Guidance

Unique pupil numbers

Guide for schools and local authorities on unique pupil numbers (UPNs) and a tool for generating them.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 13 September 2013
• Last updated: 7 June 2019
  Show all updates

  1. 7 June 2019

     Replaced the UPN guide with an updated version.

  2. 1 April 2019

     Updated 'UPNs: guide for schools and local authorities' and UPN generator.

  3. 15 December 2017

     Reviewed and updated the unique pupil numbers guide, this includes data protection changes needed in 2018.

  4. 29 September 2017

     Updated the UPN (unique pupil number) generator.

  5. 23 August 2017

     Updated the UPN (unique pupil number) generator.

  6. 25 September 2015

     Updated the UPN (unique pupil number) generator for the 2015 to 2016 academic year.

  7. 3 September 2014

     Updated UPN generator for 2014 to 2015 academic year.

  8. 13 September 2013

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

UPNs: guide for schools and local authorities

Ref: DFE-00116-2020

PDF, 565 KB, 20 pages

UPN generator

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 575 KB

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Details

The unique pupil number (UPN) is a 13-character code that identifies each pupil in the local-authority-maintained school system.

The guide is for schools and local authorities, and provides information on UPNs, including:

• guidelines on maintaining UPNs
• data protection
• how to generate UPNs

The spreadsheet is a tool for generating UPNs.