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Improving Scottish Education

Section Five: Looking ahead

‘It is clear that the future will require a population with the confidence and skills to meet the challenges posed by fast and far-reaching change.’¹⁷

As this report shows, Scottish education has substantial strengths, including the professionalism of its workforce and its increasing expertise in self-improvement. This growing capacity for improvement will stand us in good stead as we tackle the challenges which lie ahead.

The report has indentified a range of issues which will need to be addressed in order to achieve the high aspirations which we all seek for our education system and all its learners.

Achievement

Broad achievement is defined through the attributes and skills relating to the four capacities¹⁸ and to the essential skills of Scotland’s lifelong skills strategy. It is embedded in the experiences and outcomes in the emerging curriculum guidance. Priorities are:

• recognising that achievement and attainment are not alternatives; both are the outcome of a rich and challenging educational experience;
• using curriculum reform to find fresh ways of engaging learners in deep and challenging learning, to increase levels of achievement for all learners and in particular to improve standards in literacy, numeracy and science; and
• developing ways of recognising achievement, including formal qualifications, which reflect the purposes and expectations of the curriculum.

Curriculum, learning and teaching

In taking forward Curriculum for Excellence, local authorities, schools, colleges and their partners have a very significant opportunity to use their professional judgement and ingenuity as they translate the new broad guidance into practice. Learning involves the progressive development of attributes and skills throughout life. All those engaged in supporting an individual’s learning from pre-school through to continuing education should see themselves as part of a continuous and collective endeavour. Priorities are:

• ensuring challenge and progression in learning through imaginative, well-judged teaching, leading to the achievement of high levels of understanding and skill;
• devising curriculum structures which reflect the design principles of Curriculum for Excellence and enable all learners to benefit from the experiences and achieve the outcomes described in guidance on the curriculum;
• planning to ensure that all young people achieve the outcomes which comprise a broad general education and that they have suitable opportunities for choice and specialisation;
• working collectively to ensure that children, young people and adult learners make successful transitions between stages or establishments and from education to the world of work, building upon their prior learning;
• enabling all learners to apply learning in active and creative ways; and
• putting in place arrangements to support teachers in their assessment of learning, so that they and society can have confidence in their judgements and that assessment plays a central role in tracking and facilitating progress in learning.

Vision and leadership

In order to bring about necessary changes, all members of staff need to play their part, both individually and in teams, in leading learning and curriculum innovation. Priorities are:

• establishing clear direction, securing commitment, fostering partnerships and encouraging initiative while constantly focusing on the impact on learners;
• tackling weak teaching and underachievement wherever it is found;
• ensuring that future leaders are identified and nurtured in their professional development;
• ensuring strategic planning and effective leadership by local authorities to bring about improvement; and
• establishing and sustaining a climate of high aspiration by putting Curriculum for Excellence into practice successfully.

Partnerships

Individuals, establishments and services cannot on their own deliver what is required in today’s demanding context. Priorities are:

• strengthening partnerships across sectors and services in ways which create a unified learning and support system that eases progression for learners;
• ensuring that education plays its full part in taking forward the GIRFEC¹⁹ approach, actively seeking and embedding the behaviours which will sustain effective partnership working ; and
• enabling parents to play a stronger role as partners in their child’s learning and development.

Professional freedom and responsibility

The developing approach to change in education assumes a commitment to personal and professional development on the part of every educator. Priorities are:

• fostering a culture in which individuals see themselves as members of a professional community which takes responsibility for its own learning;
• making the best use of both time and expertise in planning for essential continuing professional development, including the sharing of good practice;
• adopting open and objective approaches to self-evaluation in establishments and services, taking full account of the views of learners, and planning and implementing improvements based directly on these approaches;
• engaging constructively with other professionals to ensure children and young people are supported to be successful; and
• increasing teachers’ capacity to operate confidently and competently within a less directed environment.

Success for all learners

Improving the poor outcomes of some learners remains a central challenge for all establishments and services which support children, young people and their families, and adult learners, particularly those facing significant disadvantage. Priorities are:

• identifying and tackling barriers to learning before they become entrenched;
• finding new ways to meet the needs of the increasingly diverse population of learners, including newcomers to Scotland for whom English is an additional language; and
• personalising learning and support to take account of individual needs, choices and circumstances while relentlessly reinforcing high expectations.

For our part, HMIE will assist national and local bodies as they consider the implications of this report for their work through providing professional advice and support for developmental and capacity-building activity. We shall also ensure that our inspections and reviews are rigorous, proportionate, build upon self-evaluation and support the processes of change and improvement.

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