Welcome to the HM Inspectorate of Education website. I hope you will find useful the wide range of reports, support materials and information it contains.
HM Inspectorate of Education has been an integral part of the Scottish education system for over 160 years. HMIE became an Executive Agency in April 2001, reflecting the changing emphasis given to independent, rigorous evaluation of the Scottish education system. Our framework document, which you can find on this website, sets out our roles and relationships in more detail.
This evolution is the most recent which has taken place since the first HM Inspector of Schools was appointed in 1840. However, what has not changed is the emphasis on the relationship between inspection and improvement. The particular focus in Scotland on combining inspection with self-evaluation is central to our drive to raise educational standards and we continue to work with schools, authorities and colleges to promote effective self-evaluation. A wide range of self-evaluation materials are available here on the website to support this.
HMIE has responsibilities to evaluate pre-school education, primary and secondary schools, teacher education, community learning and development, further education and local authorities. We also publish reports of interest to the public and professionals about services for children including child protection. From this extensive evidence we are able to give the professional advice needed to support the development of educational policy. All of our inspection reports are published on this website for easy and open access.
If you are a parent or carer looking for information on a school which your child attends, or might attend, you will find our inspection reports tell you about the quality of education in the school. Where we have made return visits to schools, you will also find reports on the progress made. One of our key objectives is to identify and make available the examples of good practice and to provide support to improvement across education and children’s services. Good practice on this website is always being updated and expanded and we continually seek new ways to enable this to be shared to support both educational improvement and professional development.
We are always pleased to receive feedback on our website: what you found useful and what we could do to improve. I hope you will find the information and advice you find here to be both informative and helpful.
Graham Donaldson
HM Senior Chief Inspector
December 2007