Pupil Premium Numbers Do Not Match Between Arbor and 4Matrix
You may find that the number of Pupil Premium students in 4Matrix does not match the number shown in Arbor. This can happen when Arbor has not provided a valid start date for the student's Pupil Premium Eligible status.
4Matrix uses Arbor's Pupil Premium Eligible field to identify Pupil Premium students.
This is a dervied field in Arbor, based on information such as:
- Free School Meals (FSM) history
- Looked After Child (LAC) / In Care history
- Service Child history
For affected students, the Pupil Premium Eligible start date may show as "Ongoing" instead of a specific date.
This can affect Desktop and Cloud extracts differently:
- Desktop: the student may be imported as not Pupil Premium eligible.
- Cloud: the student may be imported as Pupil Premium eligible, but with a demographic row dated from the import date. This may result in an inaccurate historical record.
Solution
First, check the affected student's profile in Arbor:
- Open the student's profile.
- Go to Derived Indicators.
- Find Pupil Premium Eligible.
- Check the start date.
If the start date is "Ongoing", check the student's underlying eligibility history.
LAC or Service Child history
If the student has LAC or Service Child history, make sure the relevant history has a valid start date.
Updating the start date, or deleting and re-entering the history with the correct date, may cause Arbor to recalculate the Pupil Premium Eligible start date.
Once corrected, run the 4Matrix extract again.
FSM history
FSM-related cases can be more complicated due to changes to Arbor's FSM system. If the issue relates to FSM history, we recommend contacting Arbor Support rather than making changes to the student's record yourself.
When to Contact Arbor
Contact Arbor Support if:
- The Pupil Premium Eligible start date shows as "Ongoing".
- The student's FSM history appears correct, but the Pupil Premium Eligible start date is missing or incorrect.
- You are unsure how to correct the underlying FSM history.
- The issue continues after correcting the relevant student history.
Ask Arbor to investigate why the Pupil Premium Eligible start date has not been generated correctly and whether they can correct the underlying data.
Possible Arbor FSM Changes
We believe this issue may be related to recent changes in Arbor's FSM system, including the automatic move to FSM Targeted.
Arbor should be able to confirm whether these changes are responsible for the issue and advise on the appropriate fix.