This page is about schools in England. It does not cover Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Which school data service do I need?
- IDSR — inspection data summary report: Ofsted's analysis of school data, used by inspectors before and during inspection. Open the Ofsted IDSR service with your DfE Sign-in account and permissions for the school. Source: Ofsted's IDSR guide, updated 25 September 2026, ‘Overview of the Ofsted IDSR’ and ‘Access your school's Ofsted IDSR’.
- ASP — Analyse School Performance: provided school leaders, governors, trusts, local authorities and other education professionals with attainment and progress reports. DfE withdrew the ASP guidance on 15 October 2026. Its withdrawal notice directs users to VYED and the Analyse school performance data sub-service for ASP data.
- VYED — View your education data: DfE's secure portal for dashboards, reports and tools. Schools, academies, colleges, trusts, local authorities and other listed organisations can use it. What you see depends on the sub-services approved for your organisation. Source: VYED user and access guides, updated 14 April 2026, ‘Who can use VYED’, ‘What to expect once you log in’ and ‘Request access to VYED for the first time’.
- KS2 results: schools find pupil test results and marked scripts on the National Curriculum Assessments Portal (NCA Portal). National headline figures are published separately by DfE. Sources: STA results guidance, ‘Test results and scaled scores’ and ‘Marked test scripts’; DfE national headlines.
- CTF — common transfer file: the file used to send pupil information between schools. It is generated from the school's management information system (MIS). Source: DfE's CTF specification, CTF 26, version 1.1, August 2026, section 1.5.
How do I find my school IDSR?
Go to the Ofsted IDSR service. You need a DfE Sign-in account with the associated permissions for your school. Ofsted's guide also lists access through ASP; it directs users who need more than one school's report to the direct Ofsted service.
If the school or permission is missing, contact your school or organisation's DfE Sign-in approver. Ofsted cannot add schools or change DfE Sign-in access. The guide says to select Services, then See approvers at an organisation to find the approver.
Source: IDSR guide, ‘Access your school's Ofsted IDSR’, updated 25 September 2026. For our earlier explanation, read IDSR: inspection data summary report.
What does the IDSR contain, and how do inspectors use it?
The IDSR brings together the available data about a school. Its sections cover school and trust details; pupil context, including special educational needs and prior attainment; staffing; attendance and behaviour; pupil movement and alternative provision; qualifications; achievement; destinations; and the report card. The content varies between schools and reflects the data available when the report was generated.
Inspectors use it with the school inspection toolkit to guide conversations with leaders. It is a starting point alongside first-hand inspection evidence, rather than a complete picture or a judgement of the school.
Sources: IDSR guide, ‘Overview of the Ofsted IDSR’, ‘Context of the school’, ‘Attendance and behaviour’, ‘Pupil movement and links to alternative provision’, the achievement sections, ‘Destinations’ and ‘Report card’. Read our Ofsted hub for the wider inspection framework and the similar schools article for our explanation of that comparison.
ASP data and pupil progress
ASP's reports covered attainment and progress, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEN, non-mobile pupils and pupils with English as a first or additional language. The withdrawn ASP guidance describes that coverage and gives the current access route: request VYED, then the Analyse school performance data sub-service in DfE Sign-in.
In the IDSR, attainment and progress are presented separately. For KS2 progress, the current guide lists provisional 2026, final 2023 and final 2022 data for all pupils and disadvantaged pupils. Pupils finishing KS2 in 2024 and 2025 did not take the KS1 assessments used as the progress baseline because of pandemic disruption. For low, middle and high prior attainers, the guide lists final 2023 and final 2022 data; prior-attainment-group data is not available in the provisional 2026 data.
Source: IDSR guide, ‘Achievement in phonics and at key stage 2’. For leadership practice, read how to lead assessment effectively.
How to access VYED through DfE Sign-in
Create a DfE Sign-in account if you do not have one. Request access to your organisation before requesting VYED.
To add VYED, sign in, select Services, then Add services to my account under Related actions. Select the organisation if prompted, choose View your education data (VYED) and the sub-services needed, review the request and select Add service. Request access separately for each organisation you work with.
The organisation's approver receives the request. You receive an email when it is approved and can follow its status under Requests. To find the approver, select Organisations, choose your organisation and select Show approvers.
Source: VYED access guide, updated 14 April 2026, ‘Before you start’, ‘Request access to VYED for the first time’, ‘After you request access to an organisation or VYED’ and ‘How to contact your approver’.
Monitor your school attendance is a VYED tool for schools, academy trusts and local authorities. It provides dashboards and downloads of the daily attendance data shared with DfE. Request VYED and the Monitor your school attendance sub-service through DfE Sign-in. Source: Access your school attendance data, updated 8 May 2025, ‘Monitor your school attendance’ and ‘How to get access’. Our attendance hub covers that tool alongside attendance responsibilities and registers.
KS2 SATs results: scaled scores and the expected standard
A raw score is the total marks a pupil earns in a subject. STA converts it to a scaled score so results can be compared over time despite differences in test difficulty.
- 100 or more: the pupil has met the expected standard in the test.
- 99 or less: the pupil has not met the expected standard in the test.
- 80 to 120: the range of scaled scores awarded.
Pupils must take each test paper for the subject to receive a scaled score. A pupil with too few raw marks to receive the lowest scaled score has N in the scaled-score field and NS in the outcome field. AS means the expected standard was achieved; NS means it was not achieved.
Source: STA, Understanding scaled scores at key stage 2, updated 6 July 2026, ‘What is a scaled score?’ and ‘Range of scaled scores and the expected standard’. The 2026 conversion tables, published 16 July 2026, give the raw-to-scaled conversion for each test.
KS2 SATs results 2026: national headlines
DfE published Key stage 2 attainment 2026: national headlines on 16 July 2026. The linked Explore education statistics release was updated on 10 September 2026. Its ‘Headline facts and figures’ reports these percentages meeting the expected standard:
- Reading, writing and maths combined: 63%
- Reading: 75%
- Maths: 75%
- Writing: 73%
- Grammar, punctuation and spelling: 74%
- Science: 82%
Reading, maths, and grammar, punctuation and spelling use tests. Writing and science use teacher assessment. Source: DfE national headlines and the linked statistical release, ‘Headline facts and figures’ and ‘About these statistics: The expected standard’.
Where do I find my school's results?
For NCA Portal access, ask a user at your organisation with account manager permissions to create your account. Sign in with your portal username and password. On your first sign-in each day, enter the verification code sent by email when prompted. Source: STA, How to access the National Curriculum Assessments Portal, updated 18 March 2026, ‘Requesting a new account’ and ‘Signing in’.
For pupil-level KS2 test results, use Key stage 2 test results and outcomes within the NCA Portal's Dashboard. STA's guidance gives 7:30am on 16 July 2026 as the release time for the 2026 results. Schools can download results as a CTF, CSV file or results letter. Local authorities and trusts can download results for their schools together or individually.
To find a marked script, select the subject and pupil in the same results page. Scanned scripts are available to download; scripts marked on paper are returned as hard copies. Source: STA results guidance, updated 15 July 2026, ‘Test results and scaled scores’, ‘Local authorities and multi-academy trusts’ and ‘Marked test scripts’.
For published school-level data, use Compare school and college performance in England, linked in the IDSR guide's ‘Reporting data issues’. For ASP data, request the VYED sub-service described above. For the inspection summary, open the direct Ofsted IDSR service.
What is a common transfer file (CTF)?
A CTF carries pupil information when a pupil changes school. The school generates it from its MIS. It can include historical information such as attendance and assessment data. This is distinct from the CTF download of KS2 results described in STA's results guidance.
The current DfE specification is CTF 26, version 1.1, August 2026, published on GOV.UK in its updated form on 6 August 2026 and valid for use from September 2026. Sections 1.4–1.5 cover historical data and the purpose of a CTF. Section 2.2 requires CTFs to be transferred in machine-readable form unless either school lacks the facilities to send or receive one. Machine-readable transfers must use a local-authority intranet or a DfE-provided facility, currently the secure S2S website.
Related leadership guides
Prepare for conversations about school performance with the headteacher interview guide and headteacher role page. Organise reviews with the School Leader Planner®. Read the Ofsted hub for inspection and the attendance hub for Monitor your school attendance.
