School Estate Statistics 2021

Results of the 2021 School Estates Core Facts Survey.


Chapter 4: School suitability

  • 87.4% of schools of a good or satisfactory suitability in April 2021.
  • 88.9% of pupils in schools of a good or satisfactory suitability in April 2021.

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.

The proportion of schools with a good or satisfactory suitability has increased 6.9 percentage points from 80.6 per cent in April 2015 to 87.4 per cent in April 2021 (Table 4.1).

Taking into account the different number of pupils in each school, there has been a 6.5 percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils in good or satisfactory suitability schools from 82.4 per cent in April 2015 to 88.9 per cent in April 2021 (Table 4.2).

Table 4.1: Suitability of schools, 2015-2021 (1)
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021(2)
Count
A: Good 706 728 777 788 816 862 893
B: Satisfactory 1,339 1,324 1,271 1,295 1,327 1,292 1,277
C: Poor 463 445 447 405 336 328 304
D: Bad 26 22 16 8 9 6 5
Suitability not recorded 4 5 5 5 4 1 3
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 2,045 2,052 2,048 2,083 2,143 2,154 2,170
C: Poor or D: Bad 489 467 463 413 345 334 309
Percentage
A: Good 27.8 28.8 30.9 31.5 32.7 34.6 36.0
B: Satisfactory 52.8 52.5 50.5 51.8 53.3 51.9 51.5
C: Poor 18.2 17.6 17.8 16.2 13.5 13.2 12.2
D: Bad 1.0 0.9 0.6 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.2
Suitability not recorded 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.1
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 80.6 81.3 81.4 83.3 86.0 86.5 87.4
C: Poor or D: Bad 19.3 18.5 18.4 16.5 13.8 13.4 12.4

1. Suitability as reported in April of relevant year.

2. No suitability was recorded for one special school located in a hospital, one primary school temporarily located in a community center and one primary school in a refurbished building that has not yet been surveyed.

Table 4.2: School pupils by suitability of school, 2015-2021 (1, 2)
  2015 2016 2017 2018(3) 2019(3) 2020 2021(4)
Count
A: Good 240,245 250,508 271,260 279,971 281,391 289,046 295,385
B: Satisfactory 316,170 312,851 302,296 311,869 324,392 326,281 327,344
C: Poor 107,368 104,009 101,321 92,890 83,050 77,597 74,384
D: Bad 10,393 8,095 5,795 2,292 2,300 3,668 3,412
Suitability not recorded 1,353 2,086 2,150 2,180 643 0 193
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 556,415 563,359 573,556 591,840 605,783 615,327 622,729
C: Poor or D: Bad 117,761 112,104 107,116 95,182 85,350 81,265 77,796
Percentage
A: Good 35.6 37.0 39.7 40.6 40.7 41.5 42.2
B: Satisfactory 46.8 46.2 44.3 45.3 46.9 46.8 46.7
C: Poor 15.9 15.4 14.8 13.5 12.0 11.1 10.6
D: Bad 1.5 1.2 0.8 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.5
Suitability not recorded 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 82.4 83.1 84.0 85.9 87.6 88.3 88.9
C: Poor or D: Bad 17.4 16.5 15.7 13.8 12.3 11.7 11.1

1. Suitability as reported in April of relevant year.

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 unless the school roll was supplied during this collection. Please see section 6.1 of the background notes for more information.

3. Pupil rolls for 2018 and 2019 were corrected in September 2020 as special school pupils were missing from these figures.

4. No suitability was recorded for one special school located in a hospital, one primary school temporarily located in a community center and one primary school in a refurbished building that has not yet been surveyed.

Contact

Email: school.stats@gov.scot

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