Preparing historical data and objective files for processing

We know that changing software can be stressful. As part of your trial, we'll help you get started by transferring your pre-trial summative assessments and any curriculum objectives where possible. This is a completely free service, but there are a few caveats on what we're able to do. Please read below for advice on required file formats, etc.

This guide also applies to existing customers if you are making significant changes to your curriculum statements. We recommend that we process the new statements for you to ensure a smooth transition.

Getting data from other systems

Unfortunately, we're not able to advise on how to extract data from other providers. They do have an obligation to provide it to you - please see here for more.

How to send your files

Please do not email assessment data or objective statements to us. Uploading these through Insight is more secure and will ensure we get to your case as quickly as possible.

Once you have all your files prepared, following the guidelines below, visit this page to see how to upload them to us and find advice on timeframes.

Summative assessment data

We can import most of your pre-trial summative assessment data. To help us process files as quickly as possible, here are some helpful pointers:

Check the files contain pupils' full names or UPNs.
Check your files are clearly labelled with the year groups, subjects and terms the data relates to.
Please send your files as Excel documents where possible. We may be able to import data from Word documents, depending on the format. Unfortunately, we can't process data from PDF files or from images such as JPEG files as there's no easy way for us to lift data from these types of files.
Check that your files are unprotected. If we need a password to open them, be sure to let us know what it is.
Send us a key or reference guide if the data uses coloured cells instead of marks.
When adding your data, we will use the mark scheme language from your original files. We recommend saving your historic data with the original descriptor language (compatible with Insight) rather than converting it to a new wording scheme. You will still be able to assess differently going forwards, but this way you have a reliable historical record and Insight is still able to compare the two different types.
Please don’t send formative assessment files. Unfortunately there is no easy way to import such granular data into Insight. We usually find that if teachers are happy to assess where children are for the current term, you don't need the historical objective data transferred across (as long as you have a copy of it somewhere).

Lots of files to send? Save yourself time by selecting them all and creating a zip file. You can upload that one file to us.

Curriculum Objectives

If you plan to assess any curriculum objectives/statements/KPIs in Insight, we can usually import these.

Freely available statement banks

We have the National Curriculum, Assessment Framework and other freely available objective sets ready for schools to use. Unless you have a custom version of these, there’s probably no need for you to upload your files - just let us know what you're assessing.

Commercial statement banks

We have pre-existing agreements with Focus Education, Norfolk Assessment Pathway, Birmingham SEND Toolkit, Jigsaw PSHE and Discovery RE which allow us to import their statement banks to Insight for you after verifying your subscription. For other commercially available statement banks, please ensure that you have the rights to use any statements that you add into Insight or that we process for you. Terms and Conditions tend to vary between providers of curriculum statements. Some do allow schools to use the statements as they wish (for example, many schools will assess against statements in Excel or a third-party tracker like ours), others may not.

Please note that we do not store copies of commercially available statement banks, and cannot copy these between schools. We will need you to send us the statements that you use in school. We are also unable to download objective statements from links to third party websites or cloud storage folders.

Once you're ready to send us your objectives, please note the following tips:

Check the files contain clearly defined periods, such as Y1, Y2, KS1, KS2, Y-2 etc.
Excel or Word documents are the preferred format, although some PDFs are fine if we can lift text from them. Unfortunately we can't process objectives from images such as JPEG files.
Flag any statements which need to be marked as key objectives clearly.

Please provide as much contextual information as you can to help us understand your curriculum and how best to set it up in Insight. For example:

If your objectives are broken down into terms, let us know if you'd like us to include these as part of the strand etc.
If your document is structured as a table with more than one column of objectives, or has additional information alongside core objectives, let us know which statements are to be used and which ones we can ignore.
If you have objectives already in place, let us know if your new statements are to replace your current set, or if you'd just like us to add them as part of your current grid.