Statutory guidance

Submitting key stage 2 teacher assessment data in 2026

Updated 5 May 2026

1. Introduction

This guidance provides information for schools and local authorities about how to submit teacher assessment (TA) data for pupils at the end of key stage 2 (KS2), including pre-key stage 2 standards and engagement model data. You should read it alongside the:

• KS2 teacher assessment guidance
• KS2 teacher assessment data collection: technical specification

TA data must be reported by Friday 26 June, for every pupil who is registered:

• to take a national curriculum test
• as working below the overall standard of the tests

From Monday 18 May, schools can submit data either:

• directly to the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), using the National Curriculum Assessments Portal (NCA Portal)
• to their local authority, if the local authority has agreed to submit it on their behalf

Schools should carry out TA as part of teaching and learning. It provides a judgement that is based on knowledge of how the pupil has performed over time and in a variety of contexts. Teachers must make their TA judgements using one or more of the following:

• TA frameworks in English writing and science – for pupils who have completed the KS2 programme of study and are working at the standard of national curriculum assessments for the relevant subject
• pre-key stage 2 standards in English reading, English writing and mathematics – for pupils who are working below the standard of national curriculum assessments and are engaged in subject-specific study, or who have not completed the relevant programme of study for that subject
• the engagement model – for pupils who are working below the standard of national curriculum assessments and are not yet engaged in subject-specific study

For more information, please refer to the KS2 teacher assessment guidance.

1.1 Submitting teacher assessment data

Schools submitting data on the NCA Portal can use a:

• common transfer file (CTF) generated by their school’s management information system (MIS)
• TA spreadsheet template generated on the NCA Portal

Local authorities that have chosen to collect and submit TA data on behalf of schools can also upload a zip file containing multiple files for different schools.

You can find the different codes and descriptions for submitting TA data, including pre-key stage standard and engagement model data, for each subject in section 15 of the KS2 teacher assessment guidance.

Section 13.2 of the KS2 teacher assessment guidance provides further guidance on which school should submit TA data for pupils who change schools before, during and after test week.

1.2 Deadline for submission

All TA data must be submitted to STA, using the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form on the NCA Portal, by Friday 26 June.

Schools must not resubmit data after Friday 26 June unless required to do so by STA or their local authority.

2. Uploading teacher assessment data on the National Curriculum Assessments Portal

2.1 Schools uploading teacher assessment data

1.Sign in to the NCA Portal and select the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form on the ‘Dashboard’.

If you are submitting your data using a:

• CTF generated by your school’s MIS, ensure the file uses the CTF file naming convention set out in section 2.6 of the KS2 teacher assessment technical specification – you can then move to step 6
• spreadsheet template from the NCA Portal, continue to step 2

It is important that your file format is XML (for CTF files) or XLSX (if using Microsoft Excel). You will not be able to upload files in any other formats.

2.Select ‘Generate template’ to create a copy of your data as a spreadsheet, then select ‘Download’.

3.Open the downloaded template in Microsoft Excel and enter the TA data for all pupils in the spreadsheet. Please note that you:

• must update a pupil’s unique pupil number (UPN) in column A if it has changed
• must add data to the bottom of the list for pupils who arrived in school before or during test week if they meet the criteria in section 13.2 of the KS2 teacher assessment guidance and were not yet added to pupil registration in either the ‘Manage key stage 2 pupil registration’ or ‘Complete attendance register’ forms
• must not add pupils who arrived in school after test week
• must not add TA codes for subjects where the pupil has completed the KS2 test
• must not amend names or dates of birth – these must remain the same as those confirmed during pupil registration, so that the records match (see Wrong name, sex or date of birth)

4.Save the spreadsheet to your device in XLSX format.

5.Go back to the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form on the NCA Portal.

6.Under the ‘Upload teacher assessment file’ heading, select ‘Choose file’.

7.Navigate to your saved file, select it, then select ‘Open’ and ‘Submit’.

A confirmation screen will show that your data has been submitted and advise on next steps. You will also receive 2 emails:

1. The first email will confirm that your data has been received and will be processed.
2. The second email will advise if your upload was successfully processed, and there were no errors, or if further action is required.

2.2 Local authorities uploading teacher assessment data on behalf of schools

Preparing the files

To submit TA data for your schools, you should upload the XML (CTF) or XLSX files the schools have provided. You can either upload:

• an individual file for each school
• a zip file containing multiple files for different schools – these schools must either be within your geographic area or have notified STA that they have a moderation agreement in place with your local authority

File name requirements

All individual school data files uploaded by local authorities must contain the school’s Department for Education (DfE) number at the start of the file name, whether they are uploaded individually or contained within a zip file. See the naming convention specified in section 2.6 (CTF) of the KS2 teacher assessment technical specification.

Permitted file formats

It is important that your file format is XML (for CTF files), XLSX (for Microsoft Excel files), or ZIP (which can contain a mix of CTF and XLSX files). You will not be able to upload files in any other formats.

If a school provided another file format

If one of your schools has provided their TA data in a format that is not permitted, you can generate a spreadsheet as follows:

1.Sign in to the NCA Portal and select the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form on the ‘Dashboard’.

2.If your user account is linked to more than one local authority, select the correct local authority from the ‘Current local authority’ dropdown list at the top right of the page.

3.Under the ‘School’ heading, select the relevant school from the dropdown list.

4.Select ‘Generate template’ to create a copy of the school’s data as a spreadsheet, then select ‘Download’.

5.Open the downloaded template in Microsoft Excel and enter the TA data for all pupils in the spreadsheet. Please note that you:

• must update a pupil’s UPN in column A if it has changed
• must add data to the bottom of the list for pupils who arrived in school before or during test week if they meet the criteria in section 13.2 of the KS2 teacher assessment guidance and were not yet added to pupil registration in either the ‘Manage key stage 2 pupil registration’ or ‘Complete attendance register’ forms
• must not add pupils who arrived in school after test week
• must not add TA codes for subjects where the pupil has completed the KS2 test
• must not amend names or dates of birth – these must remain the same as those confirmed during pupil registration, so that the records match

6.Save the spreadsheet to your device in XLSX format

Uploading the files

Once you have checked that the file names and formats are correct, complete the following steps:

1.Sign in to the NCA Portal and select the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form on the ‘Dashboard’.

2.If your user account is linked to more than one local authority, select the correct local authority from the ‘Current local authority’ dropdown list at the top right of the page.

3.Under the ‘School’ heading, either:

• select the school you are submitting data for if you are submitting one file per school – if a school is selected already, check it is the correct one
• ensure the ‘School’ selection is blank if you are submitting a zip file containing multiple files for different schools

4.Under the ‘Upload teacher assessment file’ heading, select ‘Choose file’.

5.Navigate to where you saved your file, select it, then select ‘Open’ and ‘Submit’.

If there is an upload error (see File upload and file format errors), a notification will appear on screen and prevent you from submitting the file until it is resolved.

Otherwise, a confirmation screen will show that your data has been submitted and advise on next steps. You will also receive 2 emails:

1. The first email will confirm that your data has been received and will be processed.
2. The second email will advise if your upload was successfully processed, and there were no errors, or if further action is required.

2.3 Viewing submitted data

Once the submitted TA data has been processed successfully, schools and local authorities can view it on the ‘Review submitted teacher assessment data’ tab within the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form on the NCA Portal.

Local authorities can view all of their schools’ TA data, regardless of who submitted it. For oversight purposes, local authorities can also see a record of all submitted and outstanding TA data at school level (see Local authority school submissions report). This applies to schools in their geographic area and those they have a moderation agreement in place with.

3. Reviewing and correcting teacher assessment data errors

If the data you submitted contains errors that prevent us from processing your data, we will email you with further instructions on how to resolve them and resubmit your data, as required.

A ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form will become available on the ‘Dashboard’ within the NCA Portal, providing details of the errors identified within the data (see Pupil registration and pupil matching errors and Missing or incorrect data).

Both the school and local authority can review this form, regardless of who submitted the data. This allows local authorities to support schools with resolving errors in their data, if required. Local authorities that have submitted the data on behalf of a school should confirm arrangements for resolving errors and resubmitting data with the school.

3.1 File upload and file format errors 

Data formatting errors

If you have uploaded data that cannot be processed due to file formatting errors, the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form will display error messages from one of the following groups:

• Missing required information: data has not been provided within the uploaded data file for one of the required fields – for example, UPN, name, date of birth, sex, results, or CTF data including local authority and establishment number
• Incorrect format: data within the uploaded file is not in the expected format – for example, date of birth not in DD/MM/YYYY, UPN not structured correctly, or an invalid document name
• Invalid or unrecognised values: data entries within the uploaded data file do not match allowed values – for example, sex, results not from the approved TA code lists, invalid local authority code in UPN
• Values outside expected rules: data entries within the uploaded data file exceed length limits (for example, UPN too long) or are outside acceptable ranges (for example, date of birth outside expected age range, invalid UPN structure)

To resolve these errors, update the incorrect data within the file and reupload it.

Local authority zip upload errors

Local authorities will receive a file upload error on the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form if they are uploading a zip file in which one or more of the following errors is found:

• File name error: the file name of at least one file within the zipped folder does not follow the requirements
• File format error: the file format of at least one file within the zipped folder does not follow the requirements
• Matching organisation error: at least one file within the zipped folder relates to a school that is not in the local authority’s geographic area and has not notified STA that they have a moderation agreement in place with the local authority

The files will not be uploaded.

To resolve these errors:

1. Update or remove the incorrect files and create a new zip file.
2. Upload the replacement zip file.
3. Once the file is uploaded successfully, it will be processed and you will receive an email notification to confirm whether the submission was successful or if further action is required.

3.2 Pupil registration and pupil matching errors

Where there is a discrepancy between the data contained in the upload file and the pupil register, the pupils will be listed in the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form. All pupils that have been successfully matched to pupil registration data will be listed in the ‘Matched teacher assessment records’ table on this page.

Teacher assessments without pupil registration records

Where a pupil is included in the TA data file but there is no match on the pupil register, they will be listed under the ‘Teacher assessments without pupil registration’ heading. The number in brackets next to the heading indicates how many pupils fall into this category.

To resolve this, you can select one of the following resolution options from the ‘Actions’ dropdown against each pupil:

• If the pupil is already on the pupil register, select ‘Match candidate’. In the ‘Matched pupil’ dropdown list, select the pupil to match to and ‘Confirm’. The list will update and the pupil will move to the ‘Matched teacher assessment records’ table.
• If the pupil was included in the data file incorrectly, select ‘Remove teacher assessment’ and ‘Confirm’. The list will update and you will no longer be able to match this candidate or add them to the register. (See also Deleting pupils.)

Registering a new pupil during teacher assessment submission

If the pupil is not on the pupil register, select ‘Register pupil’ in the ‘Teacher assessments without pupil registration records’ table. Pupils should only be added to pupil registration if they were enrolled at your school during test week.

A new section headed ‘Register new pupil’ will appear, with a form to register that pupil. You must supply a valid UPN and select a registration status for each of the KS2 test subjects. The ‘Registered’ code for each subject must only be used for pupils who sat the tests.

Check the name, sex and date of birth are correct before selecting ‘Create’. The list will then update.

If information is missing or invalid, an error message will show. Correct or complete the information and select ‘Create’.

Teacher assessments incorrectly matched to pupil registration records

If a pupil has been successfully uploaded but incorrectly matched to a pupil record, you can select ‘Unmatch’ in the ‘Action’ column within the ‘Matched teacher assessment records’ table.

The uploaded pupil record and TA data will then appear in the ‘Teacher assessments without pupil registration’ table, and the unmatched pupil record will appear in the ‘Pupil registration records without teacher assessment’ table.

The pupil in the ‘Teacher assessments without pupil registration record’ table can then either be matched to the correct pupil or registered.

Pupil registration records without teacher assessments

If a registered pupil cannot be matched to any data within the TA upload, they will be shown in the ‘Pupil registration records without teacher assessments’ table on the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ page.

If the pupil has been incorrectly missed from the upload file, you should create and upload a replacement TA data file. If there are no other errors in the data, you can upload a file with a single row for that pupil.

If the details provided for the pupil in the TA data file are different to those provided at pupil registration, you can manually match these pupil’s by selecting ‘Match candidate’ next to the pupil’s name in the ‘Pupil registration records without teacher assessments’ table.

See also Deleting pupils.

3.3 Missing or incorrect data

Pupil data is expected for the following required fields in the upload file:

• UPN (excluding independent schools)
• Pupil surname
• Pupil forename
• Date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)
• Sex (M/F)
• Writing (TA)
• Science (TA)

In addition, if a pupil is registered as ‘Below’ for a test subject, then the relevant subject field becomes a required field. This affects:

• Reading (TA)
• Mathematics (TA)

Where data is missing from the uploaded TA data file, the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form will highlight the missing information in red for each pupil under the ‘Teacher assessment submission unable to be processed’ heading. For example:

• “Date of birth is required”
• “UPN is required”
• “Sex code is invalid”

Where there are multiple fields missing data, all applicable errors will be listed.

Incorrect teacher assessment codes

You must submit valid TA codes for each subject where a TA outcome is required. You can find the different codes and descriptions for submitting data for each subject in section 15 of the KS2 teacher assessment guidance.

If a TA code is missing or invalid, this will be highlighted in red on the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form under the ‘Teacher assessment submission unable to be processed’ heading – for example:

• “The writing result is invalid - it must be one of GDS, EXS, WTS, PK6, PK5, PK4, PK3, PK2, PK1, EM, A, L, F or P”
• “The science result is invalid - it must be one of EXS, HNM, A, L, F or P”
• “Our records indicate that this pupil is working below the standard for reading and a result is expected - it must be one of PK6, PK5, PK4, PK3, PK2, PK1, EM, A”

To resolve this, update the original file with the correct TA codes and resubmit it by selecting ‘Reupload teacher assessment data’ at the bottom of the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form. A successful new submission will update the previously uploaded data.

Uploading a blank file will not remove pupils or previously submitted data.

When you resubmit corrected data, you only need to include the pupils for which you are making changes. However, you must provide the complete data set for each pupil you want to correct.

Removing a code from an individual field will be successful on any row with a verified pupil where that field is not required – for example, uploading a replacement file with a blank field for ‘Reading’ or ‘Mathematics’ where the pupil is not registered as ‘Below’ on the pupil register will replace a previously supplied code with a blank. 

4. Correcting pupil registration errors

This section outlines the rules for changing a pupil’s data if their information has changed since pupil registration.

4.1 Wrong unique pupil number (UPN)

If a pupil’s UPN has changed since pupil registration – for example, a pupil was registered with a temporary UPN and has now been allocated a permanent one – you can update this by providing the new UPN when uploading TA data. Once you have uploaded the data, use the ‘Match candidate’ option in the ‘Review teacher assessment submission errors’ form to match them to the correct pupil.

If you have already uploaded TA data for the pupil and you wish to change their UPN, you will need to upload the pupil again with the new UPN and all their TA data. You will then need to use the ‘Review teacher assessment errors’ form to unmatch the incorrect pupil entry and manually match the correct pupil (see Pupil registration and pupil matching errors).

4.2 Wrong name, sex or date of birth

You cannot change pupil details that are incorrect in the TA spreadsheet template downloaded from the NCA Portal, as they are the pupil details confirmed during pupil registration.

If you have uploaded a pupil with different details to those already registered, you will need to manually match them to the correct record (see Pupil registration and pupil matching errors).

5. Deleting pupils

Pupils can only be deleted from TA data if they were uploaded in error and they were not already registered on the NCA Portal during KS2 pupil registration.

Where this is the case, the pupil will show in the ‘Teacher assessments without pupil registration’ section within the ‘Review teacher assessment errors’ form. You should select ‘Remove teacher assessment’ from the ‘Actions’ dropdown, as outlined in Pupil registration and pupil matching errors.

You cannot remove a pupil by submitting a new file. This will only refresh the data for the matched pupils and will not remove pupils or data that is already submitted.

You can delete a pupil if they:

• were not enrolled at your school during test week
• are a duplicate, which means the pupil exists more than once in the submission – this may occur if the pupil was uploaded more than once but with different details

You cannot delete a pupil if they:

• have been uploaded with incorrect TA outcomes: these pupils can be corrected by uploading another file which will refresh the data (see Missing or incorrect data)
• did not take the tests because they were working below the overall standard of the tests, unable to access the tests or were absent on the day of the tests: you should submit their TA data using the appropriate code – for more information, please refer to the KS2 teacher assessment guidance

If you have added a pupil to your pupil registration data in error while uploading your TA data (see Pupil registration and pupil matching errors), you will not be able to delete this pupil yourself. You should:

1. Check that they meet the criteria above.
2. Report this and request removal by contacting the national curriculum assessments helpline on 0300 3030 3013.
3. STA will then be able to take corrective action.

6. Local authority school submissions report

Local authorities can view and download the ‘KS2 teacher assessment school submissions’ summary report on the ‘Summary reports’ page within the ‘Activities’ tab on the NCA Portal.

This report allows local authorities to track TA data submissions for their geographical schools and any non-geographical schools that notified STA they have a moderation agreement in place with the local authority. It shows:

• a school-level summary of TA data that has, and has not, been submitted
• where TA submissions by local authorities or schools have been rejected due to errors with the data file, including a description of the error

See also Viewing submitted data.

7. Further information

Further information to support schools and local authorities with their TA data submissions is available on the NCA Portal, including:

• step-by-step instructions within the ‘Submit teacher assessment data’ form
• video tutorials on how to submit data and resolve errors on the ‘Guidance’ page within the ‘Support’ tab

If you need support signing in to the NCA Portal, please refer to the guidance on how to access the NCA Portal.

If you have any other questions about submitting KS2 TA data, please contact the national curriculum assessments helpline:

National curriculum assessments helpline
Call: 0300 303 3013
Email: assessments@education.gov.uk
Online: NCA Portal ‘Support’