The Scottish Government

Strategy

In 2003, a new vision for the school estate was published jointly by the then Scottish Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), setting out a long-term strategy for replacing and revamping worn out schools.

For more information on the strategy see Building Our Future - Scotland's School Estate

The emphasis is on schools which provide facilities for the wider community as well as for pupils and teachers.

The ambition is for schools to become centres of excellence - which extends beyond learning and teaching to the built environment.

To support the implementation of the strategy local authorities have developed school estate management plans (SEMPs). The purpose is to help authorities identify and draw together needs, priorities and funding streams, consider a wide range of complex issues bearing on their school estate and take a long term view of the future. These plans provide a basis for future decisions at a local level, and information and insights across the school estate at a national level.

Implementation of the school estate strategy is supported through:

• The current programme of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects for school buildings
• Administering grant funding for the refurbishment and maintenance of school buildings

• Providing advice on other policy and funding issues relating to the school estate

• Guidance documents, listed below, with most recent publications ordered first

Guidance

	Title	Year	Description
	Condition Core Fact	2007	Guidance for local authorities on the assessment of school condition. This guidance outlines some changes to the current system and provides a suggested assessment methodology, including a scoring and weighting system. Two case studies are included to illustrate the suggested methodology.
	School Design: Optimising the internal environment	2007	Guidance for local authorities on internal environmental conditions in schools. This guidance covers internal air quality ( IAQ), heating, ventilation and acoustics in school buildings. The document suggests ways in which local authorities might consider improving internal environmental comfort to create better learning and teaching environments.
	Post Occupancy Evaluation Workshop	2005	Developments and experiences of schools evaluation with local authorities.
	Post Occupancy Evaluation - Braes High School, Falkirk	2005	The Scottish Executive commissioned Chris Watson to undertake a demonstration evaluation of Braes High School in Falkirk. The exercise involved interviews with groups of stakeholders (including staff, pupils, managers, council officials and community users) to seek their views about what was good, and what was not so good, about their school building.
	Output Specification	2004	For local authorities preparing an output specification for PPP projects.
	Option Appraisal	2004	Provides advice to local authorities on how to carry out an assessment of investment options.
	Evaluation	2004	To help local authorities evaluate how well a completed school building project meets the needs of the school's community, including students, parents and staff.
	Managing Schools During Construction Projects	2004	Aimed principally at Head Teachers and school management teams to assist in planning and managing the tasks they may face during a major construction project.
	Sustainability	2004	Outlines the principles to consider and the process to follow, in order to achieve a sustainable school.
	Fire Safety in Schools	2003	Aimed at local authorities and other stakeholders with an interest in establishing and maintaining a safe school environment free from fire and its effects. Following the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, this guidance has been superseded by the new Fire Safety Guide publication: EDUCATIONAL AND DAY CARE FOR CHILDREN PREMISES, which is available on the Fire Law website The Fire Safety in Schools document when read in conjunction with the new Fire Safety Guide will still be a useful source of general information and guidance for local authority officers.
	Case Studies	2003	An illustrated collection of case studies that show how Scottish authorities are implementing the school estate strategy.
	School Design	2003	Why design is important, key questions and ten points to consider to ensure good design, including through the procurement process, and some recent examples of good practice across Europe.
	School Estate Management Plans	2003	Provides further advice on school estate management plans and is intended to help local authorities in developing their own plans.
	Core Facts	2003	Guidance to local authorities, with the purpose of establishing a baseline picture of the current school estate and to provide a way to measure the benefits of long term investment (only in PDF).
	The 21st Century School	2003	Provides details on a range of policies that impact on the delivery of better public services through the school estate.
	Building Our Future - Scotland's School Estate	2003	The key strategy publication, sets out the vision for well designed, well built and well managed schools.

Hard copies of these publications can be requested by emailing schoolestate@scotland.gsi.gov.uk