how to download uln numbers from s2s (school to school ... · pdf fileschool it systems...

School IT Systems Support Standards and School Effectiveness Hertfordshire Development Centre SROB220, Robertson House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, Herts, SG1 2FQ

Doc Ref S1140

Updated February 2014

© School IT Systems Support (SITSS), Hertfordshire County Council 2014

Technical Support Centre Accredited by the Learning and Performance Institute (formerly, the Institute of IT Training) RM Approved Support Partner

Fully accredited by Capita SIMS for proven quality of SIMS support

How to download ULN numbers from S2S (School to School website)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1

CREATING A CTF CONTAINING STUDENTS WHOSE ULNS ARE NEEDED .............. 3

Check that the alternative CTF destination “NAA” exists in SIMS ......................... 3

Check the directories set up for CTF import and export. ...................................... 3

Creating the CTF – ULN Type .............................................................................. 3

UPLOADING CTFS & DOWNLOADING ULNS FROM THE S2S WEBSITE .................. 6

Importing CTF into SIMS .................................................................................... 10

EXCEPTIONS REPORTED BACK FROM THE LRS .................................................... 12

School IT Systems Support

Doc Ref S1140 How to download ULNs from S2S 1 of 8

Introduction

A Unique Learner Number (ULN) is a 10-digit reference number which is used alongside and to access the Personal Learning Record of anyone over the age of 14 involved in UK education or training. Learners will retain the same number for accessing their Personal Learning Record throughout their lives, whatever their level of learning and wherever they choose to participate in education, training and learning.

Each ULN is issued and held by the LRS Organisation Portal. The LRS Organisation Portal uses the number to index each learner‟s identity details, education and training qualifications within the Personal Learning Record (PLR).

When should I begin obtaining Unique Learner Numbers (ULNs) for pupils? Your school or academy will need to start preparing for the mandatory collection of ULNs for all Year 9 pupils, aged 14+, for the School Census, the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) Census and Alternative Provision (AP) Census from January 2014.

From January 2014, all students entered for an exam will need a ULN. However, ULNs are not mandatory for private candidates or students who are under the age of 14.

It is recommended that schools and academies routinely obtain ULNs for their pupils at the start of each academic year for Year 9 pupils and this will be the requirement after January 2014. How do I obtain ULNs from the Schools to Schools (S2S) service?

ULNs can be obtained for pupils through the School to School (S2S) system, by submitting a Common Transfer File (CTF) containing pupil details.

o The ULN is a series of 10 numbers. It will never start with a zero but can contain zeroes. It is a combination of 9 numbers and a check digit.

o The current recommended process to obtain the ULNs for a group of students is for the school to upload a CTF containing details of the students to the dedicated ULN Service area on the S2S website.

o The school will then be able to download a CTF (Common Transfer File) containing the ULNs for those students.

o The CTF can then be imported into SIMS and will populate the ULN field for each student.

o It will be mandatory for schools to obtain ULNs for ALL Students aged 14+ for inclusion in all School Census’s and for Examination Entries from January 2014.

o The Learning Records Service Website at http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk contains up to date information about the usage of ULNs.

http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/products/lrs/

http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/products/learnerrecord/

http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/


2 of 8 How to download ULNs from S2S Doc Ref S1140

Academies - if you are an Academy you may find that following uploading of CTF files on the S2S website for UPN‟s that there is nothing available for you to download. This is due to your organisation with the LRS becoming inactive when a school converts to Academy Status. If you suspect that your school is affected in this way, the LRS Helpdesk should be contacted on 0845 602 2589 to arrange re-registration.



Creating a CTF containing students whose ULNs are needed

Check that the alternative CTF destination “NAA” exists in SIMS

1. Log on to SIMS.

2. Click on Tools | Setups | CTF.

3. Click on Alternative Destinations hyperlink 4.

4. If the destination NAALLLL does not exist click on New to create it now.

5. Add in the details as shown above and click OK.

6. Click on the Save button to save the new destination and close this area.

Check the directories set up for CTF import and export.

1. Whilst still in Configure CTF Defaults screen, go to hyperlink 1 – Directory Details

2. Ensure the directory exists for both import and export options. Click on the browse icon to search for directories if not set.

Creating the CTF – ULN Type

We recommend creating small batches of CTFs (e.g. by Year Group, or Reg Group) to help narrow down potential students for any exceptions identified by the LRS following upload of files. To create the CTF for the S2S website‟s ULN function:

1. Log on to SIMS.

2. Click on Routines | Data Out | CTF | Export CTF.



3. You will then be presented with 3 options – General, KS1/3 or ULN Request.

4. Select ULN Request and click Select.

5. In the Students area, click on the down arrow on either the Year Grp column or on the Reg Grp column then select the required Year Group/Registration Group. This will show ALL students in the selected year or registration group. The Shift and Ctrl keys can be used when selecting pupils if you do not want to select all the students for the export.

6. To select all the pupils on screen, right click in the Destination cell and choose Select All from the menu.

7. Next click on the down arrow by the Destination LA/O column header. Typing the letter N on the keyboard should jump you down to the NAA destination for you to select. This will flood fill NAA as the destination for all the pupils selected.

8. Scroll down if necessary and click on the Export CTF button on the bottom right of the Student area.



9. You will then receive the following message regarding possible address maintenance. Click Yes. N.B.You may need to take action regarding this.

10. You will get an Export complete message that gives the name of the CTF file that has been created. Make a note of the filename(s) below to ensure you upload the correct file(s) to the S2S website. Click OK.

Name of CTF File(s): ________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

11. You will then be taken to the Exception Log which will detail the Number of students in the file, the Number of students processed and Number of students not exported. For any students not exported, refer to the Error Description shown in the log window which will give information on the issue.

The Exception Log can be printed or saved as required.



Uploading CTFs & Downloading ULNs from the S2S website

The recommended process is to obtain ULNs from the S2S website, as described below.

Please note, SITSS can support the use of SIMS for exporting and importing CTF data but any issues with regards to obtaining ULNs and the use of the S2S website for this process should be referred to the LRS.

1. Log on to the S2S website (http://tinyurl.com/S2SULN) in the usual way using

your schools‟ usual username and password and tick to agree to Terms of use.

2. Click on the ULN Service option from the menu on the left hand side to open the following screen:

Note: see the Help section which includes a contact telephone number and email addresss for the LRS Customer Helpdesk as well as useful documents – ULN Service User Guide and ULN Service FAQs.

As S2S website states, the preferred method for acquiring the ULNs you need is to upload a CTF from SIMS containing the students. The CTF should contain only basic details and address information (which is the only information included when using the ULN CTF option from SIMS).

3. Select Upload CTF from the menu on the left hand side to open the CTF Upload screen. Tick to accept terms and conditions.

http://tinyurl.com/S2SULN



4. Click the Browse button and a window similar to that shown below will open allowing you to locate and upload the CTF containing the student for whom you need ULNs. Click Open.

5. Finally, click Upload on the S2S website to complete the request.

The ULN service will then ensure your CTF file is formatted correctly, split it into separate batches („parts‟) for 200 pupils each, and send these „parts‟ on to the LRS to check what data they hold on your submitted pupils. Problems you might encounter while uploading the CTF to S2S

The S2S website does check the structure of your CTF file and will fail to upload it if it contains invalid data. The error messages it gives (in the “Technical Information”) when this happens are not very friendly but here are some examples of errors you may receive.



Error Resolution

The element 'BS7666Address' in

namespace ' has incomplete content.

List of possible elements expected:

'UniqueStreetReferenceNumber,

Locality, Town, AdministrativeArea' in

namespace ' OR

PAON element is invalid - The value '

"Roughways"' is invalid according to

its datatype 'PAONtype'

Messages like this indicate a problem with

the way the student‟s address has been

stored in SIMS – this happens especially

where the address contains a house name

and village, or contains an apartment

number in a block. The error indicates that

components of the address have been

stored in the wrong field in SIMS and this

must be corrected. The Street field should

NOT have the house/flat number included;

The Street field and Town field should be

included; The House No. field should ONLY

contain numerical characters 0-9.

You could use the Student List area in SIMS

to identify address issues.

This file does not appear to be a valid

10, 11, 12 or 13 CTF file, please

contact your school MIS vendor.

This is an error with the S2S website not

being able to handle CTF files that contain

pupil records without a street tag and/or

address information in incorrect fields.

Click the „Show Technical Information‟

underneath the error message for specific

details about the issue.

You could use the Student List area in SIMS

to identify address issues.

Exceptions with Response CTF

download.

The ULN Service User Guide available on

the S2S website describes in detail what

each „RCxxx‟ response code from the LRS

means and what to do about them.

Exceptions should always be dealt with via

the LRS website.

We have included the RCxxx response

codes at the end of this document for your

reference.

Once you have uploaded the CTF, you will need to wait for a period of time, usually overnight, for a „response‟ CTF to be made available to you containing the ULNs you requested. Log out of the S2S website and log back in the next day.



6. Log back in to the S2S ULN Service area and select the Result option from the menu on the ULN Service page.

7. From the ULN Summary Status Screen, click to expand any CTF files showing.

Files for successfully processed ULNs will be available (as well as an „Exception Report‟ for any unsuccessfully processed data).

8. Select each file in turn by clicking Download.

9. Click on the Download File link to then save to an area on your workstation available for import into SIMS in the usual way.

Note: In the example below there are no exceptions but any exceptions can be viewed from this area.

Unfortunately, the S2S website names all of these files with the same sequence number 001 i.e. the file name of any CTF it provides for you to download will always end in .. 001 or .. 001.xml (depending how you have configured Windows on your computer). So when you download these files, you should rename them with a more meaningful sequence number so that when you ask SIMS to import them, it will know they are different files and will ensure that previous files are not over written.

1. To save the files with different sequence numbers, when downloading the file(s) select Save.



2. Click your cursor at the end of the Filename and rename the ending of the file with a meaningful number (e.g. 002) to aid identification of the contents and thus importing into SIMS. Alternatively, you could also save the files to named sub folders within the CTFIN folder for identification.

Warning! Do not be tempted to rename the file name as it needs to retain the naming format to be recognised in SIMS for import.

Importing CTF into SIMS

1. Log on to SIMS.

2. Click on Routines | Data In | CTF | Import CTF.

3. Select the import type as Add ULNs for Existing Pupils Only and click Select.



4. Select the file to import and click Proceed For Match Import.

Notice that only ULNs will be added if they are currently not in SIMS and only for existing pupils.

Refer to SITSS document S1095 – ‘Common Transfer Files SIMS’ for more information on importing CTF files into SIMS.

If you have any problems with this process please call the Schools IT Systems Support Service Desk on 01438 844777 – (option 1, followed by option 1 again).



Exceptions reported back from the LRS

If the LRS had any problems with the pupil data you submitted you will see a summary of the exceptions at the top half of the „Exceptions and download‟ page. Typical exceptions are listed below. Any exceptions should be dealt with by the LRS helpdesk. Log in to the LRS web page at: http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/

Code RC006 – insufficient data (to create a new ULN)

Description The pupil appears not to be in the LRS database but there wasn't enough data provided to register the pupil for a new ULN.

Typical reason

Using the ULN Service, this will rarely happen because a school would have to not hold enough information about a pupil to create a valid CTF file.

Typical resolution

Check that you have all the data for this pupil in SIMS. If in doubt call the LRS Helpdesk on 0845 602 2589.

Code RC007 – possible match

Description The pupil data you submitted almost matched one or more existing ULN records in the LRS.

The LRS is not sure whether this is a new pupil, or a previously registered one whose data has changed or been corrected recently.

Typical reason

Two or more of the following changes to a pupil‟s details have been made, which means their data doesn‟t match.

For example they may have moved house and therefore their postcode has changed, their date of birth was originally mistyped, their names were spelt incorrectly or have genuinely changed, gender pre-enrolment was not known but has now been established, or similarly named people (e.g. father and son) live at the same address with only the date of birth distinguishing them.

Typical resolution

Log on to the LRS portal directly (see http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/) for details and enter the pupil details there. The LRS will provide more information about the „possible match‟ and allow you to either confirm that your pupil is the same person, or register your pupil for a new ULN. If in doubt call the LRS Helpdesk on 0845 602 2589.

Code RC008 – too many matches

Description A very rare occurrence.

This is the same as an RC007 but the LRS found more than 10 existing ULN records with very similar data to the pupil that you submitted.

Typical reason

This is as likely to be an application bug as it is a genuine „possible match‟ with more than 10 other people.

Typical resolution

If in doubt call the LRS Helpdesk on 0845 602

http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/



Code RC009 – no ULN match – serious error

Description The ULN you provided does not match what the LRS holds – either because the ULN does not exist at all, or the data held against that ULN in the LRS doesn't match the data you have provided.

Typical reason

A ULN has been manually entered into SIMS against the wrong learner.

A „dummy‟ ULN was manually entered into SIMS.

A learner's details have changed substantially so their data no longer bears a resemblance to the data originally registered in the LRS.

Typical resolution

Either:

log on to the LRS to search for the right pupil details (ignoring the ULN you have used).

Alternatively, call the LRS Helpdesk: 0845 602 2589

Code RC010 – null values

Description The LRS was unable to search for a learner because one of the mandatory fields was missing.

Typical reason

The postcode is missing from the original data.

Typical resolution

Enter the postcode (and full address) for this pupil into SIMS and resubmit that learner‟s data, i.e. export a new CTF file for that learner. Alternatively, you can log on to the LRS portal directly (see http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/ for details) to register this pupil.

Useful contact details: DfE S2S Service Helpdesk – Tel: 01325 392626 or email [email protected] LRS Customer Helpdesk – Tel: 0845 602 2589 or email [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

how to download uln numbers from s2s (school to school ... · pdf fileschool it systems...

Documents