National improvement framework for Scottish education: evidence report 2017

Key Driver: School improvement

Education Scotland Inspections

Education Scotland carries out inspections and reviews across sectors ranging from early learning and childcare to adult learning. Inspections are designed to promote improvement; provide assurance on the quality of education and provide evidence to inform national policy development.

Inspection reports and more information about school inspections can be found on the Education Scotland inspection and review pages.

From August 2016, Education Scotland implemented new arrangements for inspection and reporting on the quality of education in the schools and early learning and childcare sectors. As part of the new arrangements, HM Inspectors started using new quality indicators and national benchmarks for evaluating the quality of education. These benchmarks set challenging new standards to support improved attainment for all, whilst also promoting a shift towards closing the gap in attainment and achievement between the most disadvantaged children and their peers.

The updated set of quality indicators and six point scale for evaluating the quality indicators used by HM Inspectors are set out in How Good is Our School? (4th edition) (HGIOS4).

The new approaches to inspections are also aligned firmly with the National Improvement Framework. Evaluation grades for the quality indicators across a sample of 120 schools feed directly into the evidence base for the National Improvement Framework. In addition they provide evidence based on a sample of inspections of early learning and childcare settings. It should be noted that the sample is not representative of all Scottish schools or early learning and childcare settings.

As part of inspections from August 2016, HM Inspectors evaluated a new quality indicator 'Learning, Teaching and Assessment'. They evaluated the extent to which all children and young people experienced consistently high-quality learning experiences. HM Inspectors had an increased focus on the effectiveness of assessment approaches, including shared expectations of standards and arrangements for moderation across stages and the curriculum.

96% of the 120 schools across primary, secondary and special provision inspected as part of the sample for the National Improvement Framework between August 2016 and June 2017 were evaluated as satisfactory or better on ' learning, teaching and assessment'.

52% of the 120 schools across primary, secondary and special provision inspected as part of the sample for the National Improvement Framework between August 2016 and June 2017 were evaluated as good, very good or excellent on ' learning, teaching and assessment'.

HM Inspectors evaluated the school's success in achieving the best possible outcomes for all children and young people. This focused on children's and young people's attainment across all areas of the curriculum and the service's ability to demonstrate improvements in children's and young people's achievements in relation to skills and attributes.

92% of the 120 schools across primary, secondary and special provision inspected as part of the sample for the National Improvement Framework between August 2016 and June 2017 were evaluated as satisfactory or better on ' raising attainment and achievement'.

49% of the 120 schools across primary, secondary and special provision inspected as part of the sample for the National Improvement Framework between August 2016 and June 2017. were evaluated as good, very good or excellent on ' raising attainment and achievement.'

Local Authority Data

Local authorities provided Education Scotland with information in relation to key Quality Indicator evaluations. There were a number of schools for which information was not provided. Therefore, this information should be treated with some caution.

74% of the 2,451 schools across primary, secondary and special provision, for which information was provided, were evaluated as good or better on ' learning, teaching and assessment'.

70% of the 2,449 schools across primary, secondary and special provision, for which information was provided, were evaluated as good or better on ' raising attainment and achievement'.

Attendance, absence and exclusions

Information on attendance, absence and exclusions from school is now collected on a biennial basis, with the most recent data for the 2016/17 academic year published in Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland.

93.3% was the total attendance rate recorded for 2016/17, very similar to previous years. The attendance rate was higher for primary schools ( 94.9%) than secondary schools ( 91.2%) and special schools ( 90.3%).

Pupils living in areas with higher levels of deprivation had lower attendance rates. In secondary schools, pupils living in the 20% most deprived areas had an attendance rate that was 6.6 percentage points lower than the pupils living in the 20% least deprived areas.

The exclusion rate for all pupils in 2016/17 was 26.8 per 1,000 pupils This has been falling year on year since 2006/07.

Exclusion rate per 1,000 pupils

Rates of exclusions per 1,000 pupils for pupils living in the 20% most deprived areas were 48.5 per 1,000 pupils compared with 9.1 per 1,000 pupils living in the 20% least deprived areas.

Early Learning and Childcare

Information on the uptake of local authority funded early learning and childcare is published annually by the Scottish Government, with the most recent data published in Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland.

99% of 3 & 4 year olds registered for local authority funded Early Learning and Childcare in 2017, the same as in 2016.

Digital Schools Award Scotland Framework

Launched in September 2016, to date 415 primary schools have registered with 43 of them having achieved the award.

A secondary framework was launched in September 2017. To date 77 secondary schools have registered with 1 having achieved the award already.