Notes
English National Pupil Database (NPD)
Main uses
The English National Pupil Database contains at least one record for each pupil at a state school in England, covering both the pupil's characteristics and their examination results. In principle, therefore, it can be used for just about any analysis of educational attainment at school. In practice, however, its sheer size makes any analysis time consuming and, as such, it should only be used when the required data cannot be obtained from either reports published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (see their website) or their school-level performance tables. For example, in this website its use is restricted to analyses by eligibility for free school meals and ethnic group.
Source
In summary:
- Available from: the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Request via the NPD requesting service, 01325 392059.
- Registration required: no.
- First survey available: 2002.
- Frequency: annual.
- Updated: December.
- Scope: England only.
- Format: text files.
- Files: at least 9 files per year (see below for list).
- Documentation: some, but not a comprehensive user manual. Also, the field names in the files have no associated descriptions and the field names in the documentation often do not correspond to those in the actual files.
- Weighted or unweighted: not applicable, as the data is a complete count.
- Household income data: not applicable.
The 9 files included in each dataset are as follows:
| Table | A record per: | Number of records | Contains data about |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLASC/Census | pupil | 7,700,000 | Basic data about every pupil at school (local authority, school, age, ethnic group, eligibility for free school meals, etc) |
| KS1 | Key Stage 1 pupil | 600,000 | Key Stage 1 results |
| KS2 | Key Stage 2 pupil | 600,000 | Key Stage 2 results |
| KS4 candidate indicator | Key Stage 4 pupil | 700,000 | Key Stage 4 results in summary |
| KS4 results | Exam per Key Stage 4 pupil | 6,200,000 | Key Stage 4 results in detail |
| KS5 candidate indicator | Key Stage 5 pupil | 600,000 | Key Stage 5 results in summary |
| KS5 results | Exam per Key Stage 5 pupil | 2,900,000 | Key Stage 5 results in detail |
| Qual codes | Key Stage 4/5 qualification code | small | Lookup tables matching result and subject codes with their descriptions |
| Mapping codes | Key Stage 4/5 mapping code | small |
Each of the files above, apart from the Census, is available at different times of the year in one of three statuses:
- 'Unamended': from around September/October.
- 'Amended': from around December/January.
- 'Final': from around April.
It is strongly recommended that researchers use either the 'amended' or 'final' versions rather than the 'unamended' versions. This is because, whilst the differences between the 'amended' and 'final' versions are considered to be minimal, the differences between the 'unamended' and 'amended' versions can be considerable, particularly at a local authority level. This is, in turn, because some schools sometimes initially submit total incorrect responses and this is only corrected in the 'amended' versions.
General issues
Which software to use
Because the tables are so voluminous, they can only be analysed by importing the data into software which can both handle large databases and produce statistical results. SPSS or equivalent is therefore the obvious type of software to use.
Which tables to use
Most analyses will take the form of analyses a particular set of results by the characteristics of the pupils. As such, they will need to use the PLASC table plus one of the results tables. These tables can be linked together using the 'pupil matching reference number'. However, because these tables do not have a 1:1 correspondence, such matching might (depending on the software used) be non-trivial, for example requiring both files to be sorted first and those records with null 'pupil matching reference numbers' deleted .
Which fields to use
If one fully understood the meaning of each field, this would be obvious. However, the field names in the files have no associated descriptions and the field names in the documentation often do not match those in the actual tables. The key is to look for field names in the table that have some sort of similarity to the description of the field in the documentation that you want to use and then see if the values for that field are what one would expect from the documentation. For example:
- The documentation says that tables should be linked using the 'pupil matching reference number' and that the field name is 'pupilmatchingref'. There is not 'pupilmatchingref' field in either the PLASC/Census table or the KS2 table. There is, however, a field called 'pmr' in the PLASC table and one called 'k2_pmr' in the KS2 table. Examination of these fields show that they are the 'pupil matching reference numbers' (they are unique to each record, the list of records of the appropriate age in the PLASC/Census table match the list of records in the KS2 table, etc).
- The documentation says that the examination serial number in the KS4 results table has the field name 'examno'. Upon review, it becomes clear that the actual name for this field in the table is 'k4r_esn', where the starting clue is that 'esn' is an acronym for 'examination serial number'.
Relevant graphs on this website
UK graphs
Because the dataset is for England only, the graphs below are also for England only.
| Indicator | Graphs | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Educational attainment at age 11 | second and third | For the 'White other' ethnic group, combine the results for 'any other White background', 'Irish', 'Gypsy/Romany' and 'Traveller of Irish heritage', noting that the latter two groups are very small and do not materially alter the overall figures for 'White other'. |
| Educational attainment at age 16 | third and fourth | Use the 'level1' field rather than the 'fiveAG' field to include those with all GCSE equivalencies rather than just GNVQ equivalencies. For the 'White other' ethnic group, combine the results for 'any other White background', 'Irish', 'Gypsy/Romany' and 'Traveller of Irish heritage', noting that the latter two groups are very small and do not materially alter the overall figures for 'White other'. |