Verdict
No. DfE asks for both items for every pupil, but a refusal is itself a valid answer: record ‘REFU’ for ethnicity, ‘REF’ for first language, and ‘NOBT’ where the ethnicity simply has not been collected yet. What you must not do is fill the gap with your own judgement — DfE says the school must not ascribe an ethnicity or a specific language to a pupil. Guessing is the error here, not the blank.
What the source actually says
On ethnicity:
“We require data on ethnicity for all pupils. The school must not ascribe any ethnicity to the pupil. This information must come from the parent or guardian or the pupil.”
“Where the ethnicity has not yet been collected, this is recorded as ‘NOBT’ (information not yet obtained). Where a parent or guardian or the pupil declines to provide ethnicity data, code ‘REFU’ (refused) is recorded and returned.”
On first language:
“We require data on language for all pupils. The school must not ascribe a specific language to the pupil. This information must come from the parent or guardian or the pupil.”
“Where a parent, guardian or pupil declines to provide a first language, you should record it as ‘REF’ (refused).”
— Data items 2026 to 2027, DfE, published 28 July 2026, “Ethnicity” and “Language code (used for funding)” sections DfE
Language has one narrow exception that ethnicity does not. Two “believed to be” codes exist, and the guidance gates them on all three conditions holding at once:
“You should only use codes ENB (not known but believed to be English) and OTB (not known but believed to be other than English) where all the following conditions apply:”
“pupil’s first language is not known with absolute certainty”
“parents have not responded to enquiries”
“school can judge with a high degree of confidence whether the pupil’s language is English or not”
— same source, “Language code (used for funding)” section DfE
Note that “parents have not responded to enquiries” is one of the conditions — so the believed-to-be codes are the route after asking, not instead of asking. The technical specification carries the same codes with a slightly different plain-English gloss, calling ‘REFU’ and ‘REF’ “declined to provide” rather than “refused” — School census 2026 to 2027: technical information, DfE, published 28 July 2026, sections 4.3.2.1 and 4.3.2.2 DfE. The code returned is identical either way.
Your school may still require it
Your school can require you to ask, to ask again, and to record what happened — and a school that wants a high response rate for its EAL or equality data is entitled to set that expectation. What it cannot ask for is a made-up answer to close a gap in the return.
See also Do we need parents' consent before pupil data goes in the school census? and Do I have to see documents to verify a pupil's name, or chase a missing address?.