School Census Summer 2026 - SIMS Next Gen (Step 1)

• Census date – Thursday 21st May 2026 "Snapshot date" 
• Dry run is open - Thursday 7th May 2026
• Return date – Wednesday 17th June 2026
• Attendance collected from Spring term 2026 data - 01-01-2026 to Easter Sunday 05-04-2026
• Exclusion data - Suspensions from AM of the start of the autumn term to PM of the end of the spring term. Exclusions from AM of the start of the autumn term to the final governor review the day before School Census Summer 2026 reference day.
• Alternative Provision Placements collected from 15-01-2026 to 20-05-2026 
• Funding and Monitoring collected from 01-08-2025 to 21-05-2026
• Learner support date 01-08-2025 to 21-05-2026 (only relevant for pupils aged 16 or above on 31-08-2025)
• Free School Meal eligibility (eFSM) - Eligibilities that started on or before 21-05-2026, where the free school meals end date is either not present or between 16-01-2026 and 21-05-2026 (inclusive)

Keystone MIS highly recommend doing your Summer2026 census return in Next gen alongside SIMS so that you can experience both ways of doing the return and see for yourself just how easy Next gen is. 
 

NOTE The content of graphics (dates, names, etc.) are representative only and may not reflect the current return dates.

Access Summer Census

The Summer Census is available under the burger menu at Statutory Processes | Statutory Returns.

The Statutory Returns page displays the census applicable to your school region and phase under Your current and upcoming returns. Key information, such as the status of the Census (Not started / Draft / Ready for review) and the Census reference date, is available here. The "Not started" status is only shown the first time the census is shown.

To access the selected census, click on the corresponding census [1] button. The general characteristics are populated.

Census page

The Census details page summarises high-level information about the state of the census return.

Key dates information, i.e. the census and return dates, are displayed [2a] with the important notes.

Key census information is presented in a table grouped in different sections, with each section being a separate row.

The number of unresolved errors and queries against a section is displayed. The first time you visit this page, all your school's data is loaded.

The View section [2b] button launches the section page, where you can see the specific information about the data relevant to that section. Alternatively, click on the census name or select the ˅ dropdown arrow to display the individual section in the navigation sidebar [2c]. More information about the section pages is given below.

Once you have resolved errors and queries in a particular section / sub-section, use the Revalidate section [2d] option in the … menu to re-fetch and revalidate the data for an individual section. In this way, you see the ever-reducing list of errors and queries. This is new to SIMS Next Gen.

The notes field allows you to record helpful information, such as status of completion / outstanding tasks /notes to add during submission, etc., about each section as you work through it, resolving errors and queries and reviewing data. This is new to SIMS Next Gen.

You can export data displayed in a section using the Export section [2e] option. This will generate an Excel file. The data contained within each sub-section of a Census section will be exported as a separate tab. You can then use this information to share with colleagues offline or to save it for future use.