The Scottish Government

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National Priorities in Education Newsletter:
Issue 1·April 2002

This document is also available in pdf format (151k)

In this issue
What are the National Priorities?
What do the National Priorities Mean for Schools?
Measures Under Development
Supporting Successful Target Setting
ScotXED
The Role of HMIE
LTScotland and the National Priorities
The National Debate
Support For You

Foreword

Nicol Stephen, Deputy Minister for Education and Young People

The National Priorities in Education are about a shared vision of what we want from education for every young person in Scotland. We want to empower teachers and learners. We have developed a new simplified approach. Teachers, headteachers, parents and pupils together should decide the best way forward for their local area.

Communication between everyone involved in taking forward the National Priorities is essential. That is one reason why I hope you find this newsletter helpful. Your comments and suggestions on any aspects of the National Priorities are welcome.

Tel. 0131 244 0385 email. educationnationalpriorities@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

The National Priorities

National Priorities posters will be delivered to schools soon.

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE NATIONAL PRIORITIES NEWSLETTER. THIS NEWSLETTER WILL BE PUBLISHED FROM TIME TO TIME TO KEEP YOU IN TOUCH WITH PROGRESS MADE ON IMPLEMENTING THE NATIONAL PRIORITIES.

What are the National Priorities?

The National Priorities are a key part of the new School Improvement Framework introduced through the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000. The cornerstone of this Act is the need to ensure that every child reaches his or her full potential.

PRIORITY ONE Achievement and Attainment

To raise standards of educational attainment for all in schools, especially in the core skills of literacy and numeracy, and to achieve better levels in national measures of achievement including examination results.

PRIORITY TWO Framework for Learning

To support and develop the skills of teachers, the self-discipline of pupils and to enhance school environments so that they are conducive to teaching and learning.

PRIORITY THREE Inclusion and Equality

To promote equality and help every pupil benefit from education, with particular regard paid to pupils with disabilities and special educational needs, and to Gaelic and other lesser used languages.

PRIORITY FOUR Values and Citizenship

To work with parents to teach pupils respect for self and one another and their interdependence with other members of their neighbourhood and society and to teach them the duties and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society.

PRIORITY FIVE Learning for Life

To equip pupils with the foundation skills, attitudes and expectations necessary to prosper in a changing society and to encourage creativity and ambition.

Why have National Priorities?

The idea for having National Priorities arose from the consultation that took place leading up to the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000. Many people who responded to the consultation believed that it would be beneficial to young people in Scotland if we developed a shared vision of our priorities for Scottish education. There was also a clear call to look beyond attainment to other aspects of education and to focus on outcomes, rather than inputs.

The new improvement framework recognises that excellence already exists within the Scottish education system and that the real challenge is to sustain and widen its application.

What do the National Priorities Mean for Schools?

The National Priorities are about what we want education to provide for all the young people of Scotland. Their focus is deliberately upon outcomes to allow teachers, headteachers and education authorities to make decisions about the best way of helping young people to fulfil their potential in their local schools.

Schools in Scotland already produce Development Plans on an annual basis. What has changed is that there is now a legal requirement for Development Plans to take account of local authority improvement objectives for education.

The plan must now include details of how pupils will be consulted and involved in decision-making about the running of the school. The School Development Plan and an annual report on progress needs to be made available to parents, with summaries available to anyone, on request.

The impact of the National Priorities will be monitored and evaluated by independent researchers over the three-year cycle which runs from 2002-2005.

Measuring Performance

The Scottish Executive has developed performance measures and quality indicators for the National Priorities in consultation with teachers, headteachers, local authority representatives, business leaders, and representatives from parents' associations, teachers' unions and teacher training institutions.

The mix of performance measures and quality indicators has been chosen to try to capture a fuller picture of a school's performance than is possible from statistics alone. Very few of the performance measures are new and the information will come from familiar sources _ statistical data collection, HMIE inspections and attainment data. You will also recognise most of the quality indicators (previously called performance indicators) from How good is our school?

A support package is being developed by a team based at the University of Edinburgh to help schools and local authorities set realistic and stretching targets. The package will be available in paper form, as a CD-ROM and through a web-site. Schools will be able to access their own data and comparative data to help them set targets. Links will also be provided to support materials that will show examples of work already going on in Scottish schools which may be of interest.

The first edition of the support package will be launched at the end of April 2002. It will be developed and enhanced over the first three-year cycle. Schools and education authorities wishing to contribute to the support materials should contact the LTScotland team (see back page).

The New Improvement Framework

Measures Under Development

Most of the performance measures involved in target setting under the new framework are already in use. However, there are some new measures because the National Priorities cover areas of education that have not been measured before.

Task groups have been set up to look at how best to measure elements which are either completely new or that require further development. The task is not an easy one, but we need to try to address the 'how do we know?' question in all areas. The measures under development concern the following areas:

Two further groups are working on national attitudinal surveys reflecting the views of employers and young people about school-leavers' readiness for work.

Oban High School. The first secondary school to receive the Eco Schools Green Flag Award
Photograph: David Mitchell

Supporting Successful Target Setting

To set realistic and successful targets, you must first have an accurate idea of the current position. To recognise where you are going and map out your route, you need to know your starting point.

As you know, the Scottish Executive has collected information on the performance of schools in areas concerning, for example, examination results and attendance for some time now. This has traditionally been fed back to schools as part of a body of material for inclusion in school handbooks and through the Standard Tables and Charts on CD-ROM (STACS).

For the National Priorities, much of the data required is already gathered. To support target setting, the Scottish Executive will ensure that each school has access to its own data online and on paper. Education authorities will be given data on all their schools.

To help set appropriate targets, the information provided will be set within a context of other comparable schools. Benchmarking can help to identify areas of strength as well as areas for improvement.

ScotXED

You may also have heard of the Scottish Exchange of Educational Data (ScotXED) which is a project that will support the electronic exchange of information data between schools and among schools, education authorities, SEED and SQA. It will reduce form filling, provide better quality information and help us monitor the impact of policies and initiatives.

One of its aims is to make data exchange more efficient so that schools will no longer need to provide the same information to different users of educational data, and so that information can be shared more readily.

This year, the information for target setting which we have supplied has been collated independently of ScotXED so that schools have the data they need to prepare their development plans in time. In future, we will be working to ensure that the National Priorities data supply and recording mechanisms are fully integrated into the ScotXED data exchange mechanisms.

The Role of HMIE

HM Inspectors of Education (HMIE) are playing an important role in contributing to the National Priorities, not least because a substantial part of the monitoring framework is based on the indicators and advice on school evaluation which they have published in How good is our school? (HGIOS).

A new edition of HGIOS was published in January 2002, revising and updating the previous 1996 edition. This edition takes account of the National Priorities in Education. The full set of indicators still needs to be comprehensive enough to deal with all aspects of educational provision, but within HGIOS each of the five National Priority issues are now very clearly addressed.

Inspectors will use the 2002 edition of HGIOS in school inspections from August 2002. Schools will still self-evaluate across the full set of 33 quality indicators and HMIE will continue to apply the full set of HGIOS indicators in school inspections. Particular attention, however, will be paid by both HMIE and by schools themselves as to performance in relation to each of the National Priorities, and how schools are taking steps to improve in these areas.

The overall evaluation of progress in addressing a National Priority will not rest solely on the results of school self-evaluation, but this data will make a significant contribution in helping to provide a more rounded picture.

HMIE will continue to inspect a sample of schools each year in the normal way. The next Standards and Quality in Scottish Schools report is being planned to cover the period 2002 to 2005 in order to coincide with the National Priorities monitoring exercise.

HMIE will also provide the Scottish Executive with analyses of performance on each of the twelve quality indicators that are specifically built into the National Priorities framework. This will be an important contribution to the overall National Priorities monitoring exercise, to be set alongside the data on schools' own self-evaluation and the information derived from statistical performance measures and other sources.

LTScotland and the National Priorities

To support everyone working with the National Priorities, a new team is being established within Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTScotland).

The team members have been seconded from a variety of backgrounds with a combined experience of the directorate, school management and primary and secondary education including special educational needs, guidance and support for learning. Their selection also reflects a range of interest across the Priorities.

Based at LTScotland's sites in Glasgow and Dundee, team members will work with staff in education authorities and schools. Visiting schools and authorities, they will be available to give advice and guidance about the improvement framework through presentations, meetings and workshops.

They will help to share knowledge and good practice found in schools throughout Scotland for the benefit of all.

The team will also be on hand to support schools and authorities during the target-setting phase and will contribute to the ongoing development of online support materials. The first version of this resource will be available early in the summer term.

The National Debate

There are many good things to be found in Scottish schools, and we are keen to build on this existing good practice and celebrate success. It is important to ensure that schools offer children a welcoming and productive learning environment fit for the 21st century.

The National Debate on Education is an opportunity for everyone with an interest in education to exchange views and help shape a vision for the future. The debate was launched on 20th March and will run until the end of June. The focus is very much about ensuring that local views are heard throughout this period.

Organisations, including schools, have been invited to hold local discussion events which ensure that local voices are heard on the issues that matter to them for the future. There is a key role for teachers and parents to play. They are encouraged to participate in the debate at both a national and a local level, by exchanging their views and helping to gather the views of young people and the wider school.

If you would like to organise an event during the National Debate on Education, you can contact the National Debate Team by e-mailing: new.educational.developments@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Support For You

At the Scottish Executive, a team working within the New Educational Developments Division is responsible for taking forward the National Priorities. The team can be contacted at: educationnationalpriorities@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

From May, the National Priorities Support Team can be contacted at LTScotland bases in Glasgow and Dundee: 0141 337 5000 and 01382 443600

Each education authority has a National Priorities Co-ordinator whose role is to support schools in preparing their development plans and give advice and guidance on any other aspect of the National Priorities.

Your first contact for advice or support is: