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How to Add Pre-Admission Students using ATF and CTF Imports

IMPORTANT: This guide is not applicable to schools in Northern Ireland, instead, schools in Northern Ireland should read How to Add Pre-Admission Students via CTF

This guide has been created to outline to process of adding Pre-Admission Students to your system using CTF Imports.

Access: The minimum permissions required to access the Pre-Admissions page is found in the Administration Module of Config>Setup>Roles & Permissions.

Pre Admissions Permissions

The permissions for the ATF and CTF imports is found in the Framework Module- Students of Config>Setup>Roles and Permissions.

Students Permissions

See also:

Create Pre-Admission Group

If you have already setup your Pre-Admissions Group, skip to the next section in this guide.

Select Administration and click on Pre-Admission Groups from within the Admissions menu.

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Once on this page, click on New to setup your New Admissions Group.

This will open the Admission Group Definition page.

Complete the information:

  • DoB Range From – To  this is the DoB Range of the Students expected in this Group
    • *if the Students in your file fall outside of this range, they will not be Imported
  • Admission Date – this is the planned Date of Admission – you can change this while your admitting your Students later
  • NC Year Group – this is what National Curriculum Year Group the Students are expected to be in based on the DoB Range set
  • Planned Year Group – this is what Year Group you’re expecting to add the Students in to
  • Year Name – you can manually set this, but if the Auto Generate Name option is selected, it will name the Group based on the Planned Year Group and Admissions Date (e.g. 07-2021)
  • Planned Admission – this is how many Students you’re planning to admit/have in the Planned Year Group
  • Auto Generate – will Generate the Admission Group Name
  • Show Inactive Admission Policies – will show both Active and Inactive Admission Policies

Click Create.

Import ATF

This is when you have been given an ATF File to Import your Pre-Admission Students.

From the left Menu click on the Students to open the Student List page then go to Actions > ATF Import . You do not need to select any Students.

This will open the ATF Import popup.

Click on Browse to select your ATF File.

By default, all information is Imported where available, but you can deselect what to Import if needed.

Select the new Pre-Admissions Group you’ve created and select Next.

You will see a Table of your Students to Import and whether they have been Matched to Existing Students or not.

If they are all New Students, matched will say No and Import Options will default to Create New.

If there are any matches, then this table will reflect that.

Please review the information in the Table, and once you’re happy click on Next.


IMPORTANT: this panel is for matching to Existing Students. Sibling matching is on the next step. 

  • If the Import Option is Create New, you are creating a new record in this MIS for the Student in this file. 
  • If the Import option is Match Existing, you are choosing to replace the current record of the Student you already have in the MIS with the information in the File – you are choosing to overwrite the existing record with new data.

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If you get an Error, please contact the usual support channels if needed.

Import CTF

From the left Menu click on the Students to open the Student List page then go to Actions > CTF Import. You do not need to select any Students.

Actions > CTF Import

This will open the CTF Import popup.

Click on Browse to select your CTF File.

By Default, all information is Imported, but you can deselect any of the options as needed.

You will need to change the option with If this File contains New Students, to ensure that you are selecting Pre-Admissions, you can then select your Pre-Admissions Group.

Click Next.

You will see a Table of your Students to Import and whether they have been Matched to Existing Students or not.

If they are all New Students, matched will say No and Import Options will default to Create New.

If there are any matches, then this table will reflect that.

Please review the information in the Table, and once you’re happy click on Next.

Sibling Match

February 2025 Update: To streamline the student import process, both the ATF (Admissions Transfer File) and CTF (Common Transfer File) imports will now follow the same procedure, with the added benefit of automatically linking new students to existing potential siblings in the MIS.

The process will proceed as follows:

After selecting Actions > ATF Import or CTF Import, the initial popup will now include a Student Siblings checkbox, which is checked by default. When ticked, any students that meet three or more of the following criteria will be automatically matched as a potential sibling to the new student and users can decide whether to link the match when it comes to the import stage:

  • Home phone numbers that match
  • Parental addresses that match
  • Parental email addresses that match
  • Parental names that match
  • Sibling match

Users will click Next to see the list of students in the file.

Image #1

In the third and final step, the students in the file are matched to potential siblings already in the MIS. The table displays the following information:

  • ATF/CTF Student – Student in the ATF/CTF file.
  • Potential Sibling – Existing student in the MIS with one or more Matched Criteria.
  • Address – Existing student’s address.
  • Matched Criteria – Score out of a maximum of five matches (click on the “i” to see the details).
  • Matched Criteria Status – “Yes” in green (strong match) if the match meets three or more Matched Criteria, and “No” in red (weak match) if the match meets two or fewer Matched Criteria. 
  • Import Options – This column determines whether a Potential Sibling will be linked when the Import button is clicked. The row will display either Link (highlighted green) or Do Not Link (highlighted red). Note: Users can also bulk Link/Unlink by selecting the row(s) and clicking the Link and Do Not Link buttons. 
  • Actions – Update the Import Options column per row by clicking on Link or Unlink.

Users can also choose to Export As the contents of the table to Copy, Excel and CSV.

Finally users will click Import.

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Upon clicking Import, users will see the Success popup.

If you encounter any issues, please contact the Bromcom Helpdesk.

Updated on August 13, 2026
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