and DfE number to add it to your LA. If you do not have this information, you can search for it by school name, town, locality or postcode, on the Department for Education's register of educational establishments in England.

Add a school from another LA’s schools list

1. View your school list. From the NCMP Public Home Page, click Schools on the top menu.

2. Click the add a school link.

3. Enter the schools URN and Dfe number and click continue.

NCMP search for school to add screen

4. The school's details and its status (who its assigned to will appear on the screen.

5. Edit the school's details if required including adding the local authority adjusted pupil count for reception and year 6.

6. Click assign and you will be asked to confirm the addition.

If you are taking responsibility for a school currently assigned to another LA, the transfer will only be successful if no pupil data has been entered for this school.

Add a new school to your LA’s school list

You may need to add new schools to your list when a new state-maintained school opens in your LA’s area or an independent school is measured in your LA for the first time.

Within the schools page, click the add a school link.

1. Enter the school’s URN and DfE number and click search.

2. If the school is not new, then the school’s details will be displayed. If the school is new, then you will need to complete mandatory fields (*) before adding.

If you are trying to add a school due to a school currently on your list having a new URN (due to changing status) then please refer to the section Change a schools URN

You must complete the following fields before you can save:

school name
school postcode
school type
pupil counts

If a school has opted out of the programme, the LA edited pupil count figures must still be updated as the school is still eligible for measurement. More information on encouraging schools to participate in the NCMP can be found in PHEs Operational Guidance.

Remove a school from your local authority’s schools list

If a school has closed or has been incorrectly allocated to you, the school can be deleted from your LA’s list.

1. View your school list. From the NCMP Public Home Page, click schools on the top menu.

2. Find the school in the list and click the remove from list link for the school you want to remove.

Any pupil records which have previously been entered for this school will be PERMANENTLY DELETED.

3. You will see this confirmation message. One of the following reasons must be given for the school deletion.

the school has closed.
the school is not eligible

4. Select one of the above reasons and click Yes to proceed with the school deletion or No to abort the deletion.

NCMP image confirming deletion

Change a school’s URN

When a school changes status (for example become an academy) it is assigned a new URN. You cannot change the school URN using Edit School Details but instead can do this using the following steps

1. Remove the school with the old URN.

If you do not know which school to remove, then simply try adding the school with the new URN and the system will identify which school needs to be removed and display this in a message after you have selected search. You will then need to return to the schools screen to remove it.

Please choose the option school has closed if the school has changed status and been assigned a new URN.

Any pupil records that have been entered for this school will also be deleted. Please download any data added to the school before deletion so it can be uploaded to the school with the new URN.

Guidance on how to download data is provided in the Exporting pupil data files section of Pupil Data Management and on how to upload data is shown in the Upload Pupil Data section.

2. Add the school using the new URN. This should have the same DfE number as the school you have removed since schools retain the same DfE number when they change status.

3. Assign the school.

Further help

Can we load details of schools

There are some schools missing from my local authority, please can you add these

We receives a list of all state-maintained schools from the Department for Education at the start of the school year, however on some occasions some schools are missing from this list. We cannot add schools to your local authority from here.

Providing accurate eligible pupil count figures for our schools

Eligible pupil numbers are headcounts showing the number of pupils eligible for measurement. These are initially assigned using Department for Education census data but should be only used as a guide.

Please adjust the LA edited pupil counts column to show the number of pupils on the school’s reception and year 6 class lists who are eligible for measurement.

Children considered not eligible for measurement are those who are no longer at school, and those who are not able to be measured due to physical or cognitive impairment. In these cases, decrease the LA edited pupil count for that school and if you have left the unmeasured record in place, enter the appropriate non-measurement reason.

It is really important to check and edit the LA edited pupil count figures for both reception and year 6. This is to ensure your participation rates are accurate. This can be done before or after visiting the schools, depending on when you have the correct figures to hand. Some organisations retrieve these from the school on the day of measurement, from School census material or from another reliable source.

If a state school has withdrawn from the programme, will this affect my participation rate

Yes, this school and its pupils remain eligible therefore the headcount figures for children on roll in Reception and Year 6 should remain but this school will be recorded as an opt out and your overall participation rates will be slightly affected by this.

A school in my local authority has switched to an academy so I want to put the pupils in the new school

The main thing to be aware of is that the pupils must not appear twice, ie. in the predecessor school and the new Academy school. Please refer to page 11 of the Setting Up Schools List guidance document for details of how to add a new school. Once this is done, you need to remove the old school from your school list.

It is not essential to move the pupils to the new school if you would prefer to leave them at the predecessor school. This is fine for NHS England analysis purposes as we only show results at LA level in our published reports. The most important consideration for us is that they don’t appear at both schools as this will result in them being double counted.

Two schools in my local authority have merged together into one school and I want to put the pupils in the new school

As with the question on the transfer of a school to academy status, the most important consideration is to make sure the pupils do not appear twice at the predecessor school and the new school. Therefore please follow the guidance above on how to do this. Again it is not essential for NHS England for the pupils to be transferred to the new school and they can be left in their predecessor school, but it is important they do not appear twice in the dataset

NCMP IT System guidance

Tel: 0300 303 3035

Email: [email protected]

Last edited: 3 March 2025 10:47 am