Guidance

School to school (S2S) data transfer system: guides

How schools and local authorities access and use the S2S secure data transfer system.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 10 December 2013
• Last updated: 16 February 2022
  Show all updates

  1. 16 February 2022

     Removed the 'S2S ULN service: user guide'.

  2. 26 July 2019

     Updated guidance for schools and LAs to include information on using DfE sign-in to access S2S.

  3. 12 April 2017

     Updated S2S ULN service guide with warnings about sending unsecured, personal information.

  4. 2 October 2014

     Updated URLs, screenshots and acronyms in 'S2S: guide for schools' and 'S2S: guide for local authorities'.

  5. 10 December 2013

     First published.

Documents

School to school (S2S) guide for schools

Ref: DfE-00155-2019

PDF, 747 KB, 22 pages

School to school (S2S) guide for local authorities

Ref: DfE-00154-2019

PDF, 557 KB, 26 pages

Encrypting data you wish to send using WinZip

PDF, 259 KB, 2 pages

Details

Guidance on how to use the S2S secure data transfer system to send pupil data using the common transfer file to schools and local authorities.

The guides cover:

• encrypting data
• file formats and naming conventions
• uploading and downloading files
• pupil transfers
• using the unique learner number link to access the learning records service

The unique learner numbers (ULN) service, within S2S was removed in August 2020. Schools can now get ULNs directly from the LRS portal using the same format files. Guidance on using the LRS portal is available.