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Self-evaluation using performance indicators
 
 
Foreword
 
How good is our school?: Self-evaluation using performance indicators was published in 1996. Education authorities and schools across and beyond Scotland have welcomed the approaches it suggests and are now using them:
  • to evaluate the quality of learning and teaching in their schools
  • to set targets to improve the quality of pupils' experiences and their levels of attainment.
 
The materials in this pack focus on the important issue of equality and fairness. The document is relevant to all schools in preparing young people to live in a multicultural and inclusive society. Schools are at the heart of preparing young people to play a full and satisfying part in adult society. Increasing social inclusion must be one of the important aims of all schools and this document can help schools achieve this aim. The approach it suggests is flexible and can be adapted to suit individual situations and expertise in using performance indicators.
 
In many areas, education officers, advisers and teachers are working together to develop the ideas further. This pack of staff development materials:
  • is based on activities which are currently going on in authorities
  • focuses on whole-school issues which are part of the everyday work of schools
  • encourages the use of the national performance indicators by all teachers as they work to:

-evaluate and improve the quality of learning and teaching

-assess the contribution they make to raising the levels of pupils' achievement

  • should be used alongside How good is our school? and other materials.
 
The materials in this pack should be used within your current approaches to self-evaluation. They should also help you to examine the approaches you have adopted in response to national and local initiatives and to evaluate your progress within them. In particular, they will assist you in following up issues raised within the national publications Achieving Success in S1/S2; Reporting 5-14: Promoting Partnership; The Education of Able Pupils P6-S2; Achievement for All; and Social Exclusion in Scotland: A consultation paper.
 
The lead in developing this package has been taken by South Ayrshire Council Educational Services and schools within the authority. The package has been published in response to requests from schools for practical examples of performance indicators in use. It represents the approach adopted by the group concerned who would wish others to treat the package flexibly to reflect local circumstances.
 
Collaboration and partnership of this kind among HM Inspectors, education authorities and schools is at the heart of the Quality Initiative in Scottish Schools and has resulted in the development of a coherent and shared national approach. The Quality Initiative places schools at the centre of the drive to improve standards and quality and to meet realistic and challenging targets. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to this project.
 
Frank Crawford
HM Chief Inspector of Schools
Audit Unit
Mike McCabe
Director of Education
South Ayrshire Council

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