C la c k m a n n a n s h i r e C o u n c i l
S e p t e mb e r 2 0 0 3
Contents
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Page
Introduction
i
1.
The aims, nature and scope of the inspection
1
2.
The Education Service: operational context
1
3.
Strategic management of the service
13
4.
Consultation and communication
20
5.
Operational management
24
6.
Resource and financial management
30
7.
Performance monitoring and continuous
improvement
36
8.
How well does the authority perform overall?
50
9.
Main points for action
54
Appendices
Performance information
Inspection coverage
Quality indicators
56
61
63
Introduction
The education functions of each local authority in
Scotland will be inspected between 2000 and
2005. Section 9 of the Standards in Scotland’s
Schools etc. Act 2000 charges HM Inspectorate of
Education, on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, to
provide an external evaluation of the effectiveness
of the local authority in its quality assurance of
educational provision within the Council and of its
support to schools in improving quality.
Inspections are conducted within a published
framework of quality indicators (Quality
Management in Education) which embody the
Government’s policy on Best Value.
Each inspection is planned and implemented in
partnership with Audit Scotland on behalf of the
Accounts Commission for Scotland. Audit
Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000,
under the Public Finance and Accountability
(Scotland) Act 2000. It provides services to the
Accounts Commission and the Auditor General
for Scotland. Together they ensure that the
Scottish Executive and public sector bodies in
Scotland are held to account for the proper,
efficient and effective use of public funds.
The external auditor member of the inspection
team carries out a performance management and
planning (PMP) audit of the education functions
of the authority. The inspection team also
includes an Associate Assessor who is a senior
member of staff currently serving in another
Scottish local authority. The inspection team for
Clackmannanshire Council included an inspector
from Communities Scotland. It is a Scottish
Executive agency, directly responsible to Scottish
Ministers. Its aim is to improve the quality of life
for all people in Scotland by fostering sustainable
i
and healthy communities which are attractive and
safe. The Regulation and Inspection Division has
a statutory role to regulate Registered Social
Landlords and the landlord, homelessness and
factoring services of councils.
_______________________________
Inspection of the education functions of
Clackmannanshire Council
1. The aims, nature and scope of the inspection
The education functions of Clackmannanshire Council
were inspected during the period April 2003 to June 2003
as part of a five-year national inspection programme of
all local authorities in Scotland.
The inspection team interviewed elected members and
officers of the Council. The inspection team also
attended meetings, visited schools and other
establishments in the authority and met with staff,
chairpersons of School Boards and other key stakeholders
of the Education Service. A summary of inspection
activities is given in Appendix 2.
On behalf of HM Inspectors, an independent company
issued and analysed responses to questionnaires to
headteachers of all educational establishments within the
authority and to the chairpersons of the School
Boards/Parents’ Associations and to partnership
pre-school establishments.
2. The Education Service: operational context
Social and economic context
Clackmannanshire Council was formed in 1996 at the
time of establishment of unitary authorities. It is the
smallest local authority in mainland Scotland and has a
population of 48,000 people. The age profile of the
population is broadly similar to Scotland as a whole.
1
However, the younger age group is projected to decrease
which will impact on school rolls. In contrast, the
population of those aged over 45 is projected to increase
at a rate faster than the predicted national trend.
The Council comprises a number of close-knit towns and
villages which have a strong sense of community. While
the Council contains pockets of wealth and prosperity,
there are some areas of significant deprivation.
Clackmannanshire is located in the centre of Scotland but
has a poor transport infrastructure.
Other features of the social and economic context include
the following.
2
•
Compared with Scotland as a whole, there is a higher
percentage of jobs in the service sector, notably in
public services (33%) and in retail, wholesale and
hotels (22%). The percentage of jobs in finance and
business is lower. Due to the decline of traditional
industries in the area – mining, textiles and
brewing – the Council has made efforts to revitalise
the local economy and to alleviate the effects of
poverty and deprivation. There have been some signs
of economic revival as a result of the Council’s work
in attracting a growing number of small businesses.
•
The unemployment rate of 4.3% is generally in line
with the national average of 4.1%. However, in areas
of significant disadvantage, such as South and East
Alloa and Tullibody, unemployment rates are twice as
high. The rate of those claiming benefit was 7.5%.
•
The free school meal entitlement (FME) percentage
of 22% in primary schools compares favourably with
the average percentages of 24% for comparator
authorities and is slightly above the national figure of
20.1%. However, the percentage in primary schools
ranges widely between 5% to 58%. The FME
percentage of 18% in secondary schools is just below
the average figures of 19% for comparator authorities
but above the national figure of 16%.
•
The Council cared for 116 looked after children, 63 of
whom were looked after and accommodated children.
The proportion leaving care with basic literacy and
numeracy skills was double the national figure.
The Council’s educational services face a number of
challenges relating to the socio-economic context of the
area. These include providing consistent levels of
support and challenge across all schools in the authority,
developing appropriate work-related skills to encourage
economic regeneration and encouraging positive views of
the value of education.
Political and organisational context
The Council was inspected at the time of local
Government elections. At the beginning of the
inspection, the political representation of the Council
consisted of ten Scottish Nationalist councillors, seven
Labour councillors and one Conservative. The political
balance of the Council was therefore Scottish Nationalist.
A new administration was formed as a result of the local
elections when the balance changed to Labour. The
political representation after the local elections consisted
of ten Labour councillors, six Scottish Nationalist
councillors, one Conservative and one Independent
councillor. One of the main commitments in the
manifesto of the new administration was educational
improvement, focused particularly on secondary schools.
The Council had four committees as well as the full
council. Most of the business of educational services was
submitted to the Learning and Leisure Committee (LLC).
It had policy and decision-making responsibilities for the
Council’s services and functions in relation to education
and community learning and development. The LLC’s
remit included consideration of policy papers and HMIE
3
reports on individual schools. The Policy and Audit
Committee (PAC) overviewed progress on the Service
Plan and issues related to budgets.
The Council’s corporate strategy was set out in the
publication, Future Directions, which explained the
long-term plans for achieving the Council-wide aims and
core values. The core values for all planning are
identified as:
•
Commitment, trust and partnership.
•
Openness and accountability.
•
Respect and dignity.
•
Equity, fairness and inclusion.
The corporate strategy was taken forward through a range
of topic and service plans produced across the Council
and in partnership with local, national and voluntary
organisations. Community planning and collaborative
working lay at the heart of this strategic direction. Within
the community planning framework, four major themes
were identified, namely environment, health, social
inclusion and the economy. Although implicit in all four
themes, education did not feature as a separate theme.
Each of the themes gave rise to key priorities. These
included:
4
•
ensuring effective transport links and access;
•
promoting healthy lifestyles;
•
reducing health inequalities;
•
caring for children, young people and families;
•
developing community engagement and capacity
building;
•
tackling the causes of exclusion;
•
learning from the experience of the Social Inclusion
Partnership (SIP);
•
innovation in learning and personal development;
•
encouraging creative and enterprising people and
communities; and
•
improving connections and communications.
These themes were reflected in the Council’s
organisational structure. The Council’s services had been
completely restructured in 2000 to concentrate resources
on services delivered directly to the people of
Clackmannanshire. In addition, the Council wished to
minimise the number of management posts at the centre,
and emphasise key cross-cutting themes such as social
inclusion. Housing and social services were brought
together with Education and Community services into a
department called Services to People (STP) managed by
one director, appointed in November 2001.
The Council’s management structure comprises the Chief
Executive, two Executive Directors and 14 Heads of
Service. The Chief Executive, along with the Director of
Services to People, the Director of Developmental and
Environmental Services and the Head of Finance form
the Council’s Executive Team. In April 2002, STP’s
team of six Heads of Service was reduced to five. This
reorganisation required a re-allocation of duties and the
appointment of new Heads of the various services within
STP. The five current Heads of Service are responsible
respectively for: Education and Lifelong Learning (ELL);
Child Care, Pre-Five and Criminal Justice (CCPF & CJ);
Policy, Planning and Special Educational Needs
(PPSEN); Adult Care, including the work of Chief Social
Work Officer; and Housing, Property and Benefit Advice.
Together with the Director, these Heads have overall
5
responsibility for leading and managing the STP. The
time allocated to them for leading and managing
educational services amounted to the equivalent of 2.3
full-time senior staff. They are supported by a support
services manager. Each of the Heads of Service is
supported by administrative and professional staff
including a small number seconded from schools.
Educational provision and performance
The Council is responsible for three secondary schools,
19 primary schools, two special schools and two support
services for pupils with social and behavioural problems.
In addition, specialist provision for pupils with moderate
learning difficulties is located within one of the
secondary schools. At the time of the inspection, the
school population was around 7,500 pupils. All of the
secondary schools and 68% of primary schools had
School Boards.
Provision is made for pre-school children in four nursery
schools, ten nursery classes within primary schools, two
family centres and a Children’s Centre. A facility is
available for pre-school childcare within a day care
nursery. In addition, places are commissioned from eight
pre-school partnerships with private providers. The
Council also has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with
a family centre run by a voluntary society. The Accounts
Commission Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs) for
2000/2001 show that 100% of three- and four-year-old
children took up pre-school place compared to national
averages of 87% and 96% respectively.
The Council faced over-occupancy in one secondary
school. The SPIs 2001/2002 indicated that 67% of
secondary schools had occupancy rates of between 61%
and 80%, compared to the national figure of 33%. One of
the secondary schools had an occupancy level of 101% or
more. In the primary sector, 74% of schools had
6
occupancy levels between 61% and 100% which was
higher than the national figure of 62%.
In 2002/2003, running costs were £2,409 for primary
schools and £3,573 for secondary schools, compared with
national averages of £2,369 and £3,311 respectively. The
pupil:teacher ratio was generally in line with national
averages in the secondary sector. It was slightly higher
than national averages in the primary sector and slightly
lower in special schools.
The Council’s allocation to the revenue budget for
education was £27,621,000 in 2000/2001, £29,486,000 in
2001/2002 and £31,844,000 in 2002/2003. In addition,
the Council received direct grants under the Excellence
Fund core and special programmes, now the National
Priorities Development Fund. In 2001/2002 the
additional funding was £2,001,000 and in 2002/2003 it
was £1,372,000.
The following information draws on key performance
information about the schools in the Council provided
in Appendix 1.
Staying on rate and school leavers’ destinations
•
The number of pupils staying on after the compulsory
school leaving age had remained relatively stable and,
between 2000 and 2002, was generally in line with
the national average.
•
Over the same period, the percentage of school
leavers entering higher education had been below the
national average. The numbers entering full-time
further education had risen but was still slightly
below the national average. The percentage of pupils
entering employment had also risen from 23% in
2000 to 25% in 2002 and was slightly higher than the
national average.
7
Attendance and absence
•
In the period 2000 to 2002, the percentage of total
absences in primary and secondary schools was
generally in line with the national figure.
•
The number of exclusions had decreased steadily in
the period 1999 to 2002 and was well below the
national average.
5-14 performance
Over the period 1999 to 2002, from a low starting point,
there had been an increase in the percentage of primary
pupils attaining or exceeding expected levels of
attainment for their stage in reading, writing and
mathematics. In reading and writing, the rate of
improvement was well above that achieved nationally and
by comparator authorities. In mathematics, it was above
national and comparator authority averages. Performance
in reading and writing was below the average of
comparator authorities and the national figure by 2% to
3%. In mathematics, it was between 4% to 5% below
comparator authority and national averages. The
authority had just exceeded its target set for attainment in
reading. The targets set for attainment in writing and
mathematics were not met.
In secondary schools, attainment levels for S2 pupils
indicated some improvement in all three areas. In
reading, the rate of increase was below that achieved
nationally and by comparator authorities. In writing, it
was well below. In mathematics, the rate of increase was
in line with comparator authorities and with the national
average. Pupils’ overall performance in all three areas
was well below the national average. Performance was
also below that of comparator authorities by 4% in
reading, 8% in writing and 11% in mathematics. The
authority had not met its targets for reading, writing and
mathematics.
8
SQA examination performance
From 1998 to 2002, the percentage of pupils who
achieved five or more awards at Level 31 or better, by the
end of S4, had decreased. Those who achieved five or
more awards at Level 4 had increased between 1998 and
2001 but had fallen again in 2002. Performance at Levels
3 and 4 was consistently below national averages and that
of comparator authorities. The percentage of pupils who
achieved five or more awards at Level 5 or better was
well below national figures and those of comparator
authorities. Over the five-year period achievement in
SQA performance at S4 had fallen whilst it had risen
nationally and in comparator authorities.
From 1998 to 2002, the percentage of pupils by the end
of S5 who achieved three or more National Qualification
(NQ) Awards at Level 6 or better was in line with
comparator authorities but below national averages by
5%. Performance had remained static at this level. The
percentage of pupils who achieved five or more NQ
Awards at Level 6 or better was well below that of both
comparator authorities and the national average. There
had been an increase in performance between 1998 and
2001, but this had not been sustained in 2002. The
percentage of pupils who achieved one or more NQ
Awards or better at Level 7 by the end of S6 was below
that achieved nationally but above that of comparator
authorities. The rate of improvement since 1998 was
broadly in line with the national figure.
The Council had not met the targets it had set itself for
the percentage of pupils gaining Standard Grade Awards
at 1-6 in English and mathematics. Targets set for the
percentage of pupils gaining five or more awards at
Level 3, or better by the end of S4, had not been met by
1
Level 3 = Standard Grade at Foundation Level or Access 3
Level 4 = Standard Grade at General Level or Intermediate 1 at A - C
Level 5 = Standard Grade at Credit Level or Intermediate 2 at A - C
Level 6 = Higher at A - C
Level 7 = Advanced Higher or CSYS at A - C
9
4%. Those for Levels 4 and 5 or better had not been met
by 6%. Targets set for the percentage of pupils gaining
three or more and five or more awards at Level 6 or better
by the end of S5 had not been met.
Previous inspection evidence
In the period from May 1999 to February 2003, HMIE
published reports which gave evaluations against a full
set of performance indicators in 11 schools. Reports
were published in eight primary schools, five of which
had nursery classes, one secondary school and two
special schools. In addition, nine partner pre-school
establishments were inspected. HMIE also inspected the
Primary Schools’ Support Service (PSSS). This service
caters for pupils with very challenging behaviour and
serves all of Clackmannanshire Council’s primary
schools.
The overall quality of attainment in English language and
mathematics was good and occasionally very good in
almost all of the primary schools inspected. Attainment
at the early stages was strong. The overall quality of
attainment in other curriculum areas was more variable,
being good in less than half of schools. In almost all
schools, pupils’ skills and proficiency in Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) needed to be
developed more systematically.
There were clear strengths in the primary schools
inspected. Almost all had a very good ethos and a high
quality of pastoral care. The quality of the teaching
process and the quality of pupils’ learning were good and
sometimes very good in almost all schools. The quality
of the curriculum was good or very good overall in all
primary schools and nursery classes. The quality of
teachers’ planning was good in almost all schools. The
need for further development of planning was usually
linked to making better use of assessment information.
Staffing levels were consistently very good. Almost all
10
schools had strong leadership. Other strengths included
communication with parents, partnership with School
Boards, support for learning, management of devolved
finances and the contributions of promoted staff and
senior teachers. Self-evaluation and development
planning were good or very good in almost all schools.
In all of the nursery classes inspected, staff interacted
effectively to extend children’s learning. The nursery
curriculum took full account of the key aspects of
children’s learning and development.
Almost all of the nine pre-school partner centres visited
provided good or very good experiences for children.
Strengths included effective teamwork, relationships with
children and parents and caring staff who were sensitive
to the emotional needs of children. The centres needed to
improve aspects of planning and assessment, approaches
to monitoring and evaluating the quality of their
provision and developing pupils’ learning in the context
of play.
Both of the authority’s special schools, the PSSS and one
of the three secondary schools were inspected between
1999 and 2003. Strengths included ethos and a high
quality of pastoral care, communication with parents,
Devolved School Management (DSM) and the
contributions of promoted staff. The quality of leadership
was good or very good in all three schools.
Self-evaluation, the quality of pupils’ learning,
accommodation, the placement of pupils with Special
Educational Needs (SEN) and the structure of the
curriculum were good in half of the schools/services
inspected. In both of the special schools and the PSSS,
there were important weaknesses in arrangements for
assessment. There were weaknesses in the overall quality
of achievement and attainment across the provision in the
special and secondary schools inspected.
11
Evidence from the Department’s pre-inspection reports to
HMIE showed that senior managers in educational
services had a good overall knowledge of the quality of
schools. Increasingly, reports had included more
evaluative comment. Educational services were effective
in ensuring that the main points for action in HMIE
inspection reports were addressed.
At the time of the inspection, a team from HMIE was also
undertaking a follow-up inspection of community
learning in the Alloa area. The report of the initial
inspection in 2001 had concluded that Clackmannanshire
Council provided a good service in support of community
learning. The highly committed staff had undertaken
innovative work with the SIP and were developing more
flexible service delivery with partners and other agencies.
Points for action related to the introduction of a formal
system of staff development and review, the
implementation of a community learning strategy and
development of community learning plans. The
follow-up inspection in 2003 found that the service had
made very good progress in developing its strategy for
improving information to young people, voluntary
organisations and community groups. Improvements
were noted in implementation of the community learning
strategy, auditing needs and planning. However, the
service had not yet developed a structured and systematic
approach to quality assurance nor implemented
procedures for staff development and review.
Challenges in the operational context of
educational services
A number of key factors had particularly significant
effects on the operation of Clackmannanshire Council’s
educational services at the time of the inspection.
•
12
The Director of STP had been in post for only
18 months and all of his Heads of Service had been in
post for just under a year. The frequent changes,
since 1999, in senior staff and the restructuring of the
Council’s services had resulted in a considerable
period of disruption to the leadership and
management of educational services. Educational
establishments had lacked continuity in the forms of
support and challenge they received from officers.
•
As a result of the recent election, there was a change
in political leadership of the Council.
•
The Council had recognised that there were too few
members of central staff to manage educational
services. It was in the process of enlarging the team.
•
The poor performance of pupils in SQA examinations
over a period of three years was a particular concern.
3. Strategic management of the service
Vision, values and aims
Overall the impact of the vision, values and aims of
educational services was good. The commitment to
education was clearly set out in the vision statement,
Learning to Succeed in Clackmannanshire. The paper set
out in broad terms the Council’s views on how to
promote the fundamental objectives of education. At the
heart of the vision was a commitment to ‘raising
standards of achievement within a context of lifelong
learning…which requires effective teaching and tackling
barriers to learning’. The paper also gave a clear
account of the conditions under which children and
young people learn. Emphasis was placed on inclusion, a
child-centred approach, partnership and the quality of
provision. This vision was shared by the Chief Executive
and senior officers in the educational services as well as
by headteachers. Educational services had been effective
in involving senior staff in schools in developing the
vision for education. Almost all headteachers and most
13
School Board chairpersons were confident that a clear
overall vision and values had been set for educational
services.
The Council’s priorities included the promotion of social
inclusion and combating educational under-achievement.
The priorities set by the Council for education were
consistent with the National Priorities in Education for
the country as a whole. Senior officers recognised the
need to review Learning to Succeed in Clackmannanshire
to include a greater emphasis on citizenship and health
and to reflect the work that was already being done by the
Council. The education authority had focused on
initiatives designed to improve learning and teaching and
put the learner at the centre. The impact of these goals
were now evident in pre-school establishments and
primary schools but were yet to be fully realised in
secondary schools.
The educational services’ aims and targets had been
effectively communicated to headteachers and to parents.
Senior staff in STP demonstrated good understanding of
these aims and advanced them through the work of all of
their services. However, not all staff in schools were
clear about these aims and targets and the means of
ensuring that they were met.
The links between the vision and aims for education and
those set out in the Community Learning Strategy were
clear. There was a commitment to provide more coherent
services through integrating the work of various
professionals. A useful start had been made to joint
working through bringing education, social work, and
housing together within the one directorate. Officers
were also developing effective links with colleagues in
health services and the police.
Some work had been done to evaluate progress being
made by educational services towards achievement of its
aims and goals. For example, a number of initiatives to
improve learning had benefited from external evaluation.
14
However, the emerging quality assurance arrangements
were not yet enabling senior managers to monitor fully
the extent to which educational services were meeting its
goals.
The Council had established a sound vision for
educational services. It was committed to improving
education and had allocated resources to initiatives
designed to take forward this commitment. This had led
to a positive impact on the education of children in
pre-school and primary education. The new Senior
Management Team (SMT) was now focusing attention on
improving secondary schools.
Effectiveness of leadership and management
Performance in this area was fair overall. The new SMT
was committed to improvement and was in the process of
getting to grips with weaknesses in education. The
Council’s newly elected members, who had just taken up
their roles in leading education, had taken prompt action
to extend the capacity of educational services to provide
support and challenge to schools. However, at the time
of the inspection, evidence of the impact of leadership
and management was not yet sufficiently widespread in
some important key aspects of educational services. The
period of disruption in leadership of educational services,
coupled with issues of capacity in a small authority, had
resulted in important weaknesses in the leadership and
management of educational services. Although
consistent leadership had been provided for some
educational initiatives, there had been significant
discontinuities in the leadership and management of
policy development, monitoring attainment and the
quality assurance support provided for establishments.
The Director of Services to People was accessible,
approachable and gave a strong lead in improving
educational services among his other responsibilities. He
had a very good understanding of the local context for
15
education. In the relatively short time that he had been in
post, he had established very good working relationships
with elected members and centrally-employed staff in his
directorate. The Director had made a significant impact
on educational services and had established priorities for
further service improvement. He had identified the
quality assurance system and the level of challenge to
schools as priorities for more rigorous and consistent
treatment. He was contributing more widely to
improvement within the Council, notably its financial
management of services and developing its policy on risk
management.
All of the Heads of educational services were open and
responsive. They were supportive to schools and centres
and responded quickly to requests from establishments.
Headteachers had appreciated their support role but it had
not been sufficiently balanced with the need to challenge
schools. Although this was now being addressed, the
effectiveness of the new approach was not yet in
evidence. The Head of ELL had a very demanding remit
being responsible for the operational management of the
service as well as quality assurance and quality
development. He was committed to supporting
innovative approaches to improving the quality of pupils’
learning and to empowering centrally-employed staff and
headteachers. His recent achievement in reaching
agreement on the structure of promoted posts in
secondary schools was linked to plans to improve
secondary education.
The Heads of the other two educational services held
posts which were designed to promote more joint
delivery of services. There were early signs that this was
beginning to impact on schools, particularly in the areas
of early education, health education, and support for
looked after children and pupils with SEN including
those with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.
16
All senior managers had wide remits and were working to
ensure that they were an effective team. They
demonstrated a high level of commitment to service
improvement. Good direction and a clear focus had been
provided in pre-school education and in a number of
areas of primary education, particularly in literacy and
language development, and this had impacted on pupils’
attainment. A review of services to support pupils with
SEN was being completed and the recommendations now
needed to be implemented.
The work of the Director, the Head of ELL and the other
Heads of educational services was now being formally
reviewed in line with a system that had recently been
introduced and adopted across the Council. Heads of
educational services had clear action plans and these were
linked to the strategic priorities for STP. The Council
needed to ensure that the Director and Heads of
educational services had adequate time for their own
professional development.
The SMT had begun to address some of the weaknesses
in strategic planning and quality assurance. However,
this was still at the early stages and, as yet, had not had
sufficient impact on the work of schools.
Policy Development
The overall quality of policy development was fair. The
authority had a number of useful documents but these
needed to be drawn into a coherent framework to reflect
the considerable range of work covered by educational
services. Senior managers were developing new and
revised policies in a number of key areas in response to
national initiatives and local needs. They needed to give
greater priority to developing policies on learning and
teaching and on aspects of the curriculum in both primary
and secondary schools.
17
Learning to Succeed in Clackmannanshire was used to
shape the development of policies. Most headteachers
(78%) reported in the survey that the range of policies
was appropriate to the needs of their establishment and
the majority (72%) said that policies were backed up by
clear procedures for putting them into action. All schools
and centres had copies of an operations manual which
contained a good range of circulars and guidelines. A
number of policies and priorities were contained within
the Annual Statement of Improvement Objectives and in
performance plans. The Children’s Services Plan was
well set out with specific objectives and targets which
had resulted in improvements within pre-school
education.
In some policy areas, the authority had provided good
quality advice which had impacted positively on the work
of schools. In particular, the guidance on ‘Early
Intervention’, most notably the work on ‘synthetic
phonics’, had made a strong impact in primary schools
and had gained national recognition. Improving Primary
Mathematics (IPM) was contributing to improvements in
attainment in mathematics. A more recent development,
Philosophy for Children, was beginning to be
implemented effectively in schools. Headteachers across
all sectors and guidance staff in secondary schools were
appreciative of the clear guidelines on personal safety,
drug education and sexual health education. Clear
guidelines and procedures were in place for child
protection and looked after and accommodated children.
Most recently, the authority had been producing several
new policies and guidelines on anti-bullying, risk
management and ICT. Extensive revisions to the policy
on DSM were due to be implemented shortly. The
scheme for Professional Review and Development was
also being revised and updated.
Educational services had been slow to develop
comprehensive advice on quality assurance. A majority
18
of headteachers (69%) responding to the survey agreed
that they were clear about the policy and procedures for
quality development. The final draft of a quality
assurance policy had been circulated to schools and
establishments during the inspection. The policy
emphasised educational services’ commitment to school
self-evaluation and support to schools. However, the
quality assurance role of advisers required to be clarified
and strengthened.
The Department had undertaken a comprehensive review
of provision for SEN. There was evidence that the
‘staged intervention’ model was beginning to operate
well in schools and provide senior managers with an
effective means of evaluating levels of support required
for individual pupils with SEN. The approach to staged
intervention was not yet being used consistently for
pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties
in the three secondary schools. Senior staff were clear
that an overarching policy statement on inclusion would
be a key outcome of the review of SEN. A Council-wide
working group had met to look at the implications of the
Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 and
The Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils’
Records) (Scotland) Act 2002 and had produced a draft
Accessibility Strategy.
Educational services had a policy of involving centre and
school staff in working groups to review and develop
guidelines and policies. A number of staff were involved
over time in such groups to develop policies such as
Early Intervention, IPM and the review of SEN.
However, there was no overarching policy on learning
and teaching or assessment and no clear policy on
improving attainment and achievement. A number of
headteachers reported that they had learned from being
involved in working groups, but they had found the
approach was demanding of their time. Senior managers
should consider, in some instances, a more streamlined
approach to policy development.
19
As yet, educational services did not have systematic
approaches to monitoring the implementation of policies
by schools. Within the primary curriculum, there had
been little co-ordinated support or strategic policy
development in areas such as expressive arts, religious
and moral education and environmental studies. While
there was evidence of some innovative work within
clusters and in primary-secondary transition, there was no
clear policy framework to direct the work of clusters.
Curriculum development in the secondary sector was not
well developed. Some headteachers were uncertain about
the status of documents and the range of policies which
were current.
Educational services had appropriate policies to guide
and support heads of establishments in ensuring the
safety and well-being of learners and those teaching
them. Those initiatives which had impacted most on the
quality of pupils’ learning experiences were guided by
clear policies. Policies and guidance on aspects of
quality assurance were being developed but were not yet
established. There were some very significant gaps in
policies and guidance particularly in relation to quality
assurance, learning and teaching and aspects of the
curriculum.
4. Consultation and communication
The quality of consultation was very good. The Chief
Executive, the Director and Heads of Service had
identified a wide range of appropriate stakeholders and
had established effective mechanisms to seek the views
of different groups and respond to them. Partner services
and agencies met with education services in a range of
forums and were consulted about key strategies.
Effective mechanisms were in place for consulting with
School Boards and very good initiatives had been
20
introduced to gather the views of parents, pupils and staff
on key priorities.
The composition of the Leisure and Learning Committee
was designed to promote consultation. In addition to
elected members, its membership included
representatives of parents, schools, the churches and the
teachers’ associations. Three senior pupils also served
and, although they were not able to vote, they were able
to give their views. Members of these groups contributed
by representing the views of those they represented and,
in turn, reported back on the work of the Committee.
Most headteachers (85%) reported that they were
consulted effectively by senior managers and that there
was a willingness to listen to and respond to views. Most
respondents (86%) also reported that establishments were
appropriately consulted on the direction and priorities of
the Service Plan. School Board chairpersons reported
that they were kept informed about policy development
and were consulted at regular meetings.
Notable features of the authority’s approaches to
consultation included the following.
•
Heads of establishments felt that they were involved
appropriately in the decision-making process.
Regular meetings with the Director and Heads of
educational services were valued.
•
Regular meetings between School Board
representatives, the Director and Heads of Service
provided a forum where the views of parents were
actively sought.
•
The Council had set up two useful civic commissions
to consult the people of Clackmannanshire on the
National Priorities in Education and the National
Debate on education.
21
•
The Council had a firm commitment to engage young
people in the decision-making process. Almost all
primary and secondary schools had pupil councils.
•
Educational services had established good
arrangements for consulting with pre-school partner
centres and pre-school playgroups, particularly
through the Child Care Partnership arrangements.
•
In collaboration with Capability Scotland, a Parent
and Children’s Services Network had been
successfully established to increase opportunities for
parents of children with special needs to be consulted.
•
A number of planning and working groups enabled
staff representatives to be consulted.
•
Extensive consultation had taken place with a range
of stakeholders in relation to health education and
drug education.
Communication was good overall. The Director and his
staff had restructured and formalised the network of
meetings within the Directorate and with key
stakeholders. The minutes of these meetings and good
quality papers, which provided clear accounts of
education issues, were shared widely. Headteachers were
well informed about educational services’ priorities and
national developments. However, headteachers needed to
do more to ensure that key policies and developments
were effectively disseminated to teaching and ancillary
staff in their schools, particularly in secondary schools.
Almost all School Board chairpersons who responded to
the pre-inspection survey felt that the authority was good
at letting them know about its policies and plans for
education. They were aware of how to channel views,
enquiries and complaints. The majority agreed that they
could access good information about the quality of
education across the Council as a whole.
22
Educational services had been slow to develop effective
systems for communicating its policies on quality
improvement in schools. The Annual Statement of
Improvement Objectives and a paper on reviewing
progress were made public on the Council’s website.
However, in the pre-inspection survey, only a majority
(63%) of headteachers reported that the education
department was effective in disseminating good practice
about how to improve standards and quality in education.
The authority planned to produce a Standards and Quality
Report on school education for stakeholders.
Notable features of communication included the
following.
•
The LLC ensured that ‘good news’ items and
achievements of individual establishments were
highlighted and given public recognition.
•
The authority’s vision was reinforced in school
brochures and a range of other publications.
•
Visits to schools by the Director and senior staff
provided an opportunity for dialogue and enhanced
knowledge of schools.
•
Representatives of teachers’ associations, and
members of the formal Local Negotiating Committee
for Teachers and the informal Joint Consultative
Council reported on effective communication with the
Director and Head of ELL. At the time of the
inspection, they had reached agreement on the
structure of promoted posts in schools.
•
STP had established a good system to record and
respond to complaints and enquiries.
The Council’s commitment to consultation and recent
improvements in channels of communication assisted the
drive towards providing more integrated services to
23
children, young people and their families. As a result of
effective consultation and communication, there was a
shared understanding across the Council of successes in
education and some of the areas where improvements
were urgently required. More use should be made of the
consultation and communication systems to promote the
quality improvement agenda and gain the support of
parents and the wider community in raising the pupils’
attainment. Headteachers, as senior officers of the
Council should ensure that they keep all members of their
staff, parents and pupils informed about educational
services’ policies and priorities for development.
5. Operational management
Service planning
The quality of service planning was good overall. The
Services to People Plan 2003/2004 provided an effective
overview of the work of all its services including
pre-school and school education and child care. This
plan, reflecting the Council’s vision, values and aims,
placed particular emphasis on its and the government’s
priority of promoting social inclusion. It created a
framework for more integrated working among
departments and with external agencies through its links
with the Clackmannanshire Local Health Plan and the
Forth Valley Health Plan. The impact of more joined up
approaches to planning were evident in some valuable
initiatives including those related to drug education and
sexual health and in the New Community Schools (NCS)
projects.
The Annual Statement of Improvement Objectives
2002/2003 to 2004/2005, known as LASIO, and the
Children’s Services Plan combined to give direction to
the Council’s education functions and to exercising its
responsibilities in relation to the care and welfare of
children and young people. Each plan demonstrated the
24
Council’s commitment to addressing the National
Priorities in Education and responding constructively to
recent relevant legislation and major reports.
The well-developed Children’s Services Plan was
soundly based on evaluations of previous plans and
consultation with parents and staff and, where
appropriate, with children and young people. It had
specific targets, timescales and costs relating to
improving provision for pre-school children and their
families, for children looked after and accommodated by
the Council and for pupils from gypsy/traveller families.
All headteachers responding to the pre-inspection survey
agreed that the Service Plan was effective in making clear
the Council’s aims and priorities for education. The plan
emphasised the importance of raising pupils’ attainment,
particularly at the secondary stage, but did not give
sufficient attention to planning improvements in quality
assurance by schools and centrally-employed staff. Some
targets lacked precision or were stated in unduly complex
language which made them difficult to understand.
Each of the centrally-deployed teams had its own action
plan to implement the parts of LASIO and the Children’s
Services Plan for which it was responsible. Some
effective teamwork resulted, particularly in the provision
for looked after and accommodated pupils and the work
of educational psychologists. The Children’s Services
Plan and the plan for the Educational Psychology Service
(EPS) were soundly based on systematic self-evaluation,
including a well-conducted Best Value review (BVr) of
the psychological service. A recently created policy
planning team was reviewing the various approaches to
planning within STP to streamline the planning process.
The Council had very good approaches to planning
innovative projects to improve education and child care.
Project plans included clear specifications of aims,
expected outcomes, and strategies for implementing,
25
monitoring and evaluation. As a result, officers were able
to evaluate the effectiveness of the projects or take action
where weaknesses were identified. The effective
evaluation of the first New Community School (NCS)
project had ensured that the best features, such as
personal learning plans, were taken forward into the
second project and informed the roll out of the NCS
initiative.
The Director monitored the effectiveness of the planning
process through his regular Heads of Service meetings.
He provided twice-yearly reports to the Policy and Audit
Committee on progress with the STP Plan. There was no
evidence that elected members scrutinised these reports
rigorously. The Director and Heads of Service had
subjected their previous plan to a Quality Management in
Education (QMIE)2 evaluation. Overall, performance
management and reporting on progress of the service and
associated plans were not yet sufficiently well integrated
into the planning process and needed to be more
streamlined.
Establishments included the priorities from relevant plans
in their own development plans and reported these
through standards and quality reports. All establishments
had produced such reports and some were of very high
quality. However, schools had not had consistent
feedback from central staff on the quality of their plans
and reports. Heads of pre-school centres and partner
nurseries had received valuable assistance from officers
to improve their planning and reporting procedures. The
Service Level Agreements and monitoring arrangements
with the National Children’s Homes project in the
Tullibody Family Centre and with Capability Scotland
for a parents’ network provided some very effective
means of ensuring that children and their parents were
receiving high quality services.
2
26
Quality Management in Education (HM Inspectors of Schools, 2000) is a
framework of self-evaluation for Local Authority Education Departments.
Service planning had a number of strengths and had
resulted in clear improvements in the quality of provision
particularly for pre-school children and their families,
aspects of primary education and for vulnerable pupils.
While schools were largely effective in planning and
implementing developments and reporting on them in
producing standards and quality reports, they now
required more systematic feedback and challenge from
centrally-employed staff.
Deployment and effectiveness of
centrally-employed staff
Performance in this aspect was fair. Centrally-employed
staff, including professional and support staff, were
highly committed to providing good quality support to
establishments, to families and to children and young
people. Administrative staff took a deep interest in
establishments and endeavoured to respond quickly to
requests for information, human resource support and to
requests for emergency repairs. However, despite the
intensive efforts of centrally-employed staff there were
significant weaknesses in the extent to which they were
able to fulfil remits for quality assurance.
All heads of establishments responding to the
pre-inspection survey agreed that centrally-employed
staff were prompt and helpful in responding to contacts.
Almost all felt confident that central staff would provide
support if required. Nevertheless, there were a number of
difficulties which limited their effectiveness and impact.
Some of these difficulties related to the disruptions
caused by the reorganisation of services and were being
overcome as officers settled into their jobs and
establishments realised the benefits of being part of a
wider service. Other difficulties related to staff having
insufficient time to undertake systematically their quality
assurance function. Continuing uncertainty surrounded
the Educational Development Service (EDS), given that
two members of the team were temporary appointments.
27
The Director had also identified the need for a senior
adviser. It was encouraging that the new administration
had quickly taken steps to approve the permanent
employment of a senior adviser for quality assurance, an
adviser and staff development co-ordinator to take
forward the quality improvement and assurance agenda.
These appointments should allow senior managers to
address the important weaknesses in the deployment of
EDS staff.
Three Heads of Service were each responsible for quality
development teams. Two officers worked with the Head
of the Child Care, Pre-Five and Criminal Justice Service
to take forward pre-school provision. This team had
given priority to developing quality in provision across
all providers, particularly through an extensive training
programme. As part of the drive towards quality
improvement, the team had focused on helping centres to
evaluate their own work. The team recognised the need
to share good practice more widely and to give greater
priority to monitoring practice in establishments.
Led by the Head of ELL, EDS had been reorganised in
August 2002. It comprised three full-time advisers, a
staff development co-ordinator, an ICT development
co-ordinator and five seconded teachers. The remit of the
EDS had been developed in line with the authority’s
priority of raising attainment, developing pupils’ core
skills and improving quality assurance. Each of the
advisers had responsibility for supporting developments
in a cluster of schools. A seconded adviser had a
particular remit to assist secondary schools to improve
their analysis of SQA results and action planning directed
at improving pupils’ performance. The staff development
co-ordinator had assisted the Head of ELL to revise and
improve the authority’s programme of staff development
and review which was not being implemented
consistently. Other development officers focused on
approaches to improving the teaching of science and
28
music and taking forward provision for Gaelic-medium
education.
The hard working EDS team had gained the respect of
staff in schools who commented positively on many
aspects of their contribution, notably in Early
Intervention, the development of thinking skills and
improved opportunities for staff development. However,
while their role in providing support was well-developed,
their roles in monitoring and evaluating the work of
schools were not. The new policy on quality assurance
did not specify their role in challenging schools, for
example, on the quality of their development plans or
their standards and quality reports.
The two advisers in SEN had dual roles, being heads of
special schools and of support services. Together with
the Principal Educational Psychologist they had provided
good assistance to the Head of Policy, Planning and
Special Educational Needs in the major review of SEN.
They also provided advice and support to schools on the
education of pupils with SEN, including those with
social, emotional and behavioural difficulties,
gypsy/traveller children and English as an additional
language. They too had not been able to give sufficient
priority to monitoring the quality of practice in schools
because their remits were far too extensive.
The Psychological Service played an important role in the
authority in providing a range of important services to
schools, pupils and their families. The service assisted in
developing provision for pupils with SEN and quality
assuring some major initiatives.
Recent improvements in the deployment of
centrally-employed staff were impacting positively on
pre-schools centres and schools in a range of ways,
particularly in terms of staff development and support for
curricular initiatives. However, previous weaknesses in
remits, deployment and quality assurance arrangements
29
limited the impact of centrally-employed staff on the
quality of service provided in schools and establishments.
Educational services should ensure that staff responsible
for quality assurance have clear remits and time to
undertake these key duties.
6. Resource and financial management
Resource management
The management of resources was good overall. The
Director had given high priority to improving resource
and financial management. The Council had supported
education well through relatively generous levels of
general revenue funding and specific grants, including the
National Priorities Action Fund (NPAF). However, the
authority, being one of the smallest in Scotland, did not
benefit from the economies of scale available to larger
authorities. In the past when cuts in revenue funding
were required, educational services were protected. The
Council had addressed a shortfall in its budget in
2003/2004 by spreading cuts across all services. The
Council had anticipated the need to make saving in
2004/2005 and 2005/2006 but, at the time of the
inspection, had yet to determine how the savings would
be made.
Until recently, the Council had based its budget on
previous years. In developing the budget for 2003/2004,
some work had been completed to move towards a form
of Service Plan budgeting, taking account of factors such
as price increases, demographic changes, and financial
effects of policy decisions. Officers recognised that
further improvements were required in this process and
that greater priority needed to be given to this work.
The Council had taken a number of positive steps in
relation to the management of its educational buildings.
As part of its development of an Asset Management Plan,
30
it had commissioned an assessment of the Council’s
property portfolio and this had been completed in
May 2003. This assessment showed that all three
secondary schools were in need of major repair
immediately. Only three of the primary schools were
identified as in need of immediate major repairs.
The Council was addressing the problems of its
secondary schools through the Public Private Partnership
(PPP) initiative. It had recently been successful in its bid
to the Scottish Executive for funding of around
£48 million through this initiative. The timetable
indicated that a preferred bidder would be selected in
January 2005, and that work on the secondary schools
would commence shortly thereafter. The project was
designed to transform the secondary school estate within
Clackmannanshire by rebuilding one school on a new
site, and refurbishing the remaining two.
The Council had taken active steps to improve occupancy
levels in establishments. The review of nursery and
primary school buildings had included consideration of
how to improve occupancy levels. Twenty-five percent
of the primary schools had occupancy levels of 60% or
less, a relatively good position in comparison to national
averages but one which still required attention. The
Council had already been proactive in managing surplus
capacity and the quality of school buildings by a range of
measures, including closing one school, relocating
another into more appropriate accommodation and
relocating two nursery schools within primary school
buildings. An under-used Children’s Centre was being
closed.
The Council’s in-house contractor completed property
repairs and maintenance across the authority. Senior staff
had mixed views on the quality of service offered. They
thought that the service was effective in responding
quickly to emergency repairs. However, headteachers
reported dissatisfaction with aspects of this service
31
particularly in relation to value for money. The Heads of
educational services needed to take further steps to
discuss these concerns with headteachers. The Director
had provided guidance to secondary schools on ways of
making savings and improving cleaning services, based
on a comparative study of similar schools outwith the
authority.
Educational services had met National Grid for Learning
targets for computer:pupil ratios in primary and
secondary schools. However, delays in connecting all
schools to the Internet and in linking them by e-mail had
held back full use of ICT by schools, particularly in the
Hillfoots area. HMIE inspection reports indicated that
use of ICT in schools was weak. The Director had set up
a dedicated ICT team to address these weaknesses and
create a framework for the improved use of ICT in
schools.
Senior managers made variable use of ICT to improve the
management of their schools. They all made good use of
ICT to monitor budgets and the software was being
upgraded to provide educational services and schools
with fuller information to assist in planning and
monitoring the use of resources. Educational services
had identified appropriate software to track pupils’
progress and attainment but needed to provide more
support and training in its use. More effective
management information systems were required to assist
centrally-employed staff and schools in taking forward
the improvement agenda.
In line with Council policy, educational services had
undertaken a programme of Best Value reviews. The
initial reviews of primary and secondary education,
although following Corporate guidance, had not been
sufficiently sharply focused nor had they been
followed-up effectively. A thorough review of the
Psychological Service had successfully shaped the
development of that service. A current review of
32
provision for pupils with SEN was helping the authority
to find effective ways of promoting inclusion as well as
reconfiguring services to make them more effective and
efficient. In line with the new statutory requirement, the
Council was currently reviewing its overall approach to
Best Value.
Educational services had well-controlled methods for the
allocation of the NPAF to schools and support services.
There were good examples of this funding being linked to
resources from other services and agencies to provide an
improved overall service for children and young people.
In some instances, more would be gained by allocating
resources, such as those for science, to clusters of schools
rather than disbursing small amounts to individual
establishments.
Schools and pre-school centres were well-staffed. The
arrangements for providing auxiliaries and visiting
teachers were well founded on the levels of needs of the
individual pupils as assessed by schools through the
‘staged intervention’ process. Educational services was
addressing concerns of primary schools about the levels
of support they received from learning support teachers.
Secondary schools reported significant difficulties in
obtaining supply cover for absent colleagues.
Probationer teachers had been effectively deployed. The
Council’s personnel services supported staff well.
Other features of effective use of resources included:
•
linking up with other authorities to share resources,
notably in specialist schools and in supporting the
Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH);
•
enhancing support for pupils with particular needs
within their community rather than in residential care
in other areas; and
33
•
the way in which the Psychological Service extended
its support for pupils by ‘selling’ services to other
projects and agencies.
Overall, educational services were using resources well to
improve and extend provision for pupils and their
families. The Director was taking a strong lead in
addressing weaknesses in resource management but
needed to ensure that important developments, for
example in the use of ICT, and the provision of more
effective management information systems were taken
forward with all speed.
Financial management
Performance in this area was fair. The Council was in the
process of updating and improving its approaches to
financial management but it had not yet addressed all of
the weaknesses. It had a clear set of financial procedures,
including the corporate financial regulations, a revised
and improved version of which was issued to educational
services and schools during the inspection. A three-year
approach to budget planning was not yet in place with the
result that educational services were not in a position to
cost fully their service plans.
Effective systems were in place for monitoring budgets.
Monitoring reports were submitted to each meeting of the
Council and to the Audit and Resources Committee. The
Chief Executive had well-developed arrangements for
monitoring budgets through the weekly meeting of his
Executive Group. The Chief Executive required all of the
Council’s budget holders to endorse the information
provided in the monitoring reports to Council. The
Director of Services to People, in turn, had a good system
for monitoring the budget through his fortnightly meeting
with his Heads of Service, supplemented by specific
meetings for planning and evaluating the budgetary
processes. He was working with Heads of Service to
address weaknesses in the costing of service plans over
34
one to three years. They had access to budgetary
information on each school.
Corporate Finance and STP were developing effective
working relationships through regular formal and
informal meetings, but these links were not yet formally
based on an SLA. Educational services had a dedicated
team to support its financial management, including
Finance and Administration Officers (FAOs). At the end
of each accounting period Corporate Finance provided
educational services with financial reports which were in
turn reconciled with information held on schools. The
reports provided only basic information and required
further work to extract more detailed information.
Further improvements to the system were required to
enable staff to work more efficiently.
Over 80% of the education budget was devolved to
schools through the scheme of Devolved School
Management (DSM). The scheme was effective and
generally well regarded by headteachers. Educational
services had undertaken a major review of the DSM
policy in accordance with the requirements of the
Scottish Executive’s 2001 review of DSM. The revised
system would give headteachers further support to be
responsive to the particular needs of their schools.
Implementation of the new scheme had, however, been
delayed to incorporate the outcomes of negotiations on
staffing in relation to A Teaching Profession for the
21st Century.
The FAOs provided very good support to headteachers
and to their members of staff involved in financial
management. Only some schools had on-line access to
the central budget to monitor their spending directly.
This system was to be extended to all schools which were
currently using simple spreadsheets to monitor their
spending. Headteachers and senior managers in schools
varied in their understanding of the basis of their budgets.
Some had concerns about their allocation of resourcing
35
for materials. Many were confused about an arrangement
whereby previous budget cuts continued to be disclosed
as an adjustment to the total delegated budget. They and
some centrally-employed staff required further training to
help them understand more fully the budget processes
and how to manage them most effectively for the benefit
of pupils.
The Council was in the process of improving its
procedures for financial management but important
weaknesses remained. There was insufficient
information to support planning budgets over three years.
ICT systems were not yet fully developed to provide
ready access to financial information by officers and
schools. The Director of STP had well-developed
systems for monitoring spending anticipating where
action was required to safeguard services. However, he
and his team were not yet in a position to develop a fully
costed Service Plan. The new DSM scheme would give
further encouragement to headteachers to manage their
finances more flexibly. Meantime many required further
support to understand the budgeting process and to
monitor their budgets more effectively to benefit their
schools and their pupils.
7. Performance monitoring and continuous improvement
Measuring, monitoring and evaluating
performance
Performance in this area was fair. The education
authority used a broad range of strategies for monitoring
and evaluating the quality of its services. The most
effective approaches had resulted in improvements in the
performance and achievement of children and young
people and in the quality of service offered to them and
their families. Overall, however, the approaches to
measuring, monitoring and evaluating performance
36
across all establishments and services were not yet
sufficiently comprehensive and rigorous.
There were a number of important weaknesses. In
particular these included the overall quality and
consistency of feedback and challenge to schools on
attainment and development planning. The scheme for
staff development and review of headteachers and their
staff was not applied consistently. In the pre-inspection
survey, less than half of heads of establishments agreed
that their development plans were reviewed annually.
Also less than half of the heads reported that the authority
had an accurate knowledge of their performance through
the staff development and review scheme. The Director
had identified the need to improve monitoring and
evaluation of establishments’ performance as a priority in
his strengthening of the quality assurance framework.
The appointment of a senior adviser should enable him to
address the important weaknesses in this aspect of
educational services.
Educational services were effective in planning and
evaluating major development projects designed to
benefit all pupils at particular stages in schools. Projects
relating to the Early Intervention strategy, Improving
Primary Mathematics, Philosophy for Children
and NCS had all been carefully monitored and evaluated
by officers, external evaluators or members of the
psychological service. Advisers and support teachers
were able to demonstrate improvements for pupils in the
effectiveness of pupil councils and a specific way of
teaching pupils with dyslexia. Project specifications and
SLAs were effectively designed.
A cornerstone of educational services’ quality assurance
framework was the expectation that headteachers and
other heads, as senior officers of the Council, should take
responsibility for evaluating the work of their
establishments or services. Most heads reported in the
pre-inspection survey that the Council encouraged their
37
establishments to develop a systematic approach to
monitoring and evaluating their range of work. One of
the steps taken to assist heads to develop their
competence in self-evaluation was an extensive
programme in leadership run by external consultants.
The authority had also helped heads to use the quality
indicators in the national documents, The Child at the
Centre3 for pre-school provision and How good is our
school?4 to evaluate their establishments. The
Psychological Service used quality indicators to evaluate
its work. All schools and centres reported on their
self-evaluation in annual standards and quality reports.
While the authority provided support to establishments
and schools to develop their quality assurance systems,
officers did not provide sufficiently consistent challenge
to the quality of these. Headteachers and other staff in
establishments indicated that they would welcome more
external moderation of their practice. The Director and
Head of ELL had just launched new policies to strengthen
the authority’s quality assurance framework. The
approach reinforced the emphasis on self-evaluation and
included a cycle of quality assurance visits to
establishments by advisers. However, their remit in
providing feedback and challenge was not stated clearly
enough. The new policy and guidelines for staff
development and review, due to be implemented in
August 2003, incorporated procedures to provide
feedback on performance using sets of standards as well
as promoting continuous professional development.
Senior officers collected and collated a range of data to
measure and monitor the performance of establishments
and services. They had started making use of benchmark
information provided on the National Priorities and
HMIE websites to assist in evaluating the performance of
3
4
38
The Child at the Centre – Self-evaluation in the Early Years (SEED, 2000).
How good is our school? – Self-evaluation using performance indicators (Audit
Unit – HM Inspectors of Schools, SOEID, 1996, revised edition, HM Inspectorate of
Education, 2002).
Clackmannanshire Council with other authorities. Senior
officers and advisers had used 5-14 data along with that
derived from the major projects to monitor the overall
effectiveness of primary schools. They had successfully
taken action to support and improve primary schools with
demonstrable weaknesses. However, officers did not
have a comprehensive set of 5-14 data to enable them to
track attainment levels across classes from P1 to S2 and
to identify quickly where intervention was necessary.
Also, officers and headteachers in secondary schools had
been slow to take action to prevent a three-year trend in
poor performance on SQA results. One of the early
actions of the Director and Head of ELL was to take the
lead in helping secondary schools to evaluate SQA data
and to set headteachers clear targets for improvement.
The authority had made very effective use of national
performance indicators and related data to monitor and
improve upon exclusion rates, the performance of looked
after and accommodated children and aspects of
provision for pupils with SEN.
The SMT had worked together to evaluate their own
effectiveness. Their approaches to self-evaluation had
informed them about the areas for development for
education and about improving the quality of the SMT.
The Director and Heads of service were each
participating in the Council’s new scheme of staff
development and review.
Educational services had some effective ways of
measuring, monitoring and evaluating performance which
had assisted schools to be self-evaluative and had ensured
that major development projects delivered positive gains
for pupils. Led by the Director, educational services had
begun to take steps to address significant weaknesses in
their monitoring and evaluation of the performance of
schools. However, these initiatives were not fully in
place and were yet to have sufficient or consistent impact.
39
Continuous improvement in performance
Performance in this area was fair overall. The
commitment to quality improvement was clearly stated in
Learning to Succeed in Clackmannanshire, which
underpinned most aspects of educational services. Most
heads of establishments in the pre-inspection survey
agreed that the authority was committed to quality
improvement and had a good range of initiatives and
actions to support priorities in quality development. The
authority was effective in promoting most aspects of the
inclusion agenda. Pre-school and primary education and
the wide range of services to support vulnerable children
and youth had all improved as a result of major
initiatives, some of which were models of good practice.
However, the Council had not taken sufficient effective
action to secure improvements in pupils’ performance in
SQA examinations and thus ensure that they were
equipped to realise their potential and were not
disadvantaged in adult life. Also, more action was
required to raise further standards of literacy and
numeracy, particularly in S1 and S2.
Support for pre-school education
Educational services provided a very good service for
pre-school children and their families. Further
improvements were planned in partnership with the Forth
Valley Health Board and voluntary and private agencies.
All three- and four-year-old children whose parents
wanted them to attend a nursery had places. In addition,
educational services supported pre-school playgroups,
including one which was Gaelic-medium. Services for
pre-school children and their families were becoming
much better integrated and more comprehensive.
Projects, such as Bright Start and Sure Start, promoted
the development of very young children through
improving parenting skills. Health initiatives such as the
Tullibody Healthy Living Initiative were helping parents
40
to acquire the knowledge and skills to improve their own
and their children’s physical and mental health.
Senior officers had restructured the Child Care
Partnership to make it more effective. Chaired by the
Pre-School Playgroup Co-ordinator, membership
included representatives of all relevant establishments
and agencies and parents. It was contributing to
continuous improvement in a number of ways,
particularly in giving feedback on quality of provision
and advice on developments. Members contributed to
staff development to assist centres to provide better
quality provision.
The Head of Child Care, Pre-Five and Criminal Justice, a
Pre-Five Manager and Childcare Development Officer
(PFDO) had taken important steps to improve services.
To ensure a consistent approach by all pre-five services,
they had issued a draft set of policies and procedures.
The PFDO had given priority to helping partner nurseries,
playgroups and family centres undertake self-assessment
and prepare development plans and standards and quality
reports identifying areas of strength and what they needed
to do to benefit children.
Psychological services played an important role in
supporting and improving pre-school provision.
Specialist educational psychologists, a pre-five teacher
and three nursery nurses linked with health visitors to
identify and support children and families in need. A
Community Early Assessment Team brought together all
relevant professionals to work with parents in
determining action plans for their children. A
commendable new initiative of holding ‘drop-in’ clinics
in three family centres was ensuring that parents could
have easy access to educational psychologists to assist
them in supporting their children’s development. The
Psychological Service played a key role in the early
identification of children with learning difficulties and in
ensuring that they made a smooth transition to school.
41
Support for primary schools and 5-14
The authority had given high priority to major projects to
promote English language, mathematics, modern
languages and thinking skills in its primary schools.
There was evidence of impact in improved standards of
attainment for pupils. Also, staff in schools, elected
members and School Board chairpersons were very
positive about the initiatives and praised the support for
them provided by centrally-deployed staff.
Early Intervention in the teaching of reading was
underpinned by specific advice on a system, known as
synthetic phonics, as well as on motivating pupils to
enjoy books and reading. Systematic evaluations of the
progress of pupils from P1 to P5 had shown significant
improvement in their capacity to read words. An
evaluation of the project in 2003 showed that, by P5, girls
were on average 18 months ahead of their chronological
age and boys 25 months ahead. The approach had also
proved successful with pupils with learning difficulties.
As a result of an analysis of the issues relating to
continuous improvement in reading in P5 to P7, the
authority had introduced a programme Philosophy for
Children. Early results indicated that pupils were
improving their comprehension and discussion skills.
The authority had also introduced IPM, which provided
detailed guidance for teachers on approaches to learning
and teaching.
Standards of attainment in English language and
mathematics were judged to be good in all primary
schools inspected and strong at the early stages. While
standards of attainment in reading, writing and
mathematics in primary schools were below those of
comparator authorities, the rate of improvement had been
greater. There were, therefore, clear indications that the
initiatives taken by the authority were achieving success
in securing improvement. Levels of attainment in
42
reading, writing and mathematics in secondary schools
had made modest gains but still remained below or well
below those of comparator authorities and national
standards. Better progress had been made in improving
attainment in reading but there were significant
weaknesses in writing and weaknesses remained in
mathematics. None of the authority’s targets for reading,
writing and mathematics had been achieved. The
authority required to take urgent action to improve
attainment in S1 and S2, particularly in writing.
Advisers had supported primary schools well to improve
personal and social education, in addition to English
language and mathematics. Schools required a stronger
steer on other areas of the curriculum which had been
identified in HMIE reports as having weaknesses.
Support for secondary schools
The challenge of improving achievement in SQA
examinations in secondary schools had been senior
managers’ highest priority since 2002. In addition to the
measures they had taken in setting targets for
improvement in secondary schools and improving
management, the Director and Head of ELL had
appointed an adviser to work with secondary schools.
His specific remit was to assist staff in more rigorous
analysis of SQA results and to provide curriculum
support. Although these steps had clear potential, it was
as yet too early to see any impact on pupils’ attainment.
However, headteachers reported that they were now
clearer about the authority’s expectations. Much,
however, remained to be done. Senior managers in
secondary schools needed to be more proactive in their
roles as senior managers of the authority in ensuring that
their staff understood and acted upon the education
authority’s policies.
Schools had been supported in the introduction of new
courses leading to National Qualifications. Working
43
groups were continuing to develop courses at Access
levels. To improve support to subject departments, the
adviser had set up groups of principal teachers/subject
leaders. These groups had a clear remit to identify
priority areas for development, share good practice and,
with the support of the adviser, find ways of accessing
necessary guidance and advice. Some principal teachers
reported on the benefits of their groups in sharing good
practice. Others were of the view that they needed more
support on the curriculum and assessment.
The three secondary schools had taken action to adjust
the curriculum to meet the needs of pupils who were not
motivated by following an eight Standard Grade course in
S3 and S4. Working with Clackmannan College of
Further Education, the schools had devised relevant
courses. These included continuing study of core
subjects, vocational training, work experience and
outdoor education. The secondary adviser was working
with the schools and colleges to monitor and the
effectiveness of the scheme. Early indications were
encouraging with improved attendance and motivation to
learn on the part of pupils.
All secondary schools had programmes of careers
education delivered through personal and social
education programmes. Pupils in S3 to S6 could, as part
of their curriculum, follow vocational courses in
Clackmannan College of Further Education arranged and
monitored by senior staff in schools. Arrangements had
been concluded to ensure that pupils’ achievement of
SQA awards were recognised in their school’s attainment
data.
The authority had set targets for improvements in pupils’
performance in SQA examinations. Over the period 1998
to 2002, the percentage of pupils gaining five or more
awards at Level 5 or better by the end of S4 had declined
and was well below that of comparator authorities. The
percentage gaining five or more awards at Level 4 or
44
better had remained relatively static but declined in 2002.
The numbers gaining five or more awards at Level 3 had
also declined over the period and was, in 2002, below
starting levels. The authority had achieved none of the
targets it had set including reduced targets for 2002. The
percentage of pupils gaining three or more awards at
Level 6 or better between 1998 and 2001 had remained
static and fallen in 2002. The percentage achieving five
or more awards at Level 6 had improved between 1998
and 2001, but had fallen again in 2002. Performance was
below that of comparator authorities and national figures.
The percentage of pupils gaining one or more awards at
Level 7 had increased by three percentage points between
1998 and 2001. It had fallen slightly in 2002 but
remained above its starting point. Overall, there were
serious weaknesses in SQA examinations performance
across the authority. Educational services needed to
ensure that parents were fully informed and their
co-operation enlisted in improving their children’s
performance.
Support for pupils
The positive impact of the Council’s commitment to
social inclusion was evident in the many strong features
of STP’s support for pupils. Pupils’ involvement in
education was promoted in many ways. In addition to
senior pupils’ involvement in the Learning and Leisure
Committee, some pupils were also active in taking
forward the development of a Youth Forum. Almost all
schools had school councils and a recent survey
demonstrated that they were being effective. The NCS
initiative had successfully developed an approach to
involving each pupil in setting targets for themselves in
personal learning plans. This approach was being
extended to all primary schools. Secondary schools were
attempting to raise pupils’ expectations of their academic
achievement by means of cognitive ability tests (CATS)
but had, as yet, no evidence of effectiveness.
45
STP had achieved considerable success in meeting the
needs of vulnerable children and young people. The
schemes to improve school attendance and reduce
exclusion were proving effective. Attendance rates had
improved and were now in line with national levels. The
integrated support for looked after and looked after and
accommodated children was also successful. The
percentage of looked after children achieving the national
target of two Standard Grades in English language and
mathematics was twice as high as the national average.
STP monitored closely the use of out-of-authority
residential placements for pupils and had taken action to
reduce the number of such placements. Arrangements
ensured that pupils excluded from or refusing to attend
school had suitable educational experiences.
STP had a broad range of services for pupils’ with SEN.
The current review of provision had identified areas for
rationalisation and improvement. Over a number of
years, the authority had been successful in giving pupils
with SEN opportunities for learning in mainstreaming
classes. In a well-designed and carefully monitored
project with Capability Scotland, parents of pupils with
SEN were assisted to be involved in their children’s
education and help them to progress.
HMIE inspection reports on two of the special facilities
had identified weaknesses in the assessment and levels of
achievement of pupils, and these were being addressed by
the SEN advisers working with educational
psychologists. Educational services had introduced an
approach, called staged intervention to support pupils
with learning difficulties in mainstream schools. This
approach was assisting the Special Educational Needs
Management Team to plan provision more effectively.
Senior managers in schools required further staff
development to understand fully their role in taking
forward staged intervention. However, they were not
satisfied with the support they received from the visiting
primary support teachers. The authority was reviewing
46
this service to pupils with behavioural difficulties. The
secondary behaviour support team provided a good
service to pupils with behavioural difficulties. A visiting
learning support teacher had supported schools
successfully in addressing the needs of pupils with
dyslexia.
Clackmannanshire Psychological Service had, over a
number of years, made significant contributions to
improvements in the quality of services. As well as
providing effective support to children and young people,
parents and schools, the service played a major role in
research and evaluation. It also had an access officer who
was helping the authority and schools to take forward the
accessibility strategy.
Support for staff development
Among educational services’ measures to improve staff
development was the appointment in August 2002 of a
staff development co-ordinator. She had worked with the
Head of ELL to develop the revised policy and
procedures for staff development and review. This
initiative incorporated arrangements for supporting
teachers’ continuing professional development in line
with the agreement arising from A Teaching Profession
for the 21st Century. The co-ordinator had won the
support of staff in schools by preparing a coherent
programme of staff development activities, providing
support for probationer teachers and reinvigorating the
authority’s approach to the SQH. The staff support for
early learning had been very effective.
One of the authority’s major commitments since 1999
was the focus on leadership training for its serving
headteachers. The authority had commissioned an
independent organisation to undertake in-depth work
developing their headteachers’ leadership skills. All
headteachers in post during 1999 to 2002 had participated
in the programme. This approach had been highly
47
evaluated by participants and some headteachers in the
schools visited by inspection teams reported on positive
outcomes for them.
All of the pre-five establishments responding to the
survey reported that the authority assisted them well in
accessing appropriate staff development. The pre-five
team’s programme of twilight courses was very well
organised to ensure optimum access for staff from all
establishments to relevant training. A majority of
headteachers of primary and secondary schools agreed in
the pre-inspection survey that staff had undertaken
relevant in-service training. However, around a third of
primary headteachers did not agree with this view.
Educational services now needed to be more rigorous in
identifying the staff development needs of its primary
schools.
Schools had participated in the New Opportunities Fund
(NOF) training programme to develop teachers’ skills in
using ICT. Some schools had made good progress in
taking forward ICT developments and some had valued
the support of staff development officers. However, the
difficulties with the ICT network and lack of continuity in
support meant that the NOF training programme had not
yet realised its potential.
Strengths of the STP’s approach to staff development
included the support for pre-school, Early Intervention,
SEN and leadership. These areas had been carefully
targeted and were assisting staff in taking forward major
initiatives. The authority now needed to use its revised
staff development and review procedures to ensure that
teachers identify and access professional development
relevant to their individual needs in improving aspects of
the curriculum, assessment and attainment.
48
Other features of support
Music and the Arts
Educational services had a number of initiatives to
involve pupils in music and drama. A music
development officer had been assisting in improving and
extending music tuition. Pupils were enthusiastic about
being involved in the Hillfoots orchestra which gave
popular concerts. The Council funded all pupils to attend
a theatre performance each year as part of a strategy to
offer new experiences.
Sports
The Council had a strong commitment to improving
pupils’ achievements in sport and physical education. A
strategic working group for Physical Activity, Physical
Education and Sport, chaired by the Head of ELL, and
supported by sportscotland, had been formed to
co-ordinate the Council’s initiatives. The Council acted
as a pilot authority for the school sports co-ordinator and
the active primary school co-ordinator programmes.
These were well-established in two of the three secondary
schools and their associated primaries. As a result, an
increasing number of pupils, including those at the two
special schools, were involved in extra-curricular
activities. The sports development team had taken
advantage of additional national funds to expand this into
a second phase with increased staffing.
The sports development team had been proactive in
developing a range of partnerships to ensure the best
possible provision for young people in the authority.
They were involved in a wide range of activities and
projects to support pupils’ achievements in sport and
dance. These included:
•
an innovative Pre-school Physical Activity
Programme covering sport, gymnastics and dance;
49
•
Personal Challenge Days for all P7 pupils in the
Hillfoots Cluster Primaries P7/S1 transition project;
•
Choose Sport First, a new project funded through
Scotland Against Drugs Challenge Fund and
supported by Alloa Athletic; and
•
the PHIZ project (Physical Health Improvement
Zone) which had increased levels of activity for
pre-school children in Alloa South and East.
Productive links had been established with physical
education specialists in the primary and secondary sector
and with the Central Sports Development Group to
support talented young people in targeted sports. The
Council also provided very good support for swimming,
including free swimming sessions for under 16’s during
the school holidays.
Educational services had undertaken a range of initiatives
to secure improvements in performance. Some were
impacting very well on the achievement and learning of
children and young people. Many initiatives were
addressing effectively National Priorities in inclusion,
citizenship, health and staff development. However, the
Council faced a significant and urgent challenge in
ensuring that attainment was raised, particularly in
secondary schools.
8. How well does the authority perform overall?
Overview
Educational services in Clackmannanshire Council were
strongly committed to improvement. Despite limitations
on resources imposed by its small size, the authority
made positive and often significant responses to national
initiatives. However, there was still some way to go for
the authority to consistently add value to the work of
50
schools and to secure improvements in pupils’
attainment.
Leadership of educational services in Clackmannanshire
had been seriously disrupted by changes in senior
managers and a period of reorganisation. This lack of
consistent leadership had serious consequences in
preventing or stalling key developments particularly in
taking action on weaknesses in secondary schools and
developing a quality assurance framework for all schools.
The Director of Services to People, who had only been in
post for 18 months, had a team of senior managers all of
whom had served in the revised management structure for
less than one year. They brought energy and
commitment to the remits and were working together to
address the weaknesses in education. They had
succeeded in winning the respect of staff in
establishments, elected members and School Boards.
Among their achievements were the plans for improving
secondary schools buildings, improved resource
management and training in leadership and management
for headteachers. The Director and Head of ELL had also
revitalised the Educational Development Service (EDS).
While senior managers and advisers had begun to
implement the new quality assurance framework, they
still had much to achieve in ensuring that schools
received more consistent challenge and feedback. Senior
managers particularly needed to ensure that the EDS and
schools had access to sufficient data to allow them to
monitor attainment more efficiently and to benchmark
their performance against similar schools and authorities.
The authority placed very strong emphasis on taking
forward the National Priorities in Education particularly
in respect of inclusion. Educational services had
achieved some success in improving key areas. These
included pre-school provision, aspects of attainment in
English language and mathematics in primary schools,
51
particularly at the early stages, and support for vulnerable
pupils and those with SEN in mainstream schools.
In secondary schools pupils’ attainment in 5-14 and SQA
examinations was unsatisfactory. The Director of
Services to People and members of his recently
constituted SMT had begun to take action by setting
precise targets for improvements in SQA results
accompanied by directions on how such improvements
might be achieved. They were also working on
approaches to improve leadership and management in
secondary schools and provide support for principal
teachers. The new Council administration was pursuing
its priority of raising the quality of the secondary schools
and had called for an immediate review of their
effectiveness. As yet, the combined impact of these
various steps remained uncertain.
The reorganisation of the Council’s educational functions
into Services to People had brought services together
with a view to giving the people of Clackmannanshire a
more coherent and integrated service. Evidence of the
value of such approaches was seen in pre-school services
which provided quality experiences for children and their
families and in initiatives to promote health. The
improving approaches to service planning and resource
management were also supporting multi-agency
developments. Further improvements were still required
in the Council’s financial management systems and in
staff training on financial matters to assist senior
managers in educational services and in schools to be
more effective in relating development plans and budgets,
particularly over the longer-term. Although there were
clear areas of strength in the work of the authority, the
Council had much scope to challenge aspects of school
performance and improvement more rigorously. There
was evidence that the new SMT had considerable
capacity to drive improvements within the authority.
However, at the time of the inspection the evidence of
impact was not sufficiently widespread. The authority
52
needs to demonstrate its impact on improving the quality
of services provided to young people and their families
much more consistently.
Key strengths
•
The vision, values and aims with the emphasis on
inclusion, consultation and the involvement of pupils
in their education.
•
The openness and responsiveness of the newly
formed central team and its members’ commitment to
improvement.
•
Innovative and well-run projects which resulted in
clear improvements in primary pupils’ learning and
achievement in wider improvement of services to
children, young people and their families.
•
The extensive and effective services for pre-school
children and their families.
•
Effective joint work with other agencies notably in
tackling drugs education, improving information to
promote sexual health and pupils who are excluded.
•
The quality of support given to individual children
and young people in need.
•
The contributions of psychological services to
promoting, supporting and evaluating improvements.
•
The approaches of special and primary schools in
mainstreaming pupils with Special Educational Needs
(SEN) and raising their attainment.
53
9. Main points for action
In addition to addressing the areas for improvement
identified in this report, the local authority should act on
the following recommendations.
54
•
The Council should ensure that educational services
has a period of more stable and consistent leadership.
•
Further plans to improve and make more efficient use
of educational buildings should be taken forward.
•
Educational services should improve its collection
and use of statistical data to provide a means of
monitoring and helping schools to improve.
•
Priority should be given to raising attainment of
pupils in the upper primary classes and in secondary
schools. In achieving this goal, the authority should
enlist further support from parents and the
community.
•
The new quality improvement framework should be
fully implemented to ensure robust and consistent
approaches to support and challenge for schools and
other educational establishments.
•
Educational services should complete its review of
SEN and implement the revised policies and
procedures to support pupils and schools.
•
Improvements should be introduced to the authority’s
systems for financial management, as outlined in this
report. Further improvements should be made to ICT
developments.
HM Inspectors will re-visit the authority in one year to
assess progress in meeting these recommendations. The
local authority has been asked to prepare and make public
an action plan, within eight weeks of the publication of
this report, indicating how it will address the main points
for action in the report.
Ian Gamble
HM Chief Inspector
Directorate 5
2 September 2003
55
Appendix 1
Performance information
•
% of school pupils staying on to S5 (post Christmas)
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
65
66
66
64
65
63
65
65
65
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average 5
•
Pupil destinations
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
% Entering Full-Time
Higher Education
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
26
31
28
26
32
29
25
32
29
% Entering Full-Time
Further Education
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
18
19
18
16
20
19
19
20
19
% Entering
Employment
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
23
26
26
20
24
24
25
23
22
• Absence
As part of the 2002 Target Setting initiative,
Clackmannanshire Council set itself the following target
to minimise the average number of half-days absence per
pupil in primary and secondary schools by 2002.
Primary
Secondary
•
5
56
Clackmannanshire
National
Clackmannanshire
National
Target
Level
(June
2001)
1999
2000
18
18
32
36
18
20
42
43
19
19
43
41
2001
Target
Level
(June
2002)
2002
22
20
45
43
18
17
39
37
19
19
43
42
Exclusions from schools in Clackmannanshire
CA Average refers to the group of education authorities which are comparative to
each other in terms of various socio-economic and demographic factors.
2001/2002
Total
Exclusions
Exclusions Per
1000 Pupils
Temporary
Exclusions
Permanent
exclusions
Clackmannanshire
308
42
308
0
National
37,442
51
37,110
332
As part of the 2002 Target Setting initiative,
Clackmannanshire Council set itself the following targets
in reading, writing and mathematics to be achieved by
2002, and has made the following progress in achieving
them.
The figures represent the percentage of pupils in primary
schools attaining and expected to attain appropriate 5-14
levels by P76.
Primary
Target
Level
June
2001
1999
2000
2001
Target
Level
June
2002
2002
Reading
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
75
77
-
67
73
72
74
76
76
78
80
79
78
81
-
79
81
81
Writing
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
65
67
-
50
60
59
62
66
66
67
70
70
72
73
-
70
72
73
Maths
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
76
81
-
72
76
78
74
77
77
77
79
80
78
82
-
76
80
81
6
Level A by end of P3. Level B by end of P4. Level C by end of P6.
Level D by end of P7.
57
The figures represent the percentage of pupils in
secondary schools attaining and expected to attain
appropriate 5-14 levels by S27.
Secondary
Target
Level
June
2001
1999
2000
2001
Target
Level
June
2002
2002
Reading
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
46
54
-
40
44
41
43
53
50
48
56
53
54
59
-
52
59
56
Writing
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
39
48
-
36
38
37
30
43
38
39
46
42
44
51
-
38
50
46
Maths
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
49
55
-
32
42
43
46
47
45
48
51
51
53
56
-
43
54
54
• Results in Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
National Qualifications.
7
58
Level E by end of S2.
Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels:
7: CSYS at A-C
6: Higher at A-C
5: Intermediate 2 at A-C; Standard Grade at 1-2
4: Intermediate 1 at A-C; Standard Grade at 3-4
3: Access 3 Cluster; Standard Grade at 5-6
Percentage of relevant S4 roll achieving
By end of S4
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
English 1- 6
@ Level 3 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
93
93
93
94
94
94
90
94
94
92
94
94
87
94
94
Maths 1-6
@ Level 3 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
91
92
92
92
94
94
91
94
94
91
94
94
88
93
92
5+ @ Level 3 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
88
90
90
90
91
91
83
91
91
87
91
91
83
91
91
5+ @ Level 4 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
66
74
71
69
75
73
69
77
75
71
77
75
66
76
73
5+ @ Level 5 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
27
30
27
26
32
28
26
33
30
26
34
29
21
33
29
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
By end of S5
3+ @ Level 6 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
17
20
17
18
21
17
18
23
19
18
23
19
17
22
18
5+ @ Level 6 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
3
6
5
4
7
5
5
8
6
6
9
7
4
9
7
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
7
9
7
8
10
8
7
10
7
10
11
9
9
11
8
By end of S6
1+ @ Level 7 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
CA Average
As part of the 2002 Target Setting initiative,
Clackmannanshire Council set itself the following targets
for pupils’ attainment in National Qualifications, and has
made the following progress in achieving them.
59
60
Target
1999/2001
1999/2001
Target
2002
2002
English 1-6
@ Level 3 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
92
94
92
94
92
95
87
94
Maths 1-6
@ Level 3 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
92
94
92
94
91
95
88
93
5+ @ Level 3 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
91
93
87
91
87
93
83
91
5+ @ Level 4 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
74
77
70
76
73
79
66
76
5+ @ Level 5 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
32
34
26
33
27
35
21
33
3+ @ Level 6 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
21
23
18
22
20
24
17
22
5+ @ Level 6 or better
Clackmannanshire
National
6
8
5
8
6
9
4
9
Appendix 2
Inspection coverage
Establishments visited:
ABC Nursery
Alloa Academy
Alva Academy
Alva Primary School
Clackmannan Nursery School
Clackmannan Primary School
Coalsnaughton Primary School
Lornshill Academy
Park Primary School
St Bernadette’s Primary School
Tullibody Family Centre
Meetings attended:
Learning and Leisure Committee
Services to People Senior Management Team
Headteachers’ Meeting
Secondary Headteachers’ Meeting
Special Educational Needs Team Meeting
The Educational Development Service Meeting
Meeting of Principal Teachers
Meeting of the Sports Development Team
Advisory Group for the Parents’ Support Network
Meeting of the Principal Educational Psychologist
and his team
Interviews or meetings with Council Members and
Officers:
Former Convenor of the Learning and Leisure
Committee
Former Labour Spokesperson for Education and
current Leader of the Council
61
Church Representative on the Learning and
Leisure Committee
The Chief Executive
Director of Services to People
Director of Adult Care and Chief Social Work
Officer
Director of Housing and Benefits
Corporate Head of Finance
Interviews or meetings with other Stakeholder Groups:
School Board Chairs in schools visited
Focus Group of Pre-School Representatives
Focus Group of Primary Headteachers
Focus Group of Secondary Headteachers
Representative of the Teachers’ Associations
Representative of the Joint Consultative
Committee
Parents in the Tullibody Family Centre and ABC
Nursery
Interviews with Education Service Staff:
Head of Education and Lifelong Learning
Head of Child Care, Pre-Five and Criminal Justice
Head of Policy, Planning and Special Educational
Needs
ICT Co-ordinator and Support Officer
Advisers and seconded staff in the Educational
Development Service
The Pre-Five Manager and Development Officer
Advisers for Special Educational Needs
The Sports Co-ordinator
The Staff Development Co-ordinator
A Group of Administrative Staff
Members of staff providing financial support for
educational services.
62
Appendix 3
Quality indicators
We judged the following to be very good
•
Mechanisms for consultation
We judged the following to be good
•
•
•
•
Vision, values and aims
Mechanism for communication
Service planning
Resource management
We judged the following to be fair
•
•
•
•
•
•
Effectiveness of leadership and management
Policy development
Financial management
Deployment and effectiveness of centrally-employed
staff
Measuring, monitoring and evaluating performance
Continuous improvement in performance
We judged the following to be unsatisfactory
•
No aspects were found to be in this category
63
How can you contact us?
Copies of this report have been sent to the Chief
Executive of the local authority, elected members, the
Head of the Education Service, other local authority
officers, Members of the Scottish Parliament, Audit
Scotland, heads of the local authority educational
establishments, chairpersons of the local authority School
Boards/Parents’ Associations and to other relevant
individuals and agencies. Subject to availability, further
copies may be obtained free of charge from the address
below or by telephoning 0131 244 0746. Copies are also
available on our web site: www.hmie.gov.uk
Should you wish to comment on or make a complaint
about any aspect of the inspection or about this report,
you should write in the first instance to Ian Gamble,
HMCI at:
HM Inspectorate of Education
Directorate 5
1-B95
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
A copy of our complaints procedure is available from that
office and on our website.
If you are still dissatisfied, you can contact the Scottish
Public Services Ombudsman directly or through your
member of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Public
Services Ombudsman is fully independent and has
powers to investigate complaints about Government
Departments and Agencies. She will not normally
consider your complaint before the HMIE complaints
procedure has been used. Instead, she will usually ask
you to give us the chance to put matters right if we can.
64
Complaints to Scottish Public Services Ombudsman must
be submitted within 12 months of the date of publication
of this report.
The Ombudsman can be contacted at:
Professor Alice Brown
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
23 Walker Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7HX
Telephone number: 0870 011 5378
e-mail: enquiries@scottishombudsman.org.uk
More information about the Ombudsman’s office can be
obtained from the website:
www.ombudsmanscotland.org.uk
Crown Copyright 2003
HM Inspectorate of Education
This report may be reproduced in whole or in part, except
for commercial purposes or in connection with a
prospectus or advertisement, provided that the source and
date thereof are stated.
65
Definition of terms used in this report
HM Inspectors use published criteria when making judgements about the work of a
school. These performance indicators relate judgements to four levels of performance.
This report uses the following word scale to make clear the judgements made by
Inspectors:
very good
good
fair
unsatisfactory
major strengths
more strengths than weaknesses
some important weaknesses
major weaknesses
This report also uses the following words to describe numbers and proportions:
almost all
most
majority
less than half
few
over 90%
75-90%
50-74%
15-49%
up to 15%
The work of HM Inspectorate of Education
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Each year we also investigate and publish reports on key aspects of education. Our
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Further information on the work of HM Inspectorate of Education and its role in
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