For more than 15 years schools and pre-school centres have been developing their approaches to self-evaluation, supported by the publication of How good is our school? and later by the publication of The Child at the Centre. The success of the ‘Scottish approach’ to self-evaluation — internal self-evaluation along with external inspection — is widely acknowledged. Improving Scottish Education attributed much of the recent improvements in schools to the success of self-evaluation. The importance of ‘self assessment’ to performance management was recognised by Professor Lorne Crerar in his report.1
In November 2007 the Scottish Government published its approach to monitoring the performance of public services in Scotland in its National Performance Framework (NPF). The performance of schools and pre-school centres was identified specifically in this framework. This document provides additional guidance on the application of the three quality indicators (QIs) referred to in the NPF and on QI 5.9 Improvement through self-evaluation.
HMIE has been given the task of evaluating and reporting on the performance of schools and pre-school centres. We will do this by building on our successful approaches to inspecting these establishments.
The new approaches to inspection, commencing in September 2008, will build on the school’s and pre-school’s self-evaluation. It will be the starting point of inspections and will help to focus inspection teams. HM Inspectors will engage with school and pre-school staff to find out how the results of self-evaluation have brought about improvement. HM Inspectors will make the most of the successful professional relationships which exist between HM Inspectors and the teaching profession in pre-school and school settings by working together to bring about further improvement to children’s and young people’s learning experiences, achievements and attainments.
This guide should be used alongside How good is our school? and The Child at the Centre and will act as an additional tool for pre-school and school staff and inspection teams. It should enhance the common understanding and shared language of inspectors and pre-school and school staff.
Graham Donaldson