Education: improvement framework and plan - 2021

Annex A

Ongoing/completed activity from the 2020 National Improvement Plan

Action

Current Position

School Leadership

Action - SL79

Support for Into Headship will form part of our ongoing commitment to fund professional learning for teachers, including at school leadership level.

Current Position - Business as usual

Funding for Into Headship is in its sixth year, with Cohort 6 embarking on the programme in session 2020/21. It continues to be developed through a partnership approach between Education Scotland, seven universities and local authorities. Into Headship results in the award of the GTCS Standard for Headship, a mandatory requirement for new substantive head teachers since 1 August 2020. This is reflected in the 33% rise in uptake for Cohort 6.

SL80

We will continue to encourage more people into early learning and childcare, particularly those groups under-represented in the profession (men and minority ethnic communities) as well as in particular geographical areas.

Ongoing

We wish to develop an early learning and childcare workforce that better represents Scottish society, so we are working to encourage anyone with protected characteristics to pursue a career in ELC, as part of our ongoing priority of growing the workforce. That includes, males, those from our ethnic minority communities, those with language skills and those with disabilities.

SL81

In 2020 we will work with the Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations (CEMVO) to engage those from ethnic minority communities into ELC and support the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) challenge fund to recruit and retain males into ELC.

Ongoing

To promote careers in ELC to those from diverse ethnic communities, we have funded CEMVO, an umbrella body representing Ethnic Minority communities across Scotland, to engage with these communities and raise awareness of career opportunities in the ELC sector.  CEMVO has held awareness-raising across Scotland since launching their programme in December 2018, and assisted many individuals on a 1-2-1 basis with applications for courses and jobs as well as providing guidance on interview techniques.  To increase gender diversity in the sector, in 2018-19, we set up a £50K challenge fund, administered via the Scottish Funding Council, to investigate innovative ways of recruiting and retaining males on ELC training courses. West Lothian College and Inverness College UHI received funding to trial different approaches to meeting this challenge. To ensure learning from this work was disseminated widely, the Men In To Early Years conference was held in Stirling on 26 September 2019. We will continue to work with partners to identify, disseminate and promote good practice in the recruitment and retention of males into ELC going forward.

SL82

In 2020 Education Scotland will extend engagement in approaches to systems leadership via the expansion of the Evolving Systems Thinking Programme, and the Leading System Change Programme, and will contribute to whole system developments through collaboration and networking with other areas such as public health.

Ongoing

In the 2019/20 academic session, the Evolving Systems Thinking (EST) programme began its regional delivery model with 164 participants across the 6 Regional Improvement Collaboratives. Prior to COVID-19, six of the nine programme days had been delivered in Forth Valley and West Lothian, Northern Alliance, South West and West Partnership. Both the South East and Tayside had completed three days out of nine. Face to face delivery was put on hold due to COVID-19 in March so instead of the programme, and to support leadership during COVID and recovery post-COVID, each RIC area has had the opportunity to engage in seminars around key themes. Plans have now been developed in partnership with RIC leads to facilitate online completion of EST for the current 164 participants.

The Leading System Change programme, as was, has been postponed in agreement with ADES. A review of this work will take place in 2020/21 academic year with the aim of broadening out the programme and engaging more with the Collective Leadership offer which also involves colleagues in Public Health Scotland.

There has been a continued focus on supporting system leadership since March including Blethers, Headspace events and international Blethers and collective leadership events, as below:

(i) Headspace: To support headteachers during lockdown, more online activity was offered including a range of 'Headspace' sessions designed to offer a safe, sharing space.  Eight online sessions for headteachers were offered as part of the Headspace 2019/20 programme. Themes included early learning and primary transitions, secondary transitions, remote learning, leadership in challenging times, health and wellbeing for headteachers and recovery planning for schools. 130 attendees joined these Headspace sessions and 86 headteachers attended a 'Big Blether' event for headteachers in May 2020.

At the start of the 2020/21 academic session, the Headspace Recovery series offered themed sessions which took place as schools returned in August and September. 114 headteachers attended these sessions, the themes for which are:

Returning to school

Headspace Orientation session -  using MS Teams

IDL and its place in the recovery curriculum

The role of the Parent Council   

New to Headship - An opportunity to network and share experiences with others who have just become head teachers or are in an acting position

Hybrid learning and digital pedagogy lessons learned

Improvement planning recovery priorities

Responding to parents

Understanding and supporting inclusion

Supporting staff health and wellbeing

(ii) International Blether series: more than 150 headteachers and system leaders registered for the first three International Blether sessions with leading figures in international educational leadership, Peter DeWitt, Jenni Donohoo and Paul Bloomberg, providing 'thinking sessions' that were free and accessible to all practitioners in Scotland. Lead Specialists in the PLL team used their own networks to establish these sessions in which the international guests provided their time and resource free of charge.

(iii) Collective Leadership work: the PLL team have supported and promoted work developed by the Collective Leadership team in Scottish Government which was designed to support system level leadership and change.

SL83

During 2020 the Headteachers' Charter and new national guidance on an empowered system will be finalised to support local areas in ensuring that decisions are made as close to the child or young person as possible.

Paused (C-19)

All sections of the guidance were published as agreed drafts by October 2019. Feedback was invited with a focused period of engagement from January to March 2020. There had been a limited response to this prior to COVID-19. The feedback mechanism remained open until June 2020, with no additional comments received during this extended time. The School Empowerment Steering Group will continue to liaise with stakeholders to finalise the guidance as soon as is practically possible.

SL84

During 2020 we will continue to work with partners to raise awareness of the guidance, helping embed it in daily school/LA practices, and continuing to measure impact/progress so we can work together to address challenges where they arise.

Paused (C-19)

As above, the guidance is not yet finalised. Action ongoing into 2021.

SL85

In 2020 we will continue to work with the short-term working group on Diversity in the Teaching Profession that has been established by the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which will look at increasing the number of teachers from under-represented groups at all levels in Scottish schools.

Ongoing

This has been augmented by the September 2020 PfG commitment which pledges to "ensure that the diversity of our society is recognised and represented in the education workforce at all levels in line with the ambitions of the Race Equality Framework. As part of this work we will address the under representation of Minority Ethnic teachers in Scotland by exploring alternative pathways into teaching for Minority Ethnic and other underrepresented groups". While the Diversity in the Teaching Profession working group will conclude in the spring of 2021, the ambition to continue to increase the number of teachers from under-represented groups at all levels remains a key element of our programme of work for 2021 which will build on existing activity to address race inequality in Scotland's schools.  

SL86

We are in the process of establishing a Gender Equality Task Force in Education and Learning, as recommended by the First Minister's National Advisory Committee for Women & Girls. Throughout 2020, the Task Force, chaired by the Deputy First Minister, will consider where gaps exist in the provision of a gender neutral experience of education and learning in Scotland, and publish a set of recommendations which will address those gaps.

Paused (C-19)

The Gender Equality Taskforce, chaired by the Deputy First Minister met for the first time in February 2019.  Progress slowed during the spring and summer as a result of COVID-19, however, consideration is now being given by the Secretariat and members as to how to refocus this workstream.

Teacher professionalism

TP01

The intention remains to fund professional learning for teachers in this area (Masters level Professional Learning) including at school leadership level.

Ongoing

The Scottish Government continues to support Masters level learning for teachers through the Teacher Education Partnerships with £750,000 committed for 20/21. The Partnerships are in the process of submitting their bids setting out the activity to be supported.

For 20/21 the Scottish Government will continue to fully fund the Into Headship programme supporting 244 participants across 7 university partners at a cost of nearly £750,000. A further £50,000 funding is available to support participants undertaking the In Headship programme. The application process was extended to end September as a result of COVID-19.

TP07

GTCS have strengthened accreditation procedures and are also reviewing the professional standards which, in time, are likely to require ITE courses to be amended.

Ongoing

The GTCS have been reviewing the Professional Standards and these have been re-worked following consultation with focus groups across the autumn of 2020 to provide for minor adjustments. The intention is to carry out a programme of engagement with the profession to help them familiarise themselves with the new Standards.  The approved Standards will be published on 13 January 2021 and will go live in August 2021.

TP31

Education Scotland will be commissioning new STEM related professional learning to complement that provided through existing programmes, including CLPL related to numeracy and mathematics.

Ongoing

In 2019-20, Education Scotland provided £1.9m of STEM professional learning grants, supporting 162 projects. Around £800k of funding has been made available in 2020-21 to enable these projects to continue in 2020 but it was decided not to commission a new round of grants in 2020-21 in recognition of the priority of education recovery activities.  We will keep this under review going into 2021-22.  Support to schools and local authorities for STEM learning continued to be provided by Education Scotland's STEM advisers, the RAISE programme and SSERC and this will continue into 2021-22.

TP32

Additional collaborative professional learning opportunities in STEM will become available through the activities of the college-led STEM Hubs.

Ongoing

The STEM hubs have been renamed as STEM partnerships, in recognition that partnerships have formed the core of the activity.  Colleges have continued to build up these partnerships and to provide professional learning and increased engagement activity.  This activity will continue in 2021-22.

TP34

A Young STEM Leaders programme to grow mentoring and inspiration for STEM for young people by young people will be established.  There will be piloting in the first half of 2019 with the programme starting to be rolled out in the second half of the year.

Ongoing

The Young STEM Leaders programme was piloted in 72 centres from June 2019 onwards. The programme is available at CfE Second, Third and Fourth Levels, underpinned by a framework that identifies the skills, knowledge and behaviours expected of a young STEM leader.  Over 600 Young STEM leaders took part in the pilot phase and delivered a range of STEM activities, events and interactions in their school, community or youth group to inspire other children and young people to take up STEM.  The programme was formally launched in October 2020 and is now available to all schools.  We hope to see it continue to grow in 2021-22.

TP85

The first Annual report was published in February 2019, The second Annual Report is expected to be published in March 2020. A review of the KPIs for the Strategy is currently being undertaken to determine whether any revisions are needed.

Business as usual

The second annual report was published in March 2020 outlining progress across all the actions in the STEM strategy and providing a report against revised KPIs. Annual reports will be produced for the lifetime of the STEM strategy.

TP86

In 2020, the Scottish Government will consider how the support and learning for probationer teachers on the TIS and FR can be strengthened to provide greater consistency towards achieving full professional registration with the GTCS and, working with key stakeholders, we will take steps to identify and agree what additional areas of professional learning are needed to improve the support available to post probation teachers.

Ongoing

Additional support for early career teachers has been developed in partnership and agreed through the workforce support workstream of the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group. This package of support was launched in September 2020 and will be implemented throughout the 2020/21 session.

TP87

Attendance at the twilight workshops will be monitored and the sessions evaluated to ensure both the content and concept are useful for participants. The evaluation will be completed in time for the next cohort (August 2020).

Complete

Twilight workshops were offered in the 2019/20 academic session to current participants, past participants and a 'bring a friend' invite sought to expand the learning of the Teacher Leadership Programme workshops by also attracting an audience not yet engaged in the programme.

96% rated the workshops 'very good' or 'good'.' When asked how likely they were to implement what they had learned at the workshop into their practice 66% stated 'very likely,' 29% 'likely' and 2% 'neutral.'

TP88

The additional recall day will take place in January 2020. This will be monitored to establish if it has an impact on drop off rates within the programme.

Complete

Successful recall days were delivered in January with 151 out of the 224 programme participants registering to attend (67%) versus 201 (90%) attending the induction days. Attendance at the induction and the recall days were not pre-requisites of programme completion, however were recommended.  It is difficult to identify the impact of the recall day in terms of the overall programme completions this year due to a wide number of unexpected variables (the early closure of schools, staff working from home and subsequent impact on workload). However, given the exclusively online delivery model for this recovery year, the recall days as well as some monthly 'touch points' are being introduced to support engagement.

TP89

Supporting Teacher Leadership participants have been invited to the TLP summit to promote the programme as a next step for TLP participants.

Paused (C-19)

In the 2019/20 academic session, the change from public celebration to an online TLP summit as a result of COVID-19 meant this change was not implemented, but the ES Lead Specialist is considering how this might work for future planning. 

TP90

Recent development of the endorsement process is expected to result in an increase in the number of programmes being submitted for endorsement and therefore the scope of activities on the online resource will grow.

Increased regional working by the PLL team and delivery of the programmes on a regional basis is expected to raise awareness of the online resource in across Scotland. Additional communications may be needed in certain areas to promote the online resource.

Business as usual

A programme that has been endorsed by Education Scotland demonstrates that it is informed by the national model of professional learning and links effectively to the relevant professional standards and current policy context.

Total number of endorsed programmes: 61

Programmes endorsed since October 2019: 19

Programmes currently in the endorsement cycle but not yet endorsed: 3

Recently endorsed programmes include:

Microsoft Innovative Teacher Programme

Microsoft Showcase Schools Programme

North Lanarkshire Council Principal Teacher Leadership Programme

North Lanarkshire Council Depute Headteacher Teacher Leadership Programme

North Lanarkshire Council Headteacher Leadership Programme

SAMEE Coaching and Mentoring Programme

Edinburgh Learns – Teaching and Learning Programme

Forth Valley and West Lothian Literacy Academy

Forth Valley and West Lothian Numeracy Academy

Endorsed programmes have successfully passed through a robust set of criteria and feature on Education Scotland's Professional Learning and Leadership website, an online resource supporting professional learning for educational professionals at all stages of their career.

There are approximately 16,337 registered users (up from 9,500 registered users in October 2019). The PLL team and colleagues within ES continue to develop, revise and integrate new professional learning activities into our online resource.  There are now over 70 Professional Learning Activities (PLAs) available to practitioners and since March a further 17 PLAs were developed specifically to support the system during COVID-19 including:

Effective Online Teaching

Relationships, Nurture and Compassion: essential ingredients for building a safe base for learners

Adaptive Leadership

Supporting children and young people through grief and loss

Family learning planning and delivery

Family Learning – Learning At Home

TP91

Within the PLL programmes being offered, Excellence in Headship offers a session that directly supports the health and wellbeing of headteachers and their teams ('Creating a mentally healthy school' and 'Coaching: Developing a Community of Practice'). Other programmes will also, where possible, include content relevant to health and wellbeing.

Ongoing

The Headspace series (see SL82) was introduced to support headteachers during lockdown and designed to offer a safe, sharing space.  Since they started there have been 330 attendees (including potential repeats) to these and the headteacher Big Blether sessions focused on: 

Returning to school

New to Headship - An opportunity to network and share experiences with others who have just become head teachers or are in an acting position

Supporting staff health and wellbeing

The PLL team has also been supporting the work of the CERG Workstream 6, chaired jointly by ES, SG and ADES.  The PLL team working with colleagues in GTCS and SG Learning Directorate are co-ordinating the delivery of a package of support focused on educator wellbeing which contains three main elements: 

a. Mental health support for the school workforce with access to reflective supervision;

b. Coaching and mentoring education system offer;

c. Enhanced support for post-probation teachers.

This package represents accelerated and focused support for school staff which builds on pre-existing work which had been progressing in partnership with stakeholders prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The coaching and mentoring offer comprises two elements:

professional learning in order to build capacity and understanding within the education system

immediate access to coaching and mentoring for target groups to provide targeted and intensive support

The post probationer package of support is named 'Stepping Stones: Support for teachers in their early career'.  This package will include a space on the Education Scotland Professional Learning resource which will provide access to a series of workshops, online national 'Blethers',  Coaching and Mentoring Matters resources and specific PLAs. This package of support is designed to provide immediate support to the education system and the support of the stakeholder group in promoting it widely will be vital in ensuring there is awareness in the system of the package of supports available. ES Lead Specialist will be co-ordinating and leading on this key piece of work.

Within the PLL programmes being offered, the Excellence in Headship programme offers a session that directly supports the health and wellbeing of headteachers and their teams ('Creating a mentally healthy school' and 'Coaching: Developing a Community of Practice'). Other programmes will also, where possible, include content relevant to health and wellbeing. The EiH Stretch programme includes a series of sessions in partnership with University College London which will focus on headteacher wellbeing. The PLL team is also working in partnership with headteachers from Scotland, Ireland and Wales to deliver a Tri Nations Collaboration "blether" on headteacher wellbeing.

TP92

Education Scotland is engaging with teacher unions and employers to increase the support available to teachers including the creation of a teacher innovation fund.

Ongoing

This action was originally included within the work of the Enabling Teacher Agency group utilising funding for professional learning agreed as part of the teacher pay agreement in 2019.  As a result of COVID-19, priorities have changed with a stronger focus now on wellbeing. The innovation fund did not happen and instead funding was used to provide resources and support for wellbeing.  The CERG Workstream 6 group agreed a package of support which includes access to coaching and mentoring support, a programme for post-probation teachers and access to reflective supervision.

TP93

A collaborative system leadership EiH Learn session consisting of a number of days that will deepen professional knowledge and practice through collaborative professional enquiry and research linked to international research will be introduced as part of the overall EiH programme.

Ongoing

The Excellence in Headship programme is now in its fourth year and has evolved considerably over that time. In 2020 it includes a new range of on line EiH Learn sessions and a new EiH stretch programme. EiH Stretch will explore the key elements of collaborative systems and aims to provide further development opportunities for headteachers to support their capacity to contribute to system level leadership.

EiH aims to support headteachers who have been in post for five years or more: 

Deliver professional learning to deepen professional knowledge and practice through collaborative enquiry

Facilitate access to peer coaching and/or peer mentoring

Develop knowledge and understanding of public policy development and leading beyond authority

Provide opportunities for national and international knowledge exchange.

TP94

The Masters Framework Working Group chaired by Education Scotland and including university partners has identified planned next steps including developing new guidance to support practitioners in identifying future pathways towards Masters. 

Ongoing

Due to COVID-19, this work was paused. Universities have been asked to provide information to populate the revised Framework and this should be complete by December 2020. Case studies will be gathered from Masters participants by March 2021 to support future recruitment.

TP95

We will continue to encourage more people into teaching, particularly those groups under-represented in the profession (men and minority ethnic communities) as well as in particular subjects (STEM) and geographical areas.

Ongoing

A new phase of the Teacher Recruitment Campaign launched in November 2020.  The campaign is aimed to encourage undergraduates of all genders and ethnicity at Scottish Universities to register for PGDE Teacher Training courses. While the campaign was originally created to target STEM undergraduates it has since been developed to cover all courses.

TP96

Contracted by Scottish Government, University of West of Scotland are developing some of the modules in our online programme of CPL for ELC sector that will be widely accessible and freely available to ELC practitioners in all sectors. One of the modules in this programme is designed to increase staff skills, knowledge and confidence in delivering age appropriate learning in all STEM subjects. This is due to be available to the sector in early 2020. The module will be designed in a way that will allow the University of West of Scotland to collect data around impact of the module in practitioners' confidence, knowledge and skills

Complete

A STEM online professional learning module for ELC practitioners was launched in January 2020.  It aims to help early learning practitioners develop an understanding of how to use inspiring, child-led and play based approaches to STEM learning in a range of environments in an inclusive and easily accessible way.

TP97

In 2020, the Scottish Government will consider how the support and learning for probationer teachers on the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) and Flexible Route (FR) can be strengthened to provide greater consistency towards achieving full professional registration with the GTCS and, working with key stakeholders, will take steps to identify and agree what additional areas of professional learning are needed to improve the support available to post-probation teachers

Ongoing

Additional support for early career teachers has been developed in partnership and agreed through the workforce support workstream of the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group. This package of support was launched in September 2020 and will be implemented throughout the 2020/21 session.

Parental engagement

PE04

Early Learning and Childcare Quality Action Plan includes a commitment to increase support for evidence-based family learning to embed this in the early learning offer for families facing disadvantage.

Ongoing

The Scottish Government's Programme for Government 2019/20 makes clear that we will use the opportunities presented by our expansion of early learning and childcare (ELC) and provide £500,000 to establish the Family Learning Scotland Programme. Family learning will be offered in or near ELC settings and will be targeted at priority families. It will help parents to learn about early childhood development and how to support their children's learning. It will also build parents' confidence in their own capacity to learn, acting as a catalyst to help them take up adult learning, training opportunities and gain employment. Peeple has been contracted to train and support 432 early years practitioners across Scotland over a 2 year period to implement the Peep learning together training and the Peep progression Pathway.  In recent months, in response to COVID-19, Peeple has developed a suite of online training material to complement the programme. Implementation of the training programme began in September 2020. By December 2020, 100 practitioners had received their initial training.

This offer is intended to enhance the work already being implemented locally, and aims to increase support for evidence-based family learning programmes embedded within the early learning and childcare offer for families facing disadvantage.

PE18

Scottish Government to work with the GTCS/ Scottish Education Workforce Council to review and improve the Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development offer to headteachers in relation to parental engagement. Detailed commitments will be contained in a National Action Plan on Parental Engagement and Family Learning by June 2018.

Paused (C-19)

The Scottish Government and COSLA published the "Learning Together" Action Plan in August 2018. The plan contains a number of actions relating to workforce, professional development and skills. These actions continue to be progressed in partnership with Education Scotland and the GTCS. Statutory guidance was consulted on January - June 2020 and the responses to this consultation are currently being analysed.  A round table discussion with ITE institutions, with a view to sharing practice and approach across ITE, was due to take place this year however owing to Covid-19 this work has been paused.  We will explore holding this meeting in due course.

PE30

Almost double the hours of early learning and childcare to 1140 per year

Paused (C-19)

The Scottish Government reached a landmark multi-year funding agreement with COSLA on 27 April 2018, which will provide £567m additional revenue funding by 2021-22 and £476m capital funding over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21 to support the expansion of funded ELC.

Due to the impact of Covid-19 it was announced in April 2020 there will be a pause in the statutory roll-out of 1140 hours for all 3 and 4 year olds, and eligible 2 year olds, which was due to be introduced in August 2020. However, despite the pause more than 80% of children are receiving more than the current statutory entitlement of 600 hours, whilst 61% of eligible children – more than 56,000 – are already receiving 1,140 hours of funded ELC.

To ensure that the funded ELC entitlement is delivered in high quality settings, the sector was working towards the introduction of Funding Follows the Child and the underpinning National Standard. This was to have been introduced alongside the statutory roll-out of 1140 hours of funded ELC entitlement in August 2020. Interim Guidance published on 30 July 2020 set out that whilst it is still expected that the principles of Funding Follows the Child will continue to be met, flexibilities may be required for some aspects of the National Standard.

The ELC Joint Delivery Board commissioned an assessment of readiness to deliver the 1140 hours expansion, taking account of capital, workforce, capacity and other risks.  This was supplemented by an independent health check of the expansion programme.  Having carefully reviewed all the evidence the ELC Joint Delivery Board recommended that the statutory duty to deliver 1140 hours of funded ELC should be reinstated with effect from August 2021.  This recommendation has been agreed by Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders and the Scottish Government will bring forward the associated legislation before the end of this Parliament.

In order to support capacity and sustainability in the sector a range of support for childcare providers has been introduced following the impacts of the pandemic including: 

- continuing payments for funded ELC regardless of whether a service was closed;

- the introduction of the £11.2m Transitional Support Fund for day care of children providers to support them meet the costs associated with the public health guidance for the sector; and

- providing £420,000 for the Childminding Workforce Support Fund to support childminders who have struggled to access support through other routes.

PE36

The joint Scottish Government/COSLA "Learning Together" Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including: review and strengthen statutory guidance in time for academic year 2019/20

Missed

A working group was set up to develop fresh statutory guidance. The group met four times over the course of 2019, and developed draft amended guidance by the end of August 2019. This guidance was consulted on from January - June 2020 and responses were published, where permission was given, on 5th August 2020.

The responses to the consultation on the revised statutory guidance are currently being analysed and a report with the findings of this will issue in due course.  The cross stakeholder parental engagement steering group (including Scottish Government, ADES, NPFS and Connect) agreed to postpone the issuing of revised guidance to early 2021 at the earliest. This is due to the additional pressures of Covid-19 and the need to ensure that any guidance takes account of the current situation. This means that the final guidance will now be issued in 2021.

PE38

The joint Scottish Government/COSLA "Learning Together" Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including: raise awareness of participatory budgeting amongst parents

Ongoing

The Learning Directorate's Parental Involvement Team continue to liaise with SG colleagues who lead on participatory budgeting to ensure that steps are taken to further raise awareness amongst parent organisations and across local authorities and parent councils. NPFS have highlighted the potential for participatory budgeting to parent councils via social media. SG delivered an awareness-raising workshop at the national parental engagement network in autumn 2019.  A Participatory Budgeting in Schools Group has been established and has continued to meet during the pandemic and discuss raising awareness of participatory budgeting in schools.  A participatory budgeting resource containing guidance and support materials is now available on the National Improvement Hub.

PE39

The joint Scottish Government/COSLA "Learning Together" Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including: work with local authority partners to increase access to home-school link workers and similar roles

Paused (C-19)

The first meeting of a national working group was held in August 2018, a second meeting on 18 January 2019. A survey of local authorities was issued in late 2018 in order to provide more comprehensive information on access to home/school link workers, current coverage and the various models being adopted by local authorities. Education Scotland published additional guidance on the home/school link worker in March 2019.

Further monitoring of this commitment has been put on hold due to Covid-19.

PE40

The joint Scottish Government/COSLA "Learning Together" Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including:  invest in the Parent Club marketing campaign

Ongoing

A joint literacy/numeracy and Eat Better, Feel Better campaign ran in 2019 and independent evaluation is complete. All planned topics were consolidated to the Parent Club website increasing visibility of the content and cost effectiveness. Next steps are to respond to the latest research among parents of children (8wks to 5yrs) and consolidate further topics into Parent Club with support from partner organisations NHS Health Scotland and NHS Inform. Read, Write, Count bag-gifting took place in November 2020 alongside a targeted Parent Club campaign to engage parents in supporting children's learning at home. A resource for parents is included within the Read, Write, Count bags with fun ideas of how to use the games which include story cubes, Talk It Out and Act It Out cards, Coastal Commotion cards and a measuring tape 

In addition - and in response to Covid-19 - a wide range of school-related parent information and advice was developed for the new, dedicated Coronavirus Parent Club page. This included advice on blended/remote learning, school closures, the re-opening of schools and other education settings and a variety of associated as well as further specific Covid-19 issues (e.g. Additional Support Needs). Social media content was developed and shared and core Q&A information was provided to parents via the Parent Club web pages. Some key performance information for the Parent Club Covid-19 campaign as a whole as follows:

Awareness of campaign among parents/carers of children aged 0-16 - Target: 40% Achieved: 55%

Proportion of campaign recognisers taking any action - Target: 30%  Achieved: 83%

Proportion of campaign recognisers identifying a positive/ empathetic/ reassuring/ supportive message from the campaign  - Target: 44%   Achieved: 51%

PE44

The Scottish Government will develop a national online professional learning module for ELC practitioners on supporting parents to further engage in their children's learning. This will be ready by the end of 2019.

Complete

The Scottish Government has developed a national online continued professional learning module for the ELC workforce, on supporting parents to further engage in their children's learning. This was launched in June 2020, with 229 learners having successfully completed the module as at Oct 2020.

PE70

Education Scotland will continue to hold the Family Learning National Network meetings which brings together practitioners, academics, researchers and policymakers who share good practice and expertise.

Ongoing

Education Scotland have continued to hold Family Learning National Network meetings and these will continue until the end of 2021 in line with the life of the National Learning Together Action Plan.

PE71

The results from an Education Scotland-led Family Learning survey will be available and synthesised in 2020. These survey findings will help to identify professional learning delivered by local authorities, third sector and national organisations. This will be used to signpost practitioners to helpful advice, inform discussions in Regional Improvement Collaboratives and support practitioners to develop and/or deliver family learning programmes.

Cancelled

Work on the Family Learning survey concluded when the original lockdown was introduced. Due to the impact of Covid-19 on the delivery of face-to-face family learning, activity in this area is no longer required at this time. It is recognised the data gathered, while still relevant, is pre-Covid-19 and therefore does not capture a true reflection of current practice.

PE72

Education Scotland will work with local authority partners, colleges, third sector and other partners to develop case studies which will highlight examples of interesting practice and evaluation strategies.

Complete

Education Scotland has worked in partnership with Moorfoot Primary School and SCILT to develop a case study on 'Engaging parents in language learning - BSL'.  Education Scotland published the case study in October 2020. 

PE73

The Education Scotland Family Learning Framework will be refreshed to update case studies, research and policy and strategy. This will support practitioners with up-to-date information.

Complete

Updated and published in January 2020.

PE74

Education Scotland will continue to work with Regional Improvement Collaboratives, local authorities, practitioners, Scottish Prison Service, Colleges and Universities, Early Learning and Childcare settings and schools during 2020/21 to help them further develop approaches to family learning.

Ongoing

A range of online professional learning opportunities for practitioners have been developed and delivered in recent months in response to the impact of the pandemic on practice.  To support this, Education Scotland has published practice examples and other online resources. Education Scotland will continue to review this work in line with its delivery model and this will continue until the end of 2021 in line with the life of the National Learning Together Action Plan.

PE75

Education Scotland will conduct a thematic inspection review of family learning in 2020.

Paused (C-19)

The field work and thematic review report on family learning has been completed. Due to Covid-19, the publication of this has been paused to gather education recovery updates from a range of establishments and settings highlighted in the report. 

PE76

Education Scotland will continue to promote and support its Review of Learning at Home and it's Family Learning Framework alongside its work to support family learning.

Ongoing

The Review of Learning at Home and the Family Learning Framework are promoted at online CLPL sessions, and in professional dialogue with LAs, RICs, and national organisations and this will continue until the end of 2021 in line with the life of the National Learning Together Action Plan.

PE77

The Scottish Government will promote its Read, Write, Count / Parent Club campaign throughout 2020, complementing the work that schools do to encourage learning at home.

Complete

As part of Book Week Scotland, Read, Write, Count gift bags were distributed to P2 and P3 pupils at school. To complement this, a campaign was launched through Parent Club to support parents to engage with the books and games included within the gift bags at home with their children.

PE78

Scottish Government will consult on draft statutory guidance on parental involvement and engagement in early 2020. This will address various aspects of parental involvement, including Parent Councils.

Complete

Draft statutory guidance on the Parental Involvement Act was consulted on from January - June 2020.  Responses were published, where permission was given, on 5th August 2020.

The responses to the consultation on the revised statutory guidance are currently being analysed and a report with the findings of this will issue in due course.

PE79

Scottish Government will work with partners to develop accompanying advice and support materials during the course of 2020. These will be provided alongside the final statutory guidance.

Ongoing

As a result of Covid-19, consultation on the draft statutory guidance, and therefore the accompanying advice materials, was put on hold on a temporary basis. This was agreed with the cross-stakeholder steering group on parental engagement which includes the National Parent Forum of Scotland, Connect and ADES. The plan is to publish the revised statutory guidance in early 2021. The development of further practical advice materials will be considered in this context. However, a number of items of Covid-19 specific practical guidance materials were developed between April and August 2020 (e.g. Scottish Government collaborated with the National Parent Forum to develop NPFS parent guidance on return to schools, on "Learning at Home in Lockdown" and on Blended Learning). 

In November 2020, summary guidance on Reporting to Parents and Involving / Engaging Parent Councils during Covid–19 was produced from the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group alongside more detailed advice to practitioners. The aim of this work was provide schools with practical advice on how to adapt in the context of Covid-19 and to ensure that parental involvement and engagement continues to be supported, all be it in different circumstances and via different methods.

PE80

Scottish Government will continue to share practice and expertise via the national parental engagement network throughout 2020. Education Scotland will share learning via Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

Ongoing

Although the Learning Together National Network cannot meet in person at this time, we continue to update members of ongoing work on a regular basis and the group met virtually in June 2020 and again in October 2020.  Another virtual meeting is scheduled for March 2021.

PE81

Scottish Government and Education Scotland will promote the Parental and Carer Empowerment Guidance as well as a new National Parent Forum Nutshell on Parental Empowerment as part of the broader school empowerment reforms.

Ongoing

All sections of the Empowered System guidance, which included the Parents and Carers section, were published as agreed drafts by October 2019. Feedback was invited, with a focused period of engagement in place from January to March 2020. There had been limited response to the engagement prior to the outbreak of Covid-19. The feedback mechanism remained open until June 2020, with no additional comments received during this extended time. The School Empowerment Steering Group will continue to liaise with stakeholders to finalise the guidance as soon as is practically possible.  NPFS has produced a nutshell as a guide to Scotland's Empowered System, the Importance of Parents within this System and Parents' Rights and Responsibilities which can be downloaded from their website.

PE82

Education Scotland will continue to promote its Reporting to Parents and Carers Guidance for schools and ELC settings document.

Ongoing

The guidance continues to be promoted through existing channels and networks and this will continue until the end of 2021 in line with the life of the National Learning Together Action Plan.

PE83

Scottish Government will work in early 2020 to consult on revised statutory guidance relating to the 2006 Scottish Schools Parental involvement Act.

Complete

Draft statutory guidance on the Parental Involvement Act was consulted on from January - June 2020.  Responses were published, where permission was given, on 5th August 2020.

The responses to the consultation on the revised statutory guidance are currently being analysed and a report with the findings of this will issue in due course.

PE84

Scottish Government will promote the new guidance on parental and carer empowerment as part of the broader school empowerment reforms.

Ongoing

All sections of the Empowered System guidance, which included the Parents and Carers section, were published as agreed drafts by October 2019. Feedback was invited with a focused period of engagement in place from January to March 2020. There had been limited response to the engagement prior to the outbreak of Covid-19. The feedback mechanism remained open until June 2020, with no additional comments received during this extended time. The School Empowerment Steering Group will continue to liaise with stakeholders to finalise the guidance as soon as is practically possible.

PE85

There will be improvement activity throughout 2020 by Regional Improvement Collaborative, local authorities, practitioners, early learning and childcare settings, schools, relevant partners and stakeholder groups during 2020/21 to help to further develop approaches to parental involvement, parental engagement, learning at home and family learning.

Ongoing

Work is ongoing with practitioners in RICs/LAs and national organisations to develop approaches to Parental Involvement/Parental Engagement/Family Learning/Learning at Home during Covid-19 and in recovery. This will continue until the end of 2021 in line with the life of the National Learning Together Action Plan.

PE86

Education Scotland will work with local authority partners to develop further case studies on examples of Home-school link worker/service.

Cancelled

Producing further case studies has not been possible due to the pandemic. However Education Scotland has maintained contact with the workforce to develop online learning for practitioners drawing practice examples from Scotland, other parts of the UK and Internationally.

PE87

Education Scotland will continue to refresh the content of the ParentZone Scotland website throughout 2020.

Business as usual

Parentzone Scotland continues to be reviewed and refreshed with specific advice and resources published for parents since lockdown commenced.

PE88

Scottish Government and Education Scotland will support regular Learning Together National Network meetings to bring together practitioners, academics, researchers and policymakers who have been identified as 'champions' with a view to sharing good practice and expertise, making new connections and reviewing evidence of what is working well. In 2020 there will be renewed focus on learning and sharing of practice relating to secondary schools.

Business as usual

Scottish Government and Education Scotland have continued to support Learning Together National Meetings. The network meetings in 2020 to date have focused on sharing practice on engaging parents and families during the pandemic with plans for 2021 still to be finalised.

Assessment of children's progress

AC01

From April 2018, we will also draw upon the Care Inspectorate's inspections data to assess the extent to which graduate-level practitioners are improving outcomes for children. 

Paused (C-19)

The Scottish Government is working with the Care Inspectorate to understand how the policy is being implemented and whether Equity and Excellence Leads are being deployed in the best way for promoting quality of ELC and improving child outcomes. From September 2019, this included a specific focus area for the remainder of the inspection year to understand how Equity and Excellence Leads are being deployed in ELC settings in Scotland and assess what indications there are of early impact of Leads on: children's learning and wellbeing outcomes; family engagement and involvement in their child's learning; and practitioner skills. The Special Inspection Focus was paused due to Covid-19. We are drawing together the data collected to date alongside case studies of good practice in the work Leads have been doing, including during lockdown, into a progress report.

AC02

From 2020, we will also draw upon two additional health visitor assessments at 13 months and at around 54 months.

Ongoing

The first tranche of data from the 13-15 month and 4-5 year old review was published in September 2020. Coverage rates vary for these reviews as the rollout of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway continues.  Locally, the coverage across Scotland should increase year on year.  These additional data sets should provide a more holistic picture of child development among the under 5s. The earlier review point at 13-15 month should provide information to enable early intervention to support parents where this is required.

AC03

From 2021, we anticipate a revised ELC census that will provide additional data on some of the drivers of children's outcomes. Work is ongoing in all of these data development areas. However, the main data gap is around health and wellbeing in the younger primary years. Recent evidence, particularly from Growing Up in Scotland (GUS), has highlighted the importance of quality to ensure better outcomes for children. It showed that the most important factor is that early learning and development is delivered by a profession that is dedicated to the care, learning and development of our youngest children. This is being drawn upon in taking forward actions from the ELC Quality Action Plan. SG is carrying out an exercise to understand how information is currently shared and whether there are any existing barriers. As part of this, we will be identifying examples of good practice with a view to sharing these more widely. We will also consider what action can be taken to address any variability in take up rates of the 27-30 month review across authorities.

Paused (C-19)

Preparatory work was delayed to enable data on the number of hours spent in ELC, which is a driver of child outcomes, to be available from the ELC census due to the delayed roll out of SEEMiS Early Years which we are reliant on for the new census process. It will now be 2022 before we have individual level data on children accessing funded ELC.

Data is currently available on the development of children at age 27-30 months. We continue to monitor uptake rates of the 27-30 month review and the additional reviews at 13-15 months and 4-5 years. We are continuing to see increasing rates of uptake within the historical data and monitor the current uptake of reviews during the pandemic.  This information can be used to support children and their families when additional support is required, using a joined up approach in the spirit of GIRFEC.

Health and wellbeing data is available at aggregate level for 4-12 year olds through the Scottish Health Survey, and for 13 and 15 year olds from SALSUS. We are working on introducing a new Health and Wellbeing Census that will provide data for children and young people from late primary upwards.

AC11

Two significant areas of development of data on school leaver destinations are underway. The first is to improve the data set by including employment data. Scottish Government and SDS are working with HMRC to develop solutions that will allow individual level employment data to be shared to support service delivery and service reform. The aim is to have these arrangements in place by Autumn 2018.

Missed

After the successful Proof of Concept test data transfer between HMRC and SDS in 2019, Scottish Government is seeking to enable regular feeds of this employment data from HMRC to SDS. A new data sharing application has been submitted to HMRC in order to progress accessing this individual level tax information on a regular basis.  Costs involved for full implementation will be negotiated as part of this application.

AC15

Education Scotland will continue to provide support to improve the consistency and effectiveness of moderation of teachers' professional judgement further across the country.

Business as usual

Education Scotland planned and delivered a National Programme of Moderation training for both practitioners and new Quality Assurance and Moderation Support Officers (QAMSOs) throughout 19/20. This programme was paused from March 2020 onwards. NIF Officers have consulted with assessment coordinators and other stakeholders to inform plans for moderation 20/21.

AC17

A network of 21 Regional DYW Groups have been established to bridge the gap between employers and education. This network also links with the network of DYW local authority leads.

Business as usual

We are refreshing our approach to DYW in light of the impact of Covid-19 on the employability of young people, as part of a broader employability and skills offer through the Young Person's Guarantee. The DYW Groups will play a key role going forward. 

AC18

We will ensure that nurseries in the most disadvantaged areas in Scotland benefit from an additional teacher or degree qualified early learning and childcare professional from August 2018.

Ongoing

435 additional teachers or graduates will be required to deliver the commitment, with all local authorities receiving at least 1 additional Full-Time Equivalent staffing resource. 

Equity and Excellence Leads provide graduate-level career progression opportunities in ELC and enable specialist pedagogy practice to be delivered within key settings and support wider professional development across the sector. The Equity and Excellence commitment is part of the expanding graduate Early Learning and Childcare workforce in Scotland.   Local authorities reported in March 2020 that the vast majority – over 95% (418 full time equivalent posts) - of Equity and Excellence lead posts have been recruited since August 2018, with 30 local authorities reporting that they had recruited all the Equity and Excellence Lead posts in their areas at some point (even if the post-holder has since moved on). Since then, a further local authority has reported that they have recruited all the posts in their area at some point. The staff expansion required to deliver the extended ELC entitlement means that there has inevitably been staff movement within the sector as new managerial level posts are created. We expect this movement to settle down in time and to result in more stability in retention of Equity and Excellence Leads. 

We continue to seek regular updates from authorities and remain in contact with those facing specific challenges.

The Scottish Government is working with the Care Inspectorate to understand how the policy is being implemented and whether Equity and Excellence Leads are being deployed in the best way for promoting quality of ELC and improving child outcomes. From September 2019, this included a specific focus area for the remainder of the inspection year to understand how Equity and Excellence Leads are being deployed in ELC settings in Scotland and assess what indications there are of early impact of Leads on: children's learning and wellbeing outcomes; family engagement and involvement in their child's learning; and practitioner skills. The Special Inspection Focus was paused due to Covid-19. We are drawing together the data collected to date alongside case studies of good practice in the work Leads have been doing, including during lockdown, into a progress report.

AC21

We will continue to support the Scottish Attainment Challenge authorities and schools and a number of national programmes, including staffing supply and capacity, professional learning and school leadership with £50 million per annum from the Attainment Scotland Fund.

Business as usual

Up to £50m of funding was assigned to support nine Scottish Attainment Challenge Authorities and 73 individual schools on the Schools Programme. Each authority and school developed an annual improvement plan and report, tailored to their own circumstances, detailing the actions they will take to close the poverty related attainment gap and their impact. Events were held in November 2019 and November 20202 to allow networking, showcasing and challenge across the Schools Programme schools (see PI17 and PI18). 

AC22

We will implement the Getting it Right for Looked After Children Strategy in full. We will take a tailored approach to young people who most need support, increasing positive destinations from school for looked after children by 4 percentage points per annum, resulting in parity by 2021.

Ongoing

As in previous years, it is important to respond to the needs of care experienced young people and the impact of trauma. There is no doubt that additional funding to schools, through Attainment Scotland Funding, including over £250m of Pupil Equity Funding in 2020/21 and 2021/22, means schools are better able to improve the way they support children and young people who have been impacted by ACEs and improve support around their mental and emotional health and wellbeing. More than £12m of Scottish Government funding was invested last year by local authorities to improve the attainment of care experienced children and young people. Projects as diverse as mentoring programmes and outdoor and play-based education were supported through the Care Experienced Children and Young People fund last academic year. Now more than £11.6m of further funding will be provided this academic year to enhance the support available. Local authorities' Chief Social Workers and Directors of Education will decide how this year's funding will be used. We continue to focus on improving the outcomes for those with care experience through Developing the Young Workforce, our youth employment strategy, and the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access.  Additionally, the findings of, and response to, the Review of Implementation of Additional Support for Learning (due imminently) will be of relevance to ensure every child and young person who becomes looked after has the opportunity, where relevant, to have in place a focused plan to meet their learning needs and maximise the likelihood of achieving a positive destination.

Underpinning these work packages, it will be important to view the support we provide to looked after children and young people in education settings through the lens of the Independent Care Review's findings as set out in "The Promise", published in February 2020.  The Promise has set the challenge to us all to determine how we will work together in partnership, across national and local Government and beyond, to ensure we deliver for care experienced children and young people – and in a way which minimises the need for children, young people and families to require the support of a formal care system.  To support early implementation, the Scottish Government has responded by investing an initial £4m in the Promise Partnership – a fund set up to deliver early, preventative, holistic family support based on the needs of children, young people and their families.  

In 2018/19, 71% of care experienced young people (looked after within the last year) and 93% of all school leavers were in a positive destination and we'll continue to work collaboratively to increase positive destinations for care experienced young people.

AC24

From January 2017 we will implement the Making Maths Count report recommendations to encourage greater enthusiasm for, and a greater understanding of, the value of mathematics amongst children and young people, their parents, carers and the wider public.

Ongoing

To ensure improvement in maths, we are committed to continuing our implementation of the recommendations of the Making Maths Count report. The annual Maths Week Scotland, established in 2017, is promoting and celebrating maths. Its reach is expanding annually with children and young people in every local authority area in Scotland participating. Maths Week Scotland was successfully delivered digitally in 2020. The national thematic inspection report on numeracy and maths, published in December 2019, highlighted what is working well and where we require additional support and improvement. It confirms that our main strength is our teachers and their commitment to continuing improvement. Education Scotland's enhanced teams are working at local level on numeracy and maths, STEM and closing the poverty related attainment gap providing direct support to schools and local authorities on their local priorities. Over the past 6 years the Scottish Government has invested almost £2m in professional learning for numeracy and maths education.

AC25

We will drive forward the actions in our new Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy throughout 2017, with a view to delivering the Strategy's vision of using technology to improve attainment across the Curriculum in the next 3-5 years.

Ongoing

Covid-19 sparked a huge increase in the uptake of digital learning across all Scotland's education settings.  Glow user numbers and usage has increased dramatically as has the national support on offer to support teachers, learners and parents to adapt to the current context.  That engagement with technology for learning has been mostly maintained into the new academic year.  Scottish Government is considering how best to capitalise on this renewed and stronger focus on technology to ensure that all learners are able to fully benefit from technology enhanced education, now and into the future.

AC32

We will continue to provide, through the Developing the Young Workforce programme, more opportunities for young people to experience high quality, work-related learning, and to gain vocational qualifications. We will increase the percentage of school leavers attaining vocational qualifications at SCQF level 5 and above year-on-year to 2020/21.

Ongoing

The Scottish Government has committed to further expansion of college provision for school pupils, including Foundation Apprenticeships. There continues to be an annual increase in the percentage of school leavers attaining vocational qualifications at SCQF level 5 and above. Data published in February 2020 showed 17.1% of 2018/19 school leavers attained 1+ award at SCQF 5 or better, this is an increase of 9.8 percentage points since the baseline in 2013/14.

Since the two pathfinder years, Foundation Apprenticeship starts increased from 346 in 2016, to 1,244 in 2017 (239 schools, all local authorities and all 13 college regions), to 1,532 in 2018 (across 272 schools) and 3,445 in 2019 (across 325 schools). As of 1st October 2019, the Foundation Apprenticeships at SCQF Level 6 is now a recognised entry requirement by UK's university admission service (UCAS) for learners in Scotland applying to university.

AC39

Making clear our expectations of the SQA, including the importance of listening and being open to the voices of learners, teachers and parents.  We will ensure that the Chair regularly reports to Ministers on the improvements being made in relation to these matters.  We will request that SQA outline in their annual corporate plan their strategic communications and engagement plans.

Ongoing

SQA's Corporate Plan for 2020-23, sets out the strategic direction for the next three years. A key element of the Corporate Plan is SQA's engagement with customers, stakeholders and staff around SQA's priorities and ways to improve the development and delivery of qualifications and services. One of the five outcomes in the Corporate Plan is 'We are flexible in meeting customer needs' with the need for good two-way engagement with customers.  Taking this forward SQA will continue to work with stakeholders, including learners, teachers and parents, to support the development and delivery of its services. The Scottish Government engages regularly with SQA with frequent meetings between officials, DFM and the Chief Executive of SQA and DFM and the Chair. The Ministerial appointed Advisory Council reports annually to Scottish Ministers.

AC43

We will ensure that by 2030, students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas make up 20 per cent of higher education entrants.

Ongoing

Implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access is being overseen by the Access Delivery Group, which is chaired by the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science. The Scottish Funding Council's University Outcome Agreement guidance has been updated to reflect the Government's targets for progress. HESA stats show 15.9% of Scottish domiciled full time first degree entrants to Scottish HEIs are from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland in 2018/19. This is only 0.1 percentage points away from our 2021 interim target.

AC48

We will be working collaboratively with partners across the education sector to actively explore what more we can do to encourage uptake of ELC /Further Education/Higher Education for the Gypsy/Traveller community

Paused (C-19)

The Scottish Government launched a joint action plan Improving the Lives of Scotland's Gypsy/Travellers 2019-2021 on 9 October 2019. This includes a number of high level actions around education under the 'Improving access to Public Services' section. Due to Covid-19 and the focus that SG, Education Scotland and COSLA officials have had on recovery we have been unable to finalise a delivery plan to drive the actions.  Officials along with STEP, COSLA and Education Scotland are engaging to ensure that the delivery plan will be agreed and in place by April 2021.

AC53

We have also committed to recruiting an additional 250 school nurses by 2022.

Ongoing

The first cohort of students commenced training in 2019/20 academic year. We are in discussion with Health Boards and Higher Education Institutions for the 2020/21 intake with the expectation that a further 50 students will commence training in this academic year.

AC56

Education Scotland will work with practitioners to develop and publish a professional learning resource that supports high quality play-based learning across the early level of Curriculum for Excellence by December 2019. This will feature existing good practice from across Scotland.

Complete

Education Scotland worked with practitioners to create the resource. Work was taken forward to share practice, highlight the benefits of play pedagogy, and support self-evaluation. A framework to support settings to further develop their practice in this area was produced. The document was published in December 2019 and made available on the National Improvement Hub.  The document can be found here:   https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/early-level-play-pedagogy-toolkit/

AC57

Following the publication of the national strategy for school libraries in September 2018, an implementation group has been established. This group will begin implementation of the 20 action points in the strategy which are designed to support the improvement in literacy and numeracy, boost attainment across the curriculum, support health and wellbeing, foster inclusion, and enable opportunities for family learning. The group will meet 4 times in 2019, and the strategy will be implemented over the next five years.

Ongoing

Progress continues against the objectives of the school library strategy, with a survey of school librarians showing that, pre Covid-19, 68% of respondents were delivering information literacy sessions, 68% were working closely with their support for learning department, and almost 76% were involved in work to foster the development of employability skills. Progress has been impeded by Covid-19 but School Library Improvement Fund project managers have shown resilience by adapting projects. School librarians have supported pupils and the wider school community by teaching via virtual library classes, promoting resources, writing on social media/blogs on reading for pleasure, using library websites to engage pupils with quizzes, book groups, newsletters, creative writing, book reviews, recommended reads and websites.

AC58

The Scottish Government will publish guidance for all early learning and childcare providers in December 2018 on how to access local outdoor space and how to set up an outdoor nursery experience. We have provided £860,000 of funding to Inspiring Scotland to work with eight local authorities to increase and improve their outdoor learning, which will include the establishment of two outdoor nurseries.

Ongoing

Out to Play; practical guidance for creating outdoor play experiences in early learning and childcare (https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0054/00544754.pdf) was published on 21 Dec 2018. Hard copies of Out to Play have been distributed to all registered ELC and out of school care settings. Education Scotland are creating a page on the NIH to support this. Demand for the document from individual practitioners has been high, with very positive feedback, and so we are about to enter a second print run.  Inspiring Scotland continue to work with the 8 local authorities with progress being reported quarterly and have agreed to widen their support to a number of additional local authorities.

AC61

A P1 practitioner forum has been established, led by Professor Sue Ellis. The forum is a place for engagement and discussion on the issues facing standardised assessments in a play based early years curriculum. It will provide insight and practical advice to teachers, schools and Scottish Government by May 2019. based early years curriculum. It will provide insight and practical advice.

Paused (C-19)

The P1 Practitioner Forum held its first scheduled meeting of the 19/20 academic year in October 2019. This meeting focused on updating professionals on progress towards SNSA improvements and amendments and to share good practice. Unfortunately, subsequent scheduled meetings were postponed or cancelled due to adverse weather conditions then the impact of Covid-19. The P1 Practitioner Forum is expected to reconvene in 2021 once Covid-19 guidance from Scottish Government supports in-person meetings and gatherings. 

All practitioners have been updated on subsequent improvements to the P1 literacy assessment; including the shortening of the assessment, updated training specific to P1 available in webinar format, amended help and guidance within the SNSA platform and changes to SNSA descriptors to improve clarity.

AC67

A new Health and Wellbeing Census, covering children based in publicly funded schools from late primary through to secondary schools, will cover a wide range of topics and themes in relation to the Health and Wellbeing of children and young people. The first census will take place in the 2019/20 academic year, and every four years thereafter

Paused

The planned 2019/20 HWB Census, with local authorities volunteered to become "early adopters" was suspended due to school closures as a result of COVID-19. The 2020/21 HWB Census is being undertaken with 'volunteer' local authorities, reflecting the ongoing COVID-related issues  which may impact on schools' capacity to undertake the HWB Census in 2020/21.

AC68

By August 2020, Education Scotland will prepare professional learning resources for school staff, based on the findings from the National Report

Complete

The Numeracy and Mathematics PLR has been published and ES staff have started using it with practitioners.

AC71

The latest BISSR project is currently out to tender. It is anticipated that it will report towards the end of 2020 / early 2021.

Paused (C-19)

Covid-19 has impacted on the delivery of this project.  The contractor was appointed but was unable to undertake the field work in schools.  It is now anticipated to be complete in October 2021.

AC72

Improve communications and engagement on national standardised assessment in Scotland and clarify key messages.

Paused (C-19)

National standardised assessments: purpose and use was published in August 2019.  Work with stakeholders on the development of a communications strategy on national standardised assessments was put on hold in March 2020 as a result of Covid-19.

From 2018-19, all SNSA users receive regular information updates through direct e-mail from the Service Desk and are directed to the online Help, where appropriate, for guidance on new or improved content within the SNSA. Information access to the help and guidance sections of the SNSA have been improved through better signposting and re-drafting of information following direct user feedback. SNSA Reference Groups reflecting representative stakeholders are consulted on SNSA use and future improvement suggestions and information received from training sessions and the teacher survey is used to inform future developments. All developments are reported back to the profession through direct e-mail newsletters and within training programmes. Prior to Covid-19, consultation with stakeholders informed the re-procurement exercise for national standardised assessments. It is hoped that SNSA User Groups will reconvene in 2021 to continue to gather user feedback. In the meantime, opportunities will be explored to hold virtual consultation discussions with stakeholders.

AC73

Work with key partners to develop a practical framework and Code of Practice on the purpose and use of national standardised assessment data.

Business as usual

The "Purpose and Use Statement", developed in partnership with key stakeholders, summarised existing messages in training in addition to providing clearer specific guidance on aspects of practice which should be promoted (Dos) and those which required better understanding or should be avoided (Don'ts), was published to the profession in August 2019 through a range of communication channels. All new training materials included the "Purpose and Use Statement" and associated messaging and are subject to updates each year to reflect feedback from users. This is a continuing process.

AC74

Work with key partners to improve and enhance national standardised assessment guidance and support materials.

Complete

The "Purpose and Use Statement" was complemented by a series of updates, clarifications and enhancements within training materials and approaches which included: increasing the number of training sessions offered; improving access to materials and messages through better signposting and easily obtainable, clearer written guidance; wider access to all training materials outwith the school day through their publication within Glow; and, in training negotiations with local authorities, promotion of reaching teachers and support staff yet to receive training of any type.

AC75

Enhance, expand and raise awareness of national standardised assessment professional learning opportunities

Complete

In 2019/20, all training materials produced a menu of courses, written guidance and video support materials available to the profession, with each local authority provided with clear documentation covering training availability and choice. In session 2020/21, professionals will have access to additional guidance on Professional Development Pathways to improve understanding of progression through materials and how they are augmented with associated support resources. Professional development opportunities continue to be available in-person, as tutor-based (allowing local authorities to provide supplementary training offers using comprehensive materials) and interactive and recorded webinars to facilitate and retain safe, remote access to professional development courses.

AC76

Review and reflect on user feedback to enhance the SNSA for future years

Business as usual

SNSA User Reviews were published in August 2018 and December 2019, each containing recommendations for future improvements to the SNSA. Many recommendations, for example clarifying item descriptions in reports, were taken forward in subsequent versions of the assessments. System and operational improvements and changes are informed by the Teacher Survey (available to all SNSA users online), feedback from training sessions (available to all attendees), focus groups of representative stakeholders, Learner Feedback (available to all learners presented with SNSA assessments) and wider information received through feedback to the SNSA Service Desk. User feedback has informed planning for the future versions of the SNSA and the associated training offer.

AC77

Continue to work with partners to enhance the Gaelic medium standardised assessments.

Paused (C-19)

A staff user survey to obtain feedback in relation to the MCNG has been in place since January 2020 - a link is provided via the MCNG Platform, and Directors of Education and MCNG local authority outreach network representatives have been asked to encourage staff to share their views with us through it.  Our user review work for the 2019/20 session has necessarily been put on hold due to Covid-19 and consequential need for practitioners to be able to focus on the immediate pressures of supporting children and young people, both in relation to remote learning, and then upon returning to school within the changed environment required.  Our intention is to pick up user review work and stakeholder engagement early in 2021 - and on an entirely voluntary basis - by which time we hope practitioners and local authority staff will be more able to input to this work.  We continue to welcome any and all feedback in the interim, and will gather and consider any views obtained via the online survey, MCNG training opportunities or wider Education Scotland outreach activity on an ongoing basis.

AC78

Revisit the 2014 review of the SSLN to assess the comparative burden and costs of conducting the SSLN and the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels data collection.

Ongoing

Work on revisiting the 2014 review of the SSLN is nearing completion. This considers the statistical value of both the SSLN and ACEL and of the burden to produce each. The findings will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

AC79

Work with key partners to assess and enhance the value of the national standardised assessments.

Paused (C-19)

Plans to advance this area within the User Group consultation process were necessarily curtailed due to Covid-19 in 2019-20. The plans will be taken forward once stakeholder participants are in an improved position to contribute.

AC80

The government has commissioned an independent review of our Senior Phase. The purpose of the review will be to explore further how Curriculum for Excellence is being implemented for young people in S4-S6 across the country, and to identify any improvements that might be made.

Ongoing

The OECD Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence will look at the Senior Phase curriculum and the Broad General Education (BGE) and the articulation between the two. 

The OECD Team have completed their engagement with national organisations and schools and have begun drafting their report, which will be published in June 2021. 

In August 2020 the Deputy First Minister asked the OECD to extend the remit of the Review to have a deeper focus on the future of student assessment and qualifications approaches in the Senior Phase curriculum in Scotland, based on best practice globally.  This additional work will be aligned with the current OECD Review and the final comparative paper will be published later in the summer 2021, following the publication of the CfE Review Report.

AC81

Education Scotland will review the plan for regional and national moderation with the assessment co-ordinators and consult with assessment co-ordinators on the best way to embed moderation.

Complete

NIF Officers consulted with assessment co-ordinators and agreed a plan for regional and national moderation.  National moderation events, the QAMSO programme and bespoke regional moderation events were delivered to practitioners from October 2019 until March 2020.

AC82

Education Scotland will work with stakeholders to review the collection of NIF qualitative and quantitative data, and create guidance to support the collection of data.

Complete

Consultation was carried out, and completed, to review and create a more focused NIF return to elicit information around the six NIF drivers. Regular consultation took place with ADES and guidance was produced.  However, in light of Covid-19, the NIF return was streamlined to reflect the current context and the focus of the four priorities was agreed for the NIF return, in place of the NIF drivers. Both qualitative and quantitative data was gathered and the NIF Report devised.

AC83

The Scottish Government will engage with the Scottish Qualifications Authorities in their work to ensure that LfS-related content is considered when SQA national qualifications are being periodically reviewed

Complete

A specific action has been agreed with the SQA and is included within the Learning for Sustainability Action Plan: 'The SQA, in partnership with Education Scotland and other organisations, will develop new LfS qualifications and pathways where appropriate'. Education Scotland is now working with the SQA to ensure that it is accrediting new LfS qualifications and awards where appropriate.

AC84

The Scottish Government will engage with the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership in their work to i) identify LfS-focused qualifications and awards in that are already recognised on the SCQF framework, and ii) identify any further awards that could be recognised. This will ensure that the criteria are developed by which credit rating bodies can define whether their qualifications or awards are "LfS-relevant".

Complete

A piece of work undertaken and completed by the SCQF now enables Credit Rating Bodies (CRBs) and Programme Owners to identify where qualifications/programmes on the SCQF have a focus on or include sustainability content/themes, and it also enables the SCQF Partnership to produce reports from the SCQF database for interested parties.

AC85

Developing resources and support for schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment.

Paused (C-19)

Prior to Covid-19 a Working Group had been established and had begun to formulate an action plan.  Covid-19 has delayed this work, however this has been picked up again in August and the group is focused on specific actions to strengthen resources for schools.

AC86

Developing updated guidance on Healthy Eating in Schools – to mirror the updated regulations on food and drink in schools.

Paused (C-19)

Prior to Covid-19 a Working Group was established to revise the current guidance.  The Working Group consisted of local authority representatives so had to be put on hold as a result of Covid-19.  A virtual working group convened in July 2020 to inform further development of the guidance. The aim is to produce the guidance by February 2021, to support local authority catering teams plan for the introduction of the amended school food and nutrition regulations in April 2021.

AC87

Developing a new mental health first aid training resource for all school staff.

Paused (C-19)

Prior to Covid-19 a Working Group was established.  The Working Group informed the development of a specification for the new online training resource.  A contractor has been appointed to develop the online resource which is expected to be available by Spring 2021.

School improvement

SI11

We are also exploring options through UK legislation to enable the sharing of data by DWP and HMRC to allow local authorities to identify eligible families. This should assist with increasing registrations of ELC for 2 year olds.

Ongoing

The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government to scope the necessary legislative and practical data-sharing arrangements to allow councils to access information on families with eligible two-year-olds.

This is currently subject to UK Government and UK Parliament timescales.

SI26

Working with Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate to develop a single shared inspection model for early learning and childcare and a commitment that each institution will only be subject to a single inspection per cycle.

Superseded

Education Scotland, the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government have agreed to defer further development of a single shared inspection model for early learning and childcare (ELC) until after the expansion of funded ELC has been fully implemented.

SI28

Developing an approach to funding that truly empowers schools, and provides the framework of support which schools need, based on the outcome of the consultation.     

Ongoing

New revised Devolved School Management guidance, co-produced with local government, was published in June 2019. Local authorities have been working to implement this guidance, which requires them to prepare revised Devolved School Management Schemes for their own authority. These new schemes are due to be in place by April 2021.

Although all local authorities have made good progress, with some having published new schemes already, some have had Covid-19 related challenges in progressing reviews. In partnership with ADES Resources and COSLA, update information is now being gathered from local authorities, to assess whether an extension to the April 2021 deadline could be considered.

SI29

Around a quarter of 2 year olds are now eligible for funded ELC through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and through subsequent secondary legislation which commenced in August 2015. There is now a dedicated national project on the 2 year old offer within the Scottish Government expansion programme to provide support to local authorities and make links across the programme.  The programme will last up to, and beyond, August 2020. We aim to improve uptake by ensuring the 2 year old offer is appropriate and appealing for eligible children and their families.

Ongoing

Work to promote awareness and increase uptake of the 2 year old offer is well underway:

• We continue to work with local government to extend access to funded ELC to 2 year olds with a care experienced parent. This will be brought in alongside the new implementation date for 1140.
• We are working with UK Government to establish a legal gateway to allow for data of eligible families to be shared with local authorities. 
• We are collating and disseminating the work of 9 multi-agency improvement teams who worked with CYPIC between 2018 and 2019 on improving uptake and addressing barriers to the offer in their areas. 
• We are working across SG to ensure we are making the most of cross/joint messaging e.g. with those eligible for Best Start Foods and who may access the Money Talks Team. 
• We have created content on the Parent Club website that has been messaged tested with the parents of eligible 2 year olds in mind. 
• We are developing online spaces to help all those with an interest in eligible 2s across Scotland to share best practice and guidance relevant to 2 year olds in ELC.

SI30

Education Scotland will continue to provide support to the RICs

Business as usual

Education Scotland delivered a series of events in Local Authorities and in RICs on assessment and moderation delivering key messages for improvement and sharing good practice.  In addition to working with their link local authorities, Attainment Advisors have begun to support appropriate regional collaborative plans where there is a focus on equity. This is enabling wider sharing of their expertise.

SI31

Implement the Early Learning and Childcare Quality Action Plan

Ongoing

11 of the 15 actions in the ELC Quality Action Plan have now been delivered with the remaining well underway.  Actions that have been delivered include: publication of a national induction resource; development of directory of continuous professional learning opportunities; a learning and development course for school leadership teams on what drives quality in early learning and childcare; and strengthening of the ELC content on the Education Scotland National Improvement Hub.

SI63

Working in partnership with local government, Regional Improvement Collaboratives and Education Scotland, ensure that our education empowerment reforms strengthen and support collaborative working across the system. This includes extending the reach, accessibility and impact of collaborative working across school, local, regional and national levels. These reforms are vital to strengthening Scotland's Curriculum through teachers and headteachers being empowered and supported to collaborate and share innovation and best practice in implementing the curriculum for their learners.

Ongoing

Regional Improvement Collaboratives re-prioritised their work programme to directly support schools and staff dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. This included enhanced support for virtual learning platforms and professional learning networks, and redeploying staff to support front-line remote learning activities.

SI64

Alongside COSLA we are currently in the process of commissioning external research into the establishment, reach and impact of Regional Improvement Collaboratives. This follows an interim review of RICs published in February 2019 and is scheduled to report by June 2020. Findings will be used to take steps to further embed regional collaboration and the support available to schools

Paused (C-19)

Research and fieldwork commenced in early 2020 but was paused in response to Covid-19. The Scottish Government, COSLA and the Research Advisory Group for this review are considering options for re-commencing this research in 2021.

SI65

Education Scotland will collate this information from inspection reports, the data gathering exercise (section 12 undertaken in collaboration with DYW), NIF reports, Foundation Apprenticeship data, Senior Phase review, secondary HT survey and work in relation to the Curriculum Refresh Narrative.

Complete

HM Inspectors have completed the following briefings:

• Inspection findings 2018-19: Developing the Young Workforce. This briefing outlines key findings from inspections across early learning and childcare, primary, special and secondary schools. It provides examples of highly effective practice.
• Secondary Inspection findings: Secondary Curriculum 2016-2019. This briefing provides a summary of inspection findings on the quality of the secondary curriculum to support and promote improvement over a three year period. 

Both these briefings have been provided as evidence to the OECD as part of the curriculum review.

HM Inspectors have completed phase one of the review of foundation apprenticeships. 

SI66

HM Inspectors of Education will publish a thematic inspection report focusing on highly effective practice in using assessment within the BGE to improve learning and teaching. The report will be published in January 2020.

Complete

Assessment within the broad general education,

a thematic inspection was published on 17 March 2020. This report shares examples of settings and schools who are making highly effective use of assessment to improve children's and young people's learning.

SI67

Scottish Government will work with partners to implement the 16 recommendations from the Review of Personal and Social Education (published Jan 2019) during the course of 2019. This will include the establishment of a senior phase Personal and Social Education Mentoring Programme to coach and enable pupils to design and deliver aspects of health and wellbeing / personal and social education whilst working towards an award.

Paused (C-19)

Steady progress continued to be made on the implementation of the PSE Review recommendations, however Covid-19 impacted on progress.  This work recommenced in August 2020 and is not expected to be completed until Autumn 2021.

SI68

During 2020 the Scottish Government, Education Scotland and partners will continue to implement the Developing the Young Workforce reforms. This will include promotion of the new standards for careers education and work placements.

Complete

Standards for career education and work placements have been published and continue to be promoted. They provide universal entitlements and place responsibilities on all partners to address equality issues.

SI69

A review will be undertaken of Foundation Apprenticeships, with an evaluation of the Developing the Young Workforce programme as a whole reporting after the conclusion of the programme in 2021.

Ongoing

The Scottish Government and its agencies are fully committed to provide ongoing support to achieve the system change necessary to embed Foundation Apprenticeships in the senior phase curriculum and have commissioned Education Scotland to undertake a review of the programme.  This review is currently being progressed with the intention that the outcome will inform and enhance delivery of FAs going forward.

SI70

Education Scotland will take forward a Communication and Engagement plan for the Refreshed Narrative on Scotland's Curriculum. They will work with partners across the education system to ensure that teachers can engage with its principles as part of their curriculum development activity.

Ongoing

Education Scotland facilitated and chaired the first two meetings of the Communications and Engagement partnership group, drawn from the members of Curriculum and Assessment Board. The group has not met since Covid-19 restrictions came into operation, and so the joint plan is therefore not yet in place. In the meantime Education Scotland have led sessions to support thinking around curriculum design. These have taken a range of forms, from direct engagement with schools around the four capacities and contexts, to national engagement sessions where practitioners have come together to work collaboratively around the themes of IDl and Learner Pathways.  These sessions have included close partnership working with a design agency and a range of national partners. Work is ongoing to consider how this support to schools can be developed throughout a recovery curriculum, with focus on building capacity across local areas and building digital sustainability to best meet the needs of all young people.

SI71

In early 2020 there will be a review of the Senior Phase of Scotland's Curriculum. It is anticipated that this will take account of the link between the Broad General Education (ie the experience in S1 – S3) and the Senior Phase as well as subject choice 

Superseded

This review has been incorporated into the OECD Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence (AC80).

SI72

During 2020, the Scottish Government will involve children and young people in the development of a learner focused guide to Scotland's Curriculum to accompany the Refreshed Narrative for practitioners. This work will incorporate the key thinking points from the Learner Panel report on subject choices, assessment and personalised guidance.

Paused (C-19)

This work was put on hold due to Covid-19. In its place, the Scottish Government is funding the Scottish Learner Panel to continue to meet up to end June 2021, and to focus on Covid-19 education recovery. The new education recovery panel of 15 children and young people, ages 9 to 18 will focus on Covid-19 related education issues. Young Scot will support the panel to meet on a monthly basis, feeding directly in to the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group.

SI73

During 2020, Education Scotland will ensure that ES officers in regional improvement team are aware of the key benefits of outdoor learning and its importance within the curriculum.

Ongoing

A Learning Week session on outdoor learning and learning for sustainability was offered to all regional Education Scotland staff and HMI colleagues in November 2019. Education Scotland is currently running an extended programme of online webinars on outdoor learning involving a wide variety of teams and regional improvement advisers.

SI74

The Young STEM Leader programme will continue to be supported in 2020, which includes a Youth Steering Group to represent the voice of young people.

Ongoing

Over 600 Young STEM leaders took part in the pilot phase of this programme up to October 2020, including through online engagement during the pandemic. Their achievements were celebrated as part of a formal launch of the programme in October 2020.  It is now available to all schools and we hope to see it continue to grow in 2021-22.

SI75

During 2020, learner voice and participation will continue to form a key aspect within the School Empowerment reforms. Scottish Government and Education Scotland will raise awareness of new guidance on Learner Empowerment and will work with learners to develop further support materials on learner empowerment during the course of 2020.

Paused (C-19)

This work was put on hold due to Covid-19. In its place, the Scottish Government is funding the Scottish Learner Panel to continue to meet up to end June 2021, and to focus on Covid-19 education recovery. The new education recovery panel of 15 children and young people, ages 9 to 18 will focus on Covid-19 related education issues. Young Scot will support the panel to meet on a monthly basis, feeding directly in to the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group.

SI76

During 2020, the Scottish Government will continue to support the Scottish Learner Panel, ensuring that pupils can contribute to policy development.

Ongoing

The Scottish Government is funding the Scottish Learner Panel to continue to meet up to end June 2021, and to focus on Covid-19 education recovery. The new education recovery panel of 15 children and young people, ages 9 to 18 will focus on Covid-19 related education issues. Young Scot will support the panel to meet on a monthly basis, feeding directly in to the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG).  In addition, a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament attends meetings of CERG and will act as a bridge between the panel and CERG meetings. Further bespoke "ad hoc" panels of learners met with the Deputy First Minister in June 2020 (to discuss experience of school closures); and in August and September 2020 (to discuss SQA examinations).  Learners were consulted in the work of the review by Professor Mark Priestley and the OECD review of Scottish education.

SI77

By the end of 2020, Education Scotland will roll out the Young Leaders of Learning Programme (previously piloted in north-east Scotland) across Scotland. This will help to support more children to be involved in self-evaluation activities and reciprocal visits to other schools as part of school improvement activities in their own school.

Paused (C-19)

This programme was progressing well, involving more than 50 schools in the Northern Alliance. Feedback was very positive, with head teachers and pupils reporting improvements in confidence, social skills, organisation and other core skills.  All participating schools included actions from pupils in to their school improvement plans. However, the national launch event in March was suspended due to Covid-19, and currently children cannot visit each other's schools. The programme will restart once restrictions are eased.

SI78

During 2020, Education Scotland will continue to develop professional learning opportunities to support the Education Scotland Learner Participation 3-18 resource.

Business as usual

Sessions have been delivered in 4 local authorities in the Northern Alliance, and were positively evaluated, with teachers having a clearer idea about how to involve pupils in decision making in their schools, learning and communities. A digital delivery twilight version is now being developed and offered, initially in the north.

SI79

Education Scotland will refresh the Education Scotland "Recognising and Realising Children's Rights" resource and professional learning resource by the end of 2020.

Complete

This programme has now been developed to run as a series of 4 twilights which can also be delivered remotely. A trial in the Northern Alliance took place in November 2020 facilitated by ES and local authority colleagues.  The feedback from the trial was very positive averaging a score of 4.25/5 from participants.

Performance information

PI02

From February 2017, we will roll out training in the use of the standardised assessment tool to equip teachers with the necessary data literacy skills to identify areas for improvement.

Business as usual

SNSA training was rolled out in January 2017, with MCNG training rolled out in August 2018. This training remains available to users on an ongoing basis.

PI12

The suite of Professional Standards managed by the GTCS are currently being revised and both digital and data literacy will be given greater prominence in revised versions to be published in 2020.

Complete

The suite of Professional Standards managed by the GTCS which have been refreshed and come into effect for the 21/22 academic year now give greater prominence to digital and data literacy.

PI16

Early work is underway on a long-term project to develop a new index of social background, which is aimed at creating individual level data (as opposed to area-based) which allow more targeted and effective intervention for disadvantaged pupils.

Ongoing

Further exploration has uncovered significant challenges in obtaining suitable individual-level DWP/ HMRC data, which requires reconsideration of the feasibility of this project; SG Analysts continue to explore potential alternative options.

PI17

In 2019/2020 we will continue to administer the Challenge Authority, Schools Programme, Care Experienced Children and Young People and Pupil Equity funds as well as the National Programmes, supporting Schools, Local Authorities and Third Sector organisations to close the poverty related attainment gap with up to £182m from the Attainment Scotland Fund.

Ongoing

Over £182m of funding was issued during 2019-20 from the Attainment Scotland Fund across all 32 Local Authorities, schools and a range of third sector organisations. Each authority and school develops annual improvement plans and reports, tailored to their own circumstances, detailing the actions they will take to close the poverty-related attainment gap, and their impact. In light of Covid-19, and the impact on some of the most vulnerable children and families, additional flexibility was introduced to the 2020-21 Attainment Scotland Funding, allowing councils and schools to redirect these funds provided that all spend remained aligned to the core principles of the programme. In May 2020, the Deputy Firm Minister confirmed Pupil Equity Funding for two years ahead - 2020/21 and 2021/22. This equates to more than £250 million, and will be made available to 97% of schools over those two years.

PI18

For the remainder of this parliament the Scottish Government and Education Scotland will continue to work in partnership with local authorities, schools and other key stakeholders to facilitate, broker and support action to maximise progress in reducing the poverty related attainment gap. A five point maximising progress plan has been jointly developed by the Scottish Government and Education Scotland to facilitate this:

Expertise and tailored additional support will be targeted where the latest evidence shows that the pace of progress could be increased.

Every school and every teacher will have access to, and understand, what the data and evidence says and have the skills to use this to improve children and young people's learning, progress and achievement.

Specific approaches which are making the biggest impact in improving children's progress and attainment in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing will be identified and shared systematically.

We will work with teachers and schools to enhance their professional practice by empowering them to develop sustainable approaches to improvement, and ensure lasting impact for children and young people affected by poverty.

Working together at national, regional and local level, we will increase our collective efforts across all levels of government and build on the momentum of empowerment and collaboration, to identify, take responsibility for, and tackle the causes of the attainment gap at all levels.

Ongoing

The collective skills and expertise of Attainment Advisors working with others across Education Scotland has supported schools and local authorities over session 2020/21 to continue to maximise progress with closing the poverty related attainment gap within the context of Covid-19 educational recovery.

In response to Covid-19, we introduced additional flexibility to the Attainment Scotland funding, ensuring councils and schools can redirect this to help mitigate the impact of school closures on our most disadvantaged families.  This has enabled the provision of tablets to support digital learning at home and support for home-school link workers to maintain regular contact with children.

It also supported the delivery of summer learning and support programmes, including family support workers, free food and additional learning materials. 

The Attainment Scotland Funding Flexibility Guidance and revised PEF Guidance we have issued to local authorities and headteachers was clear that:

• Any flexibility must remain consistent with the principle of equity in education.
• Any decisions that alter the planned use of Pupil Equity Funding should be made in partnership with the relevant headteachers. 
• Headteachers must have access to the full amount of the allocated Pupil Equity Funding.
• Headteachers should work in partnership with each other, and their local authority, to agree the use of the funding.

Education Scotland Attainment Advisors remain available to provide support and advice, so local authorities and headteachers should continue to engage with them where necessary.

In addition, an Education Recovery working group was established on Supporting Learners from Disadvantaged Backgrounds, with representatives from across the Education Sector. This culminated in input to the "Continuity in learning Guidance" and ensuring the needs of disadvantaged learners were a key consideration.

PI19

Research and development work will continue around the three aims of the Research Strategy.

Ongoing

Two Research Strategy reports were published in 2020: 

Year 4 Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation report

PISA 2018 Global Competence report on Scotland's results

Some projects were paused in 2020 as a result of Covid-19; these are currently scheduled to restart in 2021