The Suitability Core Fact
The Suitability Core Fact seeks to provide a measure of the extent to which a school building and its grounds are appropriate in providing an environment which supports quality learning and teaching and those other services provided to individual children and to the school community, in terms of practicality, accessibility and convenience. Schools are rated from A to D.
Worksheets
Worksheets (one for primary schools or departments and one for secondary schools or departments) have been developed to help assess a school's Suitability. These sheets must be completed in accordance with the guidance provided in The Suitability Core Fact document.
Worksheet for primary schools or departments.
Worksheet for secondary schools or departments.
It is generally accepted that those best placed to assess the suitability of a building are the users, and therefore for a school the Head Teacher is best placed to bring that assessment together, taking account as appropriate, of the views of others, principally pupils and staff.
Weightings have been applied to each of the Areas to reflect the relative importance of these e.g. in all schools the Weighting for Learning and Teaching is 50%. All calculations are carried out automatically upon completion of the relevant section.
Illustrations are provided on each worksheet for categories "A" and "C". Each of the illustrations, in respective order, relates specifically to the factors which are listed beneath.
Once the ratings for each of the factors for each of the areas have been entered into the worksheets, they are automatically collated in the final two worksheets - one which presents the results by factors, and one which presents the results in an Overall Ratings Matrix.
While all of the information gathered will be of interest and value to Local Authorities in terms of efficient Schools Estate Management Planning, only the overall Suitability Rating for each school will be passed on to the Scottish Government as part of the annual collection of school estate statistics.
The definition of each of the suitability ratings is as follows:
A: Good - Performing well and operating efficiently (the school buildings and grounds support the delivery of services to children and communities)
B: Satisfactory - Performing well but with minor problems (the school buildings and grounds generally support the delivery of services to children and communities)
C: Poor - Showing major problems and/or not operating optimally (the school buildings and grounds impede the delivery of activities that are needed for children and communities in the school)
D: Bad - Does not support the delivery of services to children and communities (the school buildings and grounds seriously impede the delivery of activities that are needed for children and communities in the school).
For enquiries please e-mail the school estate team, or call 0131 244 0877.