Strengths
Aspects for improvement
How well do young people learn and achieve?
Teaching, learning and meeting the needs of all
Most special schools ensure that young people are actively involved in their learning. When schools give young people greater responsibility for their own learning and well-structured lessons, tasks and activities and levels of motivation are higher. Staff increasingly use the local community as an environment for learning. Such activities ensure that young people are actively involved in learning within their community, for instance through visits to supermarkets and garden centres. Young people learn more effectively when they have more opportunities to engage in collaborative activities with their peers. They need to work at a faster pace, with more attention being paid to the size of learning steps in relation to their individual needs.
The quality of teaching is a key strength in day special schools. In almost all special pre-school settings, staff ensure that the learning environment is inclusive and supportive. In almost all special schools, teachers create a positive environment for learning. Staff have good relationships with young people and share a clear understanding of young people’s individual needs and barriers to learning. They give clear instructions and are skilled in using a variety of approaches to encourage young people to remain focused on their tasks. However, teachers do not always share learning outcomes effectively with young people or offer suitable home learning activities. In the best practice in schools for young people with more complex needs, staff use a range of effective approaches consistently to develop communication skills.
In residential special schools, teaching is now good or better in most schools and excellent in a small number. Overall, care staff and teachers share a better understanding of young people’s learning targets, and have developed better joint plans. A key issue in residential special schools is the shortage of suitably qualified teaching staff. In particular, schools for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties face challenges in attracting and retaining teachers with specialist qualifications. Despite an increased focus on learning and teaching, weaknesses remain in the extent to which young people’s needs are met in over half of residential special schools.
Achievement
The development of young people’s personal and social skills remains a strength of special schools. Most schools now ensure that achievement in these skills is recognised formally through the use of a range of awards and accreditation schemes. Certification through awards from the Scottish Qualifications Authority has also increased as schools make more use of National Qualification (NQ) courses and units at Access levels 1, 2 and 3. Special schools catering for secondary pupils now offer NQ courses and units, Caledonian awards, awards achieved through the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. As a result of these developments, certificated attainment at the secondary stages has improved in day special schools.
Young people in secure accommodation often miss out on gaining formal qualifications owing to absence, truancy or never having attended a mainstream school. Many of these young people do not see the value of formal qualifications in increasing their life chances and levels of certificated attainment are consequently low. In residential special schools and in schools which serve the needs of young people with social, emotional and behavioural needs, achievements in English language and mathematics have not improved sufficiently.
The short school week remains an issue in both day and residential special schools and is a particular challenge in schools for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The resulting restrictions to the time available for learning reduces the extent and breadth of opportunities young people have to achieve.
Curriculum
In most day special schools, the curriculum is personalised successfully to meet the needs of individual learners, through the use of effective individualised educational programmes and coordinated support plans. Young people have opportunities to influence the shape of their curricular experiences by being given choices. Many young people benefit from well-judged part-time placements in mainstream schools and shared placements with colleges.
In residential special schools, integrating learning across care and education is a strength. In secure settings, specialised programmes such as cognitive skills training, anger management and victim empathy are used to address the needs of individual young people. In a few such schools, staff have developed an innovative range of learning contexts and experiences relevant to young people’s needs and interests in response to Curriculum for Excellence. Despite such strengths, the quality of the curriculum is weak in around 60% of these schools.
STRUCTURE OF THE CURRICULUM
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY INDICATOR EVALUATIONS IN THE SPECIAL SCHOOL SECTOR 2005-2007
Do special schools have a clear sense of direction?
In almost half of day special schools, the leadership of the headteacher is very good and in a very small number it is excellent. In these schools, headteachers and senior managers focus on managing improvement and change. They take forward the accreditation of young people’s achievements and improve partnership working. They expect and welcome the need for change to continue in the future. However, the leadership of the headteacher is weak in one in ten special schools. In such schools, staff were not offered sufficient guidance and direction to improve the quality of the curriculum and learning and teaching.
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY INDICATOR EVALUATIONS IN THE SPECIAL SCHOOL SECTOR 2005-2007
Leadership
How well do staff work with others to support the learning of children and young people?
Day special schools and special pre-school settings have developed high-quality partnership working across agencies such as health, care and education. In some, the school nurse or teams involved in promoting mental health and well-being work well with key staff to support young people’s social, emotional and physical development.
Partnerships in residential special schools are improving, particularly with parents. In some cases, assessment and intervention strategies, including multi-agency support for families, enable parents to take more active roles in supporting their child’s learning. There remains scope for further improvement in partnerships between schools, authorities and appropriate agencies. In secure care services, community links including links with local businesses for work experience are challenging to arrange and remain uncommon.
Are staff and young people actively involved in improving the school community?
In special pre-school centres and day special schools, self-evaluation continues to be an area for development with around a quarter of special schools having important weaknesses. In most schools, improvement planning results in priorities which directly relate to learning and teaching and meeting learning needs. Teachers are placing greater emphasis on seeking young people’s views about the quality of their learning. However, self-evaluation needs to focus more explicitly and consistently on improving learners’ experiences.
In the residential special sector, more schools are now using national care standards and quality indicators to evaluate their work and identify priorities for improvement. However, the quality and impact of self-evaluation remains an important weakness in around 80% of services. Managers need to involve staff in discussions about improvements to learning, teaching and care through reflecting on existing practice.
Do special schools have high expectations of all children and young people?
Almost all special schools show strengths in all aspects of ethos. In almost all special pre-school centres and schools, relationships among young people, parents and staff are key strengths. In these centres and schools, all stakeholders take great pride in their school and staff work very well together to ensure positive relationships and mutual respect among staff and young people. Where behaviour features as an aspect of young people’s additional support needs, staff in most schools make good efforts to deal with instances of poor behaviour without disrupting the learning of others. Where young people have additional support needs of a complex nature, senior managers and teachers are caring and supportive in working with medical staff to address young people’s barriers to learning. In some schools, staff do not have sufficiently high aspirations for young people’s achievements. A key feature of residential special schools is the preparation and planning for the full inclusion of young people within mainstream society. Facilities for care and education are improving in residential special schools and secure accommodation. In some day special schools, accommodation and facilities have important weaknesses.