The school census and your MIS: what the DfE collects, and what schools run beside it
In England the MIS files the school census, sends the CTF and holds the attendance data the DfE reads every day. What that means for state and independent schools, what an MIS often leaves to other tools, and how to run a second system beside it without typing anything twice.
In England, the school census and the MIS belong together. A state-funded school's management information system holds the pupil record and turns it into the statutory returns: the school census three times a year, uploaded to the Department for Education through COLLECT; the common transfer file (CTF) when a pupil leaves; staff data for the school workforce census; and, since 2024/25, the attendance data the DfE reads every day. In practice a state-funded school cannot do without one. Registered independent schools file a school-level census that can be typed straight into COLLECT. What an MIS often leaves to other tools is the rest of the day: the timetable, cover, letters and consents, parents' evenings and payments. This guide covers both halves, and how to run a second system beside the MIS without entering anything twice.
Dates and rules below were checked on gov.uk, gov.wales, gov.scot and legislation.gov.uk on 11 October 2026.
What does an MIS do?
An MIS is the school's system of record. Its data items are defined in the DfE's common basic data set (CBDS), which suppliers build against and the department's collections use. In a state-funded school the MIS does four jobs those collections rely on:
- Holds the pupil record in the DfE's terms: the unique pupil number (UPN), ethnicity, free school meal eligibility, SEN provision and the other census items. A UPN is not worked out by hand: the MIS generates it, or it arrives from the previous school in a CTF.
- Produces the returns: the census file in the XML structure the DfE specifies, checked against its validation rules before upload.
- Creates and imports CTFs when pupils join and leave.
- Keeps the attendance register that the DfE's daily attendance collection reads.
The school census and the MIS: what the DfE collects
The census is a statutory duty under section 537A of the Education Act 1996 and the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013. It applies to maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools, PRUs and alternative provision, and each return carries an individual record for every pupil. Academies upload to COLLECT, the DfE's central data collection system, through DfE Sign-in; maintained schools upload directly or let the local authority submit for them. The headteacher authorises the data first.
| Collection | 2026/27 date | Who sends it | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| School census, autumn | Census day Thursday 1 October 2026, return by 28 October | State-funded schools | XML from the MIS to COLLECT |
| School census, spring | Thursday 21 January 2027, return by 10 February; includes class information | State-funded schools | As above |
| School census, summer | Thursday 20 May 2027, return by 16 June | State-funded schools | As above |
| School workforce census | Thursday 5 November 2026 | Academies; the local authority for its maintained schools | XML from the MIS and HR/payroll systems to COLLECT |
| School-level annual school census | Third Thursday in January: 21 January 2027 | Registered independent schools | COLLECT: an MIS file, or typed in on screen |
| Common transfer file | Within 15 school days of a pupil leaving | Maintained schools; academies are strongly encouraged to | XML from the MIS through the school to school (S2S) service or a local authority network |
| Daily attendance | Every school day | Maintained schools, academies, non-maintained special schools | Read from the MIS by Wonde for the DfE |
The spring census also asks primary, middle, secondary and all-through schools for every “class as taught” at one selected time on census day. The time depends on the last digit of the school's DfE establishment number: with 2, 3 or 6 it is one hour before the end of morning school, with 4, 7, 8 or 9 one hour after the start of afternoon school, and with 0, 1 or 5 one hour after the start of morning school. Groups taught outside the normal class framework count separately; unusual situations on the day, such as classes merged because of staff training, are not recorded.
CTFs: the record that follows the pupil
When a pupil leaves a maintained school for another school, the old school must send the CTF and the educational record within fifteen school days (regulation 9 of the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005). The CTF 26 specification, valid from September 2026, adds that academies and free schools are “strongly encouraged” to do the same, and states plainly that “CTFs must be generated from the school MIS”, because otherwise data required by statute may be missing. Files travel through the DfE's S2S service.
The school workforce census and the timetable
The workforce census is taken on the first Thursday in November from the school MIS and the local authority's HR and payroll systems. Its curriculum module is the part that touches the timetable. The 2026 specification expects it from secondary schools “with computerised timetable systems, where those systems interface with their MI systems”: for each timetabled teacher and teaching assistant, the subjects taught, the year groups and the hours of a typical week, averaged over the timetable cycle and excluding PPA time and registration. The timetable may be built elsewhere, in other words, but it reaches the return through the MIS.
Do schools need an MIS?
A state-funded school in England does, in practice. The census needs a record for every pupil in the DfE's XML format, CTFs must come from the MIS, and the daily attendance collection reads the register from a list of compatible MIS products that includes Arbor, Bromcom, iSAMS and SIMS. A school without a compatible MIS has to upload a file with morning and afternoon attendance for every pupil, for the previous week, by 11.59pm each Friday.
Registered independent schools differ. Their school-level annual school census goes to COLLECT “either using XML format, or by direct manual input”. The daily attendance regulations do not apply to schools listed as “other independent schools” on Get Information about Schools. For an independent school, the MIS question is mostly about running the school, not about the DfE.
What an MIS does well, and what schools add beside it
What an MIS is built for, it usually does well: one pupil record, checked against the DfE's rules, that produces each return in the format COLLECT expects. Around that core, five jobs often sit in separate tools or in add-on modules priced on their own:
- The timetable, as the workforce census wording itself assumes.
- Cover. Who takes 9X2's maths when a teacher is ill at 7.40am, and a record of cover that payroll can trust.
- Letters and consents. Trip letters with a reply, tracked consents, a family's own language.
- Parents' evenings. Booking slots without a spreadsheet.
- Payments. Trips, clubs, meals or, in an independent school, fees.
Check what your MIS licence already includes first: a second system earns its place only where it does a job the MIS does not.
What Bildena does and does not do for the census
To be plain: Bildena does not produce a school census return, a school workforce census file or a CTF, and it cannot read a CTF. It has no field for the UPN, shares no attendance with the DfE and is not on the department's list of compatible MIS products. Bildena is new on the market, and in a state-funded school in England it runs beside the MIS, not in its place.
What it has, in Reports, are check sheets for England built from the timetable, as PDF or Excel. School Census — Class as Taught lists every class running at the day and period you choose, with teacher, room and number of pupils. Staff Curriculum Allocation (SWF) lists teacher, subject, year group and hours taught, with the National Insurance number column left blank because Bildena does not hold it. Use them to check what your MIS is about to send, or as the source when data has to be keyed in; they are not returns.
Running Bildena beside your MIS without double entry
Two systems mean double entry only when nobody has decided who owns what. Decide before the first import:
- The MIS owns the record. Pupils, contacts and staff are created and changed there, with every census item. In a state-funded school the attendance register stays there too: switch off Bildena's register, as you can any module, and the price stays the same.
- Lists travel one way. Export pupils, contacts and staff from the MIS as Excel or CSV. Bildena's import maps the columns once and shows a preview before anything is written. Records are recognised by name, and pupils by class and school number, so loading the list again adds new pupils without creating existing ones twice; because the match includes the class, move a pupil who changes class in both systems first. The import only fills empty fields: it overwrites nothing already entered and deletes nothing, so changed details and leavers are updated in Bildena itself.
- Bildena owns the day. The timetable, cover and the cover record, letters and consents in each family's language, parents' evenings, the calendar and finance. For Direct Debit under the school's own Service User Number, Finance writes the Bacs Standard 18 file.
- Know what goes back. Bildena writes no file in a SIMS, Arbor or Bromcom format. It exports the timetable as Untis XML, Untis DIF or aSc XML files and as PDF or Excel reports, and the lists as Excel or CSV. Ask your supplier whether your MIS imports one of them; if not, the check sheets are how you compare the two systems before the census.
- Fixed dates. Re-import after the September intake; compare both systems before each census day and 5 November.
Replacing the MIS itself is a different project; our step-by-step guide to switching MIS covers it. Every module is on the Bildena School page.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Wales runs its own collections. PLASC, the Pupil Level Annual School Census, is taken in January (20 January in 2026); its pupil records are “generated automatically by your management information software” and uploaded through DEWi. The School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) falls on 3 November 2026, and its curriculum module also records the language a lesson is taught in; Bildena's SWAC Curriculum Return sheet leaves that column blank, because Bildena does not record it. Maintained schools in Wales must use the common transfer system when they use S2S.
Scotland collects pupil data once a year from all local authority and grant-aided schools. The 2026 census day was 9 September, and returns were due by 6 October, through ProcXed or SEEMiS.
Northern Ireland holds its school enrolments census in October. The Education Authority is moving its schools to a new school management system from Bromcom and expects the full transition to be complete by March 2027. School types across the four nations are on the UK page.
In the United States
The American equivalent is state reporting through the student information system. In Texas, since August 2024, PEIMS data has reached the state as API transactions sent directly by source system vendors, SIS vendors among them. Bildena sends nothing to a state; its Reports include sheets with the course-section and teacher-assignment rows for PEIMS, California's CALPADS Fall 2 and New York's BEDS/SIRS, with the state course code left blank. More on the US page.
Frequently asked questions
Can Bildena submit our school census?
No. Bildena writes no census file and has no connection to COLLECT. Your MIS produces the return; Bildena's check sheets help you check the class and curriculum data.
Can Bildena create or read a CTF?
No. The DfE's specification says CTFs must be generated from the school MIS. A pupil who joins with a CTF is imported into the MIS, and reaches Bildena with the next list you export.
Does an independent school need an MIS for the DfE?
Not for the school-level annual school census, which can be typed into COLLECT on screen.
Will we enter pupils twice?
Not if the MIS stays the system of record and Bildena reads its exports. New pupils come in with the next import, which overwrites nothing already in Bildena.
Bildena School costs €5 per pupil a year, at least €1,000 a school; Bildena Scheduler, the timetable on its own for a school that keeps its MIS, starts at €490 a school a year. Both are invoiced in euros, excluding VAT where it applies (UK pricing). The data processing agreement is signed at onboarding; data is hosted in German data centres. In the free month, import an export from your MIS, check the preview and try the timetable, cover and letters with your own data, no card needed. Questions to info@bildena.com; a one-page overview is a PDF download. Everything included is on the Bildena School page.
