School estates statistics 2019

Statistics from the annual school estates core facts survey, including information on school condition and suitability, and the number of new builds and refurbishments.


Chapter 4: School suitability

86.0% of schools of a good or satisfactory suitability in April 2019.

87.7% of pupils in schools of a good or satisfactory suitability in April 2019.

Suitability provides a measure of the extent to which a school building and its grounds provide an environment which supports quality learning and teaching. The following ratings are used to measure school suitability:

  • A: Good – Performing well and operating effectively;
  • B: Satisfactory – Performing well but with minor problems;
  • C: Poor – Showing major problems and/or not operating optimally;
  • D: Bad – Does not support the delivery of services to children and communities.

In November 2017 new guidance was provided to local authorities on measuring school suitability. Suitability was recorded using this guidance for the first time in the 2019 School Estate Core Facts Survey. Differences between this and the previous guidance mean that a school’s suitability rating may have changed when there has been little or no change to the school itself. Therefore, caution is advised when comparing the 2019 figures with previous years.

Some authorities were unable to implement the new guidance before the 2019 collection and have therefore reported their schools’ suitability ratings using the ratings from the old guidance. As a result comparisons between authorities may not be valid. Please see the background notes for more details.

The proportion of schools with a good or satisfactory suitability has increased 5.9 percentage points from 80.1 per cent in April 2013 to 86.0 per cent in April 2019 (Table 4.1).

Taking into account the different number of pupils in each school, there has been a 6.1 percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils in good or satisfactory suitability schools from 81.6 per cent in April 2013 to 87.7 per cent in April 2019 (Table 4.2).

Table 4.1: Suitability of schools, 2013-2019(1)

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019(2)
Count
A: Good 663 688 706 728 777 788 816
B: Satisfactory 1,394 1,387 1,339 1,324 1,271 1,295 1,327
C: Poor 477 451 463 445 447 405 336
D: Bad 32 28 26 22 16 8 9
Suitability not recorded 1 4 4 5 5 5 4
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 2,057 2,075 2,045 2,052 2,048 2,083 2,143
C: Poor or D: Bad 509 479 489 467 463 413 345
Percentage
A: Good 25.8 26.9 27.8 28.8 30.9 31.5 32.7
B: Satisfactory 54.3 54.2 52.8 52.5 50.5 51.8 53.3
C: Poor 18.6 17.6 18.2 17.6 17.8 16.2 13.5
D: Bad 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.6 0.3 0.4
Suitability not recorded 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 80.1 81.1 80.6 81.3 81.4 83.3 86.0
C: Poor or D: Bad 19.8 18.7 19.3 18.5 18.4 16.5 13.8

1. Suitability as reported in April. Changes to the guidance used to measure suitability mean that caution should be used when comparing figures between years. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information.

2. Suitability was measured using new guidance in the 2019 survey. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information. Suitability was not recorded for three schools in 2019 as they were new builds which had not yet been surveyed. No suitability was recorded for one other school as it is a special school located in a hospital.

Table 4.2: School pupils by suitability of school, 2013-2019(1, 2)

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019(3)
Count
A: Good 225,757 234,021 240,245 250,508 271,260 277,429 278,894
B: Satisfactory 320,627 323,994 316,170 312,851 302,296 309,105 321,676
C: Poor 111,686 102,527 107,368 104,009 101,321 91,774 81,702
D: Bad 11,825 11,581 10,393 8,095 5,795 2,248 2,253
Suitability not recorded 0 320 1,353 2,086 2,150 2,180 629
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 546,384 558,015 556,415 563,359 573,556 586,534 600,570
C: Poor or D: Bad 123,511 114,108 117,761 112,104 107,116 94,022 83,955
Percentage
A: Good 33.7 34.8 35.6 37.0 39.7 40.6 40.7
B: Satisfactory 47.9 48.2 46.8 46.2 44.3 45.3 46.9
C: Poor 16.7 15.2 15.9 15.4 14.8 13.4 11.9
D: Bad 1.8 1.7 1.5 1.2 0.8 0.3 0.3
Suitability not recorded 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 81.6 83.0 82.4 83.1 84.0 85.9 87.7
C: Poor or D: Bad 18.4 17.0 17.4 16.5 15.7 13.8 12.3

1. Suitability as reported in April. Changes to the guidance used to measure suitability mean that caution should be used when comparing figures between years. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information.

2. Refers to pupils on the school roll the previous September except where rolls have been updated to reflect the number of pupils on 1st April. Schools opened after September but before April will have no pupils recorded for that school year unless they chose to supply this figure during this collection. Please see section 6.1 of the background notes for more information.

3. Suitability was measured using new guidance in the 2019 survey. Please see section 6.3 of the background notes for more information. Suitability was not recorded for three schools in 2019 as they were new builds which had not yet been surveyed. No suitability was recorded for one other school as it is a special school located in a hospital.

Contact

Email: school.stats@gov.scot

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