If we know how well our schools are performing for our young people, we can understand how well they help our children become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. Achieving this National Outcome is not only important in its own right - it will also help us achieve almost every other National Indicator.
People are Scotland's powerhouse. For Scotland to be all it can be, all our people need to develop skills, in the widest sense, so they can fulfil their potential. This is not just about qualifications. It is about wider achievement.
Schools have a key role to play in the successful delivery of this outcome. Our reforms under Curriculum for Excellence are intended to give schools the flexibility and scope to focus on outcomes for our children and young people. Curriculum for Excellence is about providing the best possible teaching for our children and young people to help them become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. It is also about ensuring they have skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work.
Only in doing this can schools achieve a positive inspection report. The indicator is derived from Education Scotland's evaluations of improvements in performance in terms of the outcomes for pupils across the full range of achievement. This includes attainment, the quality of pupils' learning experiences and how well their learning needs are met.
The role of the local authority is key in ensuring that the building blocks for positive inspection reports are in place. These are: a trained and motivated workforce; high quality leadership from the local authority and school management; a focus on teaching and learning; and the necessary support.
At school level, all staff should recognise the need for robust self-evaluation and continuous improvement and the importance of not setting limits on the expectations they have of themselves and every single one of their pupils. Local and national government should continue to provide advice on 'what works', for example as shown in The Journey to Excellence five-part resource, and effective and positive support. Curriculum for Excellence focuses on learning and teaching, fostering ambition and raising expectations. Schools also need to be rich in information and data about progress in the achievements of every learner. This approach is intended to result in improvements in outcomes for learners and, therefore, in positive inspection reports.
The Scottish Government sets the overall framework for Scottish school education. We work in partnership with local government to ensure the necessary building blocks are in place - an adequately sized, trained and motivated workforce, strong leadership and a curriculum which will deliver for all our young people.
16% of all publicly funded schools open at September 2013 are included in the first post-baseline sample of schools.
Of those inspected, 90% were evaluated as satisfactory or better in all of the three Reference Quality Indicators, 69% were evaluated as good or better and 24% as very good or better in all three Reference Quality Indicators. Positive criteria were not met in 10% of schools inspected.
The proportion of schools receiving satisfactory or better evaluations in all three Reference Quality Indicators has remained unchanged over the baseline.
The data is available at the bottom of the page.
It is possible to carry out the analysis separately for primary schools. Of those primary schools inspected, 91% were evaluated as satisfactory or better in all of the three Reference Quality Indicators, 69% were evaluated as good or better and 22% as very good or better in all three Reference Quality Indicators. Positive criteria were not met in 9% of primary schools inspected. There has been no statistically significant change in these evaluations over the baseline evaluations.
Given the size of the sample of secondary, all-through and special schools, confidence intervals are too large to provide a statistically accurate measure of performance for these sectors at a national level.
The data is available at the bottom of the page.
The direction of travel arrow remains as “Performance maintaining” as the proportion of schools receiving satisfactory or better evaluations has remained unchanged since the baseline.
Two tailed significance tests (Barnard’s exact test) are used to assess the statistical significance of comparisons made. In line with statistical convention significance has been assessed at a ninety-five per cent level of confidence.
For information on general methodological approach, please click here.
Scotland Performs Technical Note
Association of Directors of Education in Scotland
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
Education Scotland
Scottish Qualifications Authority
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