School Attendance Data sharing and statutory returns: Changes to data collection - May 2026
In accordance with regulation 13 of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 all schools are required to share attendance data with the LA as well as the Department for Education. In Norfolk we aim to avoid any unnecessary burdens for schools through our live attendance data feed which has been in operation since 2019 and extracts relevant pupil data from your Schools Management Information System (MIS) to populate the Norfolk County Council's Education Management Information System. It is positive to note that we have extensive coverage of schools in Norfolk via this system already but we need to make some changes to how we achieve this.
Why are we changing our method collection?
The LA needs to move from extraction of data via Groupcall Xporter for all schools to Wonde, as Synergy has moved to Wonde for the collection of school data and will no longer support Groupcall going forward.
Why Wonde?
Wonde is a trusted third‑party service that integrates with Synergy and specialises in the secure collection and onward provision of data from School Management Information Systems (MIS). It has quickly become the sector standard and is widely used across education, including by the Department for Education.
Wonde is responsible for:
- Monitoring connectivity to each school's MIS and resolving any technical issues
- Ensuring data is current, accurate, and kept up to date
- Managing changes when schools move between MIS platforms (for example, SIMS to Arbor or Bromcom)
- Supporting schools that are not yet connected, including initial setup and onboarding
All schools in Norfolk are already configured to use Wonde to supply data to the DfE. Extending this existing connection to feed data into Synergy will therefore be straightforward and will significantly simplify the overall data collection process for schools.
What will schools need to do?
In the forthcoming week, you will receive an e-mail from Wonde asking you to log in to your Wonde Portal and approve the permissions for Synergy. When you receive this email, follow the instructions provided and approve the Synergy permissions.
At this stage, please do not disconnect your Groupcall Xporter from your MIS as this is still bringing in live data during the transition period, ICT Solutions will contact you when this can be completed.
Our school is already providing the DfE with daily attendance data, why do we need to do this too?
There are some limitations in the attendance data the LA can receive via the DfE and therefore we need schools to engage with both our local project and the DfE collection of attendance data via Wonde. Engaging with both systems simultaneously will not add to schools' workloads or compromise information security.
Next steps:
In order to maintain compliance with regulations, please can you ensure that the request from Wonde is responded to as quickly as possible. This will allow us to ensure minimum disruption to data sharing and requirements regarding data returns. If you have any questions or need support to complete the request, please contact:
