[Previous] [Contents] [Next]

Learning Together: Lessons about school improvement

Section 4: Conclusion

This report shows that many Scottish schools have been successful in making substantial improvements, leading to better outcomes for their children and young people. This is an important finding, because the education system as a whole faces challenges arising from significant longstanding problems and also from the need to achieve the aspirations of Curriculum for Excellence in every school and for every learner. The challenges include raising standards of achievement, particularly in literacy, numeracy and science, and providing better support for the substantial numbers of children and young people from vulnerable groups or disadvantaged backgrounds who do not sufficiently develop their personal capacities or achieve as much as they should.

This report indicates that, to achieve success in facing these challenges, schools and education authorities will need to consider how:

• all staff can be encouraged to embrace open and rigorous self-evaluation as the basis for improvement;
• professional development can achieve the greatest beneficial impact on children and young people’s learning, for example through approaches which encourage openness and learning together;
• leadership capacity can be developed and sustained at all levels; and
• the beneficial impact of partnership working across services can be maximised.

This report also highlights some specific factors which have enabled schools with important or major weaknesses to improve to a satisfactory or better level. These schools and their education authorities have shown an encouraging capacity for improvement. Key levers for improvement included the following.

• Identification for strengths and areas for improvement through open and rigorous self-evaluation activities which involve all staff and partners, and clear plans for improvement.
• Acknowledgement of where improvement is needed.
• Shared, high expectations of what children should be achieving and of the quality of the experiences they should have.
• Monitoring and tracking children’s progress and intervening early where necessary to help them to progress.
• Addressing inconsistencies in the quality of learning and teaching.
• Effective leadership at all levels, with a focus on improving the quality of learning and achievement for all learners.
• Enabling staff to work in partnership among themselves and with others, including parents and learners, to improve the school.

These factors are likely to lead to improvement in all schools.

As we enter a period where resources may become more scarce and the demands on our education system more compelling, the lessons we can learn about school improvement will be needed as never before. We hope that this report will help teachers, support staff and education authority officers in their endeavours.

[Previous] [Contents] [Next]