School census data Autumn 2009

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

Please provide the full school census data for the following secondary school;

The Douay Martyrs RC school
UKPRN ref: 10006653

Please anonymise the data to comply with data protection.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Mason

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Dear Paul

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0014170

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Department for Children, Schools and Families

1 Attachment

Paul,

I am dealing with your FOI case at present. However, I am a little unsure
as to what level of data you require.

Is it school level data, or pupil level that you would like? Normally
when asked for data regarding a school we would provide it at school
level, but your comment about anonymising the data has confused me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Moira Nelson

Schools Data Unit
Data Services Group
1F Area H
Mowden Hall
DL3 9BG

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Moira nelson,

May I have both school and pupil level data. My reference to the anonymisation of the data is of course to ensure the data subjects cannot be identified from information released.

I.e i'm sure you would anonymise any data reference to a child prior to the information being released.

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Dear Mr Mason,

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 19
February 2010. You requested the full anonymised 2009 Autumn Census data
for the following school: The Douay Martyrs RC School (UKPRN: 10006653).
Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

Someone will contact you shortly by email to provide details as to how you
can obtain the data file via a secure website. The data is being provided
to you as a password-protected Excel file.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Johnson
Data Services Group
[email address]
[1]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0014170.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/

Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

Many thanks, I look forward to receiving the file.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Mason

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hi Paul,

Do you have any other email contact details other than this email
address? The person responsible for proving the file to you is having
problems contacting you using your address (delivery failure).

Thanks,

Martin

........................................................................
....................................................

Martin Johnson
Higher Statistical Officer
Data Services Group - National Pupil Database and Dissemination Unit
Department for Children, Schools and Families

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Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hello Mr Mason

We have received your request for data and will make this available to
you as soon as a few technical points have been sorted out.

Before producing the file, can you please confirm an acceptable format
for output. We normally send data as SPSS or text files in encrypted
zipped files. On this occasion, as the number of records is small, we
can provide the data in an Excel file. We would still need to encrypt
the file either by applying a password to the Excel file or by zipping
the file.

Can you please let me know your preferred option

The data will be transferred to a secure web server and we will provide
you with access to this. You will need access to an internet browser in
order to collect the data.

Please call me if you need any clarification.

Thank you.

Karen


_____________________________________________
Karen Stevens | National Pupil Database |
DCSF: +44 (0)1325 392314 | DCSF Internal 62314
_____________________________________

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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

Yes a EXCELL WILL BE FINE, THANK YOU.

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hello Paul

Two files have been placed on our secure web server and are ready for
collection. The first file contains the requested data and the second
contains a description of the supplied data items.

Access to the file is via the following link

https://www.keytosuccess.dcsf.gov.uk//tr...

Your userid is 543325

Before you try to access this, please phone me and I will provide you
with:

a) The password for your userid for the website
and
b) The password for the Excel file

These passwords cannot be given out via email.

To access the folder please follow these instructions:

1. Connect to the internet in the usual manner.
2. In Internet Explorer click on the 'File' menu option.
3. Select the 'Open' option from the file menu: you will now be
presented with a dialog box.
4. In the 'Open' field, enter the relevant URL as shown above.
5. Tick the option 'Open as Web Folder'. Click OK.
6. You will be prompted for your userid and password.
7. Once these have been entered, the web folder will now open for use
in Internet Explorer.
8. To finish simply close your browser window.

Karen Stevens | National Pupil Database |
01325 392314

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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

hello karen i'm on the phone to you

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Paul

Thank you for confirming your identity in this manner

Karen

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Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hello Paul

I hope that you have managed to retrieve your files. I copied them back
on to the site.

Karen Stevens | National Pupil Database |

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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

dear Karen,

i goy the files but they appear to show no attendance data.

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hi Paul

I'm afraid that absence data are not part of the School Census extracts
that we provide in the NPD. However, we do hold absence data (and
currently have 2008/09 absence data for the first two terms of the
year), but we don't have the full-year 2008/09 absence data yet in the
NPD - we'd expect to be able to provide this around the end or March.

Can you please confirm whether you would like the two-term absence data
providing now, or whether you wish to wait until the full-year data are
released?

Cheers

Dave

Dave Walton
National Pupil Database and Dissemination Unit (NPDDU)
Data Services Group

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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your quick reply. Could I possibly have the data you already have followed by this years data when it is published in March?

Can you also explain whether you already have the data now, (i.e it has already been submitted) and are just processing it into a publishable format?

Please just deposit in the file you have created and I will retrieve. I will also remind you end of March early April for the information.

Many thanks

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Dear Mr Mason

Further, to previous correspondence, in addition to the Autumn 2009 School
Census data for the Douay Martyrs school, provided on 19th March, I
informed you about other information that the Department holds about Pupil
Absence.

We discounted the Absence information from your original request on the
basis that Absence information is collected in the School Census on a
retrospective basis. For example, the information collected in the Autumn
2009/10 Census related to pupil absence in the Summer 2008/09 term.
Having considered your request and your interest in the 2009/10 Autumn
term we concluded that you were interested in the Absence data relating to
the 2009/10 Autumn Term which is currently being processed by the
Department rather than the 2008/09 Summer Term data collected in the
Autumn.

Given the slightly different nature of the collection of Absence data, I
thought it would be helpful to set out what is collected when, and how it
relates to the aggregate two term and three term information that the
Department derives from the School Census.

Data Collection Absence Data Collected Date Available
Autumn Term 2009/10 Summer Term 2008/09 March 2010
Spring Term 2009/10 Autumn Term 2009/10 October 2010
Summer Term 2009/10 Spring Term 2009/10 September 2010
Autumn Term 2010/11 Summer Term 2009/10 February 2011
On this basis I would be grateful if you could confirm which information
relating to Pupil Absences you are interested in relating to the Autumn
term census data that you have already been provided.

Yours sincerely

Dave Walton
National Pupil Database and Dissemination Unit (NPDDU)
Data Services Group

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

All of it would be great thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hi Paul - thank you for confirming

We will be able to provide you with the two-term and three-term absence
data for 2008/09, by close tomorrow.

For any future absence data, now that you have the availability
timetable, I would suggest that you contact the Department closer to the
time to request access to the data.

Regards

Dave

Dave Walton
National Pupil Database and Dissemination Unit (NPDDU)
Data Services Group

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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

Thanks Dave, a real good example of how a FOI request should work. thanks for your help, look forward to the info.

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hello Paul

We have extracted the absence data for 0809 and this has been placed in
an Excel spreadsheet which has been copied to the same transfer folder
as the census extract.

The Excel file contains the following:

2 Term absence at pupil level, 3 term absence at pupil level, school
level totals for reasons for absence and descriptions of the data items
in the files

The password for this file is the same as the one used for the census
file.

If you need a reminder of the URL, your login details or the file
password then please contact me.

Regards,

Karen

Karen Stevens
National Pupil Database and Dissemination Unit (NPDDU)
Data Services Group
01325 392314

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Dear Department for Children, Schools and Families,

I'm sorry but that all seems like gobbledygook.

Can I not have a simple table that shows each pupil entry with number of attendances, and another column which shows reasons for absence?

These charts show nothing of this.

Yours faithfully,

Paul

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Hi Paul

I understand that the column headings relating to the first two sheets
in the workbook, (i.e. the two-term and three-term absence data) are
described in full in the 'data description' sheet. You should be able to
aggregate the columns in each sheet to obtain totals for the school.
Both the two-term and three-term sheets show the respective number of
sessions possible per term, and the number of sessions missed in that
term due to authorised/unauthorised absence, and the aggregate figures
for either the two-terms [in columns N - R] or the three-terms [in
columns T - X] of the sheets, respectively.

Having assessed the 'reason' data, we have concluded that it would not
be possible to provide the data at pupil individual level without
compromising confidentiality. The Summary sheet therefore gives the
number of sessions missed for each reason of absence, as noted on the
'data description' sheet.

Regards

Dave

Dave Walton
National Pupil Database and Dissemination Unit (NPDDU)
Data Services Group

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