4  Data

 4.1  Sources

The data included in this publication are provided to Scottish Government by local authorities and grant-aided schools. Independent schools are not included in the data collection.

The assessments of children’s progress are based on teachers’ professional judgements in schools. Teacher professional judgements of achievement of a level are based on all of the evidence collected by teachers during the ongoing assessment of children and young people’s learning.  A wide range of evidence is collected in a variety of ways. This includes observing children and young people at work, assessing their work in class, standardised assessments and assessing children and young people’s knowledge and understanding by talking to them about their learning.

The Achievement of CfE Level census date was Monday 10 June 2024. Data were submitted by local authorities to Scottish Government by Friday 30 August 2024. A process of quality assurance between Scottish Government, local authorities and schools occurs before the production of these statistics. Further information on this can be found in section 5.

4.2  Coverage

The data collected cover all pupils in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 in mainstream schools and all pupils based in special schools/units. Data were provided for 230,331 pupils. Teacher judgements cover the four organisers of reading, writing, listening and talking and numeracy. Pupils for whom the teacher has been unable to make a professional judgement are not included in the published results (less than one per cent of pupils).

A very small percentage (less than one per cent) of children have long-term significant and complex additional support needs that mean that it is unlikely they will progress through the CfE levels during their time in education. These children are included within the data as ‘pupil following individual milestones’.

4.3  Pupils based in special schools or standalone units

Within some local authorities school pupils with complex needs may attend a special school or standalone special unit.

Special schools and standalone special units cater for children of all ages.  The information gathered as part of the ACEL return does not include a specific stage for these pupils (i.e. they are simply recorded as being a pupil based in a special school or standalone special unit and not as being in P1, P4, etc.). Therefore, it is not possible to calculate the percentage of pupils who have achieved the CfE level relevant to their stage. Results for pupils in standalone special schools or special units are presented in Chapter 6 of the main report but are not included in the analysis in other chapters.

A new category ‘Studying beyond BGE level’ was introduced in the 2021-22 data collection for use by standalone special schools and units. The category is for use where:

(a)  a pupil is in the senior phase and,

(b)  the pupil is being taught at least one qualification, other award, or work- based learning, at SCQF Level 1 and above and,

(c)  teachers would not normally make CfE level judgements for pupils in the senior phase.

This was in response to reports that some pupils in special schools and standalone special units were being recorded as ‘Not Assessed’ when these pupils were working towards national qualifications. In 2019, Scottish Government statisticians consulted key stakeholders, including Education Scotland, special schools and standalone special units and local authorities, regarding how these pupils should be appropriately recorded.  The introduction of this new code reflects their feedback.

In other local authorities, pupils with complex needs are integrated into mainstream schools; where this is the case, these pupils have been included throughout this publication. These differences in where pupils with complex needs receive their education across the different local authorities should be kept in mind when making comparisons between local authorities, or between individual schools. Based on the supplementary tables associated with the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication, local authorities with no special schools are; Angus, East Lothian, Moray, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney Islands, Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands.

Young people with long-term significant and complex additional support needs are included within the data as ‘pupil following individual milestones’. Where these pupils are learning within a mainstream school or special unit integrated within a mainstream school they will be included in the national and local authority analysis and counted as not having achieved a CfE Level. Where these pupils are learning within a standalone special school or unit they will be included in Chapter 6 of the main report and displayed in the ‘Child following individual milestones’ category.

4.4  Pupils for whom the teacher was unable to make a judgement

Children for whom the teacher has been unable to make a professional judgement are not included in the calculations of the proportions of pupils achieving the expected CfE Levels. This may happen if, for example, a pupil has recently moved to the school, and the teacher feels there has not been sufficient time to form a professional judgement of a pupil’s performance. This is the case for less than one per cent of pupils within the Achievement of CfE Levels data.

4.5  Derived variables

The publication tables include two derived variables: P1, P4 and P7 combined and literacy.

P1, P4 and P7 combined figures have been available on the school level dashboard since 2015-16 to provide data for small schools (where data for individual stages would potentially reveal information about individual pupils).

P1, P4 and P7 combined figures are available at local authority and national level for comparison purposes.

The literacy variable has been created from the three literacy organisers: reading, writing and listening and talking. A pupil is deemed to have achieved the expected level in literacy if they have achieved the expected level in all three literacy organisers. A pupil is deemed not to have achieved the expected level in overall literacy if they have failed to achieve the expected level in one or more of the individual organisers. If a pupil has not been assessed in one or more of the organisers (‘Not Assessed’), their results are not included in calculation of the overall literacy variable.

These two derived variables are used in the key measures in the National Improvement Framework (NIF):

• Percentage of P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined achieving expected Level in Literacy;
• Percentage of P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined achieving expected Level in Numeracy;
• Percentage of S3 pupils achieving Third Level or better in Literacy and;
• Percentage of S3 pupils achieving Third Level or better in Numeracy.

4.6  Gaelic Medium Education

Pupils based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes will learn and develop their literacy and numeracy skills in both Gàidhlig and English.

Pupils in Primary 1 Gaelic medium primary schools will generally be immersed in developing their reading, writing, listening and talking and numeracy skills in the medium of Gaelic. 

From around Primary 3, children based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes will also start to develop their skills in reading, writing and listening and talking in the English language.

It is expected that by the end of Primary 7, most children who have been based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes should be achieving Second Level in reading, writing, and listening and talking in both Gàidhlig and English.

For pupils based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes, the following data are collected and published.

• Gàidhlig Reading: collected for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils
• Gàidhlig Writing: collected for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils
• Gàidhlig Listening and Talking: collected for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils
• English Reading: collected for P7 and S3 pupils only
• English Writing: collected for P7 and S3 pupils only
• English Listening & Talking: collected for P7 and S3 pupils only
• Numeracy: collected for P4, P7 and S3 pupils only

Achievement of CfE levels in Gàidhlig can be found in Chapter 5 of the main report.

4.7 Data matching

To reduce the burden on data providers, as per the Code of Practice for Statistics, pupil characteristic information was added to the Achievement of CfE Levels data by using previously collected data from the Pupil Census. The following variables were added:

•        Ethnicity

•        Additional Support Needs

•        English as an Additional Language

•        Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

•        6-fold Urban Rural Classification

Achievement of CfE Level data and Pupil Census data were initially matched based on Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) and school or, where an initial match is not made, based on SCN and other demographic information (e.g. sex and date of birth).  In some cases, matches could not be made if pupils had moved to Scotland in between the pupil census being carried out and the ACEL data collection. These represented around 1.5 per cent of pupils in the ACEL data collection. These pupils were still included in the overall ACEL analysis, but information on the characteristics listed above was not available for those breakdowns.

4.8  Supplementary tables

The collection involves a large amount of data, which cannot be fully presented in the publication. The report seeks to highlight the key messages and give a flavour of the range of analysis possible. Detailed tables are published as supporting tables alongside the publication, and provide a fuller picture of the findings (see the supplementary tables). As with school level information, a disclosure control policy is applied to supplementary tables.

Within the supplementary tables, trend data from 2016-17 onwards has been included for pupil characteristics. This includes data by Additional Support Needs, English as an Additional Language, urban rural classification, sex, ethnicity and Gaelic education.

Additionally, in the 2023-24 supplementary tables, a range of interactive pivot charts have been added to allow users to visualise the data in different ways.

4.9 Revisions policy

Data submissions for the latest year can sometimes identify required revisions for previously submitted data. Scottish Government will revise previous years’ results at the time of publication of the latest year’s results. Data revisions must be received by October for inclusion in the next publication. No revisions have been made to historic data for the 2023-24 publication.

4.10  Rounding

Figures used in the commentary of this report are based on the unrounded data which can be found in the supplementary tables. This means that they may not always match with figures that are derived using the rounded data displayed in tables and charts.