Dundee City Council
9 March 2009
Contents
Page
Introduction
i
1.
The inspection
1
2.
Continuous improvement
1
3.
Good practice
3
4.
Progress towards meeting the main points for action
3
5.
Conclusion
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Introduction
The education functions of each local authority in Scotland were inspected between
2000 and 2005. A second cycle of inspections began in 2006 taking a proportionate
approach using the findings of the original inspection and other information
subsequently available. Section 9 of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000
charges HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE), 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 21 (QMIE2) 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 Government and public sector bodies in
Scotland are held to account for the proper, efficient and effective use of public funds.
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Quality Management in Education 2 (HM Inspectorate of Education 2006) is a
framework of self-evaluation for Local Authority Education Services.
i
1. The inspection
HMIE published a report on the inspection of Dundee City Council in
November 2006. The education authority prepared an action plan indicating how
they would address the main points for action identified in the original HMIE
inspection report.
HM Inspectors revisited the authority in November 2008 to assess the extent to
which the authority was continuing to improve the quality of its work, and to evaluate
progress made in responding to the main points for action in the initial report.
2. Continuous improvement
The authority had made significant progress since the original inspection.
Councillors, the Chief Executive, the Directors for Education and of Leisure and
Communities articulated a clear vision for education in Dundee. They had taken the
necessary strategic steps to develop appropriate structures and policy frameworks to
help bring about improvements. The Education Department had been restructured
to ensure a more focused approach to strategic management and quality assurance.
This had strengthened team work, provided more opportunities to share good
practice and ensured a more consistent approach to support and challenge. The
remits of the senior management team (SMT) had changed creating primary and
secondary teams.
A new tier of management had been created which provided additional capacity in
taking forward effectively the authority’s priorities. This included the implementation
of the Learning and Teaching in Dundee (LTiD) and Improving Pupil Attainment and
Achievement (IPAA) strategies. The authority had developed a higher national
profile through their innovative work on GLOW and LTiD.
Inspections of early years centres over the last two years showed that centres
provided good or very good experiences for children. However, further improvement
in performance was sought by the authority and a professional development
programme based on LTiD had been developed to enhance practice across the early
years.
Eleven primary schools had been inspected since the original inspection in 2006.
Inspections demonstrated that primary-aged children had very good opportunities
and participation levels in activities in sports and the arts. These were having a
positive impact on learners increasing their confidence and improving wider
achievement. The proportion of children attaining appropriate national levels of
attainment in mathematics, reading and writing had risen over the last five years
(2003 to 2008). Most were attaining appropriate national levels in reading and
mathematics. However, only a majority of children were attaining these levels in
writing. The authority was aware that attainment in writing required sustained
improvement. It had identified schools and stages where there were specific
weaknesses and was targeting additional support to ensure the greatest impact. In
primary schools inspected, leadership was found to be good or very good in a
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majority of schools. The authority recognised the need to improve further leadership
at all levels across the sector. Professional development programmes including the
Flexible route to Headship and Leadership for Learning had been developed to
increase leadership capacity across the primary sector and were valued by staff. In
most schools, the quality of teaching was found to be good. Only in a majority of
schools was the quality of learning good or better. Attendance in the primary stages
had remained relatively static and was lower than national and comparator averages.
The new, strengthened support and challenge system was designed to assist
schools to make more significant progress in improving achievement and the
learning experiences for children.
Overall, the outcomes of HMIE follow-through inspections were positive. Schools,
centres and community learning services had made sufficient progress to allow
HMIE to disengage and make no further visits as a result of the original inspection.
The role of new education managers in overseeing the work of Quality Improvement
Officers (QIOs) had made a positive contribution to improvements in schools and
centres. The challenge now was for the authority to strengthen self-evaluation
across all sectors to enable underperforming schools and centres to identify their
strengths and weaknesses and use the information proactively to bring about
positive change.
Over the last two years, the authority has taken positive action to address the
challenge of improving outcomes for secondary-aged learners. This has included
the innovative development of vocational education and the focus on extending
learning opportunities for young people who require more choices and more
chances, including for example the Youth Apprenticeship Initiative. The proportion of
young people entering further education and training was now well above national
and comparator authority averages. In secondary schools, young people’s
attendance had improved, although it was still lower than both national and
comparator authority averages. The performance of the lowest performing 20% of
young people had improved significantly and attainment at S5 and S6 had improved
slightly. Since the original inspection, overall performance at S4 remained static,
below national and comparator authority averages. Improvement in attainment
remains a significant challenge for the Council. This was a key strategic priority in
the Council Plan 2007- 2011.
The commitment to improve outcomes for young people had been demonstrated by
the direct action taken to support and challenge schools through intervention by the
Chief Executive, Director of Education and Head of Service for Secondary to address
attainment issues in secondary schools. The introduction of an IPAA strategy had
encouraged schools to share best practice and had led to a number of positive interschool collaborations. However, the impact of this strategy had not yet been fully
realised and improvement in attainment across 5-14 measures and national
qualifications continued to be a major challenge for the authority. The authority had
strengthened its approaches to more rigorous analysis of whole school and subject
attainment through the support of the Information Officer. This had resulted in a
wide range of statistical information and analyses to assist staff in schools and
officers in identifying strengths and priorities for raising attainment.
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As part of their programme of visits to schools, QIOs regularly scrutinised attainment
with senior managers and principal teachers. They now intended to monitor more
carefully the actions of both schools and departments to address areas of weakness
and regularly review progress in taking forward key developments. Leadership
across the authority was being strengthened through staff involvement in mentoring,
working groups and by providing opportunities for staff at all levels to lead projects
and initiatives. Staff reported very positively on improvements in opportunities for
continuous professional development (CPD), including their involvement in the city’s
Leadership for Learning programme which was appropriately linked to Journey to
Excellence and Curriculum for Excellence.
The Directors of Education and of Leisure and Communities as well as senior staff
from both departments were committed to quality improvement in order to improve
the learning experiences of all Dundee’s learners. Commendably, the Education
Department’s SMT had conducted a thorough self-evaluation and had used its
findings to influence the new Education Department Service Plan.
Dundee City Council effectively celebrated the broad achievement of its children,
young people and staff and had promoted best practice through its annual, high
quality, professional 'Focus on Achievement’ event. This was led by young people
and supported by a wide range of partners from business and academia.
3. Good Practice
Effective Partnerships
•
Performing arts have further strengthened partnerships across the arts to
provide an eclectic range of creative opportunities to develop confidence in
children and young people of all abilities.
•
Parental involvement ‘Involved Parents, Inspired Children’; a road show
developed in partnership with parents to raise awareness of the role parents’
play in their children’s learning.
•
The learning journey was developed in partnership with Dundee College and
the Leisure and Communities and Education Departments. Young people in S2
travel across Dundee visiting businesses and Dundee College. The focus of the
journey was to raise awareness among young people of both the educational
and employment opportunities the city has to offer.
4. Progress towards meeting the main points for action
The initial inspection report published in November 2006 identified four main points
for action. This section evaluates the progress made with each of the action points
and the resulting improvements for learners and other stakeholders.
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4.1
Building on the start made, provide more strategic drive in focusing
approaches towards improving pupils’ learning experiences, increasing
motivation and reducing exclusions
The Council had made very good progress overall in taking forward this main point
for action.
Since the original inspection, the Education Department had created a strong drive
for strategic improvement which was being delivered through the new structure and
enhanced management team. The SMT worked together well and effectively
communicated the department’s vision and aims in their work across the Council.
Expectations of staff were now clear and consistently expressed across all sectors.
The Education Department had developed a new improvement plan which was
appropriately linked to the aims of the Council and effectively reflected the
requirements of Scotland Performs through the Single Outcome Agreement.
LTiD was well established across the authority and was positively impacting on
pedagogy and learners experiences. The use of seconded staff to support the
strategy at practitioner level was well considered and effective. Parents, children
and young people were knowledgeable about the purpose of LTiD and were able to
offer examples of impact of the strategy on their experiences of school life. LTiD had
been noted in recent HMIE inspection reports at primary and secondary levels as
improving the quality of learning and teaching across the school.
Dundee City Council had built on the strengths identified in the original inspection
and further motivated children and young people through its inclusive arts
programmes in partnership with the Dundee Schools Musical Theatre, Dundee Rep
and Dundee Contemporary Arts. Each school had identified a member of staff as a
‘cultural champion’ who promoted the arts and encouraged learner participation.
Participation levels were very high and children and young people of all abilities were
supported to achieve through the arts. The sharing of good practice through the
opportunities created by the implementation of LTiD and GLOW had encouraged
curricular innovation to better motivate young people and increase achievement.
In 2007-2008, the numbers of exclusions had remained stable across the primary
stages. Encouragingly, exclusions over the same period within the secondary sector
showed a strong improvement. However, exclusions figures in Dundee continue to
remain significantly above national and comparator authority averages. This had
resulted in many children and young people having a disrupted educational
experience, which negatively impacted on their educational achievements and life
chances. The strategic focus to reduce exclusion through Managing Disruptive
Behaviour was helping staff to tackle more effectively behavioural issues. Over the
last two years a more solution-focused approach had been introduced across the
authority and successfully contributed to reducing the length of exclusions in some
schools. Creative curricular approaches such as Cool in School in the primary
sector, and restorative approaches in secondary schools were successfully helping
to meet the needs of vulnerable young people.
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4.2
Strengthen the challenge to schools to improve performance, to make
more effective use of statistical data and to develop creative approaches to
meeting pupils’ needs
Overall, the Council had made good progress in taking forward this recommendation.
The Education Department had demonstrated a strong commitment to strengthening
the challenge to schools. There was a clear sense of direction in the focus on
raising attainment, promoted strongly at elected member and senior officer level.
The enhanced management structure and the drive for improvement in attainment
were helping to ensure that schools were being challenged more systematically to
improve. The introduction of a new electronic management information system was
assisting staff at authority and school level in accessing a broader range of
performance data. At authority level, there was a greater focus on using this data to
identify strengths and areas for improvement. Staff in schools were beginning to use
data more systematically to set targets for attainment and to track the progress of
individuals and groups of children and young people. There was potential to improve
this even further. The appointment of Information and Analysis Officer had assisted
in providing staff with a clearer analysis of the performance of schools.
The work of the authority’s QIOs was more clearly directed at assisting schools to
improve approaches to tracking and monitoring attainment. Acting as link officers for
a group of schools, they played a key role in moderating schools’ performance data
and self-evaluation. Overall, quality improvement visits were now more rigorous and
had a clear focus on evaluating the impact of developments on improving attainment
and learning and teaching. Heads of Service and Education Managers for each
sector met regularly with QIOs to share information about the progress of schools
and to plan further developments. Collectively, they were building up more detailed
knowledge of individual schools. Improvements in attainment in English language
and mathematics in primary schools had not yet impacted sufficiently in improving
attainment from S1 to S4. There was scope for QIOs to work together more in
ensuring that gains in attainment in primary schools were sustained into secondary.
The analysis of school performance should be extended to identify targeted visits to
ensure that those schools and departments in need of support were given most
attention. Curriculum networks in secondary provided good opportunities for
principal teachers to analyse attainment on a subject basis and to share good
practice. The Director of Education was aware of the need to ensure that these
networks operated more consistently and effectively across subjects.
The authority had developed a comprehensive quality improvement strategy which
was shared with schools. There was scope for reviews in secondary to pay closer
attention to the school’s strategies to raise attainment at S1-S2. Extended reviews
provided productive opportunities for senior officers and quality improvement staff to
evaluate standards in schools through observing learning and teaching and
gathering the views of staff, children and young people. These reviews also assisted
staff in monitoring the implementation of key priorities such as the use of information
and communication technology (ICT) to support learning and teaching. Evidence
from HMIE inspections of schools within the authority indicated that there was still
scope for improvements in school self-evaluation. The authority had introduced an
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online facility for all schools and secondary departments to self-evaluate using How
Good is Our School? 3. This promising initiative was at an early stage of
development.
The authority had made good progress in stimulating schools and services to find
more dynamic and creative approaches to meeting the needs of children and young
people within the context of their local community. Improved partnerships with a
range of agencies had led to more focused action to support individual children and
young people, for example through the Joint Action Teams (JATs). The
improvements in the use of statistical data had assisted staff in providing better
information about the progress of individual young people and groups. Further work
was required to ensure that all schools used the information effectively to take
action. The authority had introduced a number of pilot initiatives to support pupils in
improving their attainment and wider achievement. The introduction of mentor
groups in a few secondary schools had been well received by young people and was
having a positive impact on their confidence to learn. Productive arrangements had
been put in place through Quality Contact to ensure that young people with
additional support needs were supported at the point of transition from primary to
secondary school. The authority should continue to share good practice in
approaches to meeting young people’s needs.
4.3
Extend partnership working at all levels
The Council had made very good progress on this action point.
Effective partnerships, based on high levels of mutual trust, had increased the quality
and extent of opportunities for participants, the community and voluntary groups.
A very good range of effective internal and external partnerships operated at all
levels. Early years staff operated an effective network with a broad range of partners
such as Dundee Rep, Countryside Rangers Service and private sector providers.
Effective partnerships operated with Dundee College and Abertay University around
a range of initiatives. For example, the innovative Discovery Space programme
operated in partnership with Abertay University and the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) aimed at encouraging primary-aged pupils to study
science, technology, engineering and maths in secondary school and university.
Students on sports coaching courses worked alongside active sports staff to deliver
sports activities in all primary schools. Tayside Health Board was an active partner
supporting healthy eating and tooth brushing programmes in primary schools. The
‘Young Mums Project’ at Menzieshill High School worked well with a range of health
professionals to support the needs of these young woman. In response to demand
from the Education Department, Dundee College had set up comprehensive range of
vocational courses based on identified need. A jointly run cosmetology centre and
car mechanics workshop successfully operated at Braeview Academy. An
expanding school – college partnership management group had recently been
established to evaluate and review the success of these initiatives. As part of a pilot
initiative social work and youth work staff were co-located within Menzieshill High
School delivering a timely and better coordinated approach to meeting the needs of
vulnerable children, young people and families.
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The Education Department was committed to engaging with parents. Partnership
working had been greatly strengthened and improved since the appointment of the
Parental Involvement Officer. The authority had produced a range of helpful leaflets
which were viewed positively by parents. Home school partnerships and parental
involvement in children's learning have increased through the use of LTiD diaries. A
recent parental involvement road show, jointly organised by parents and the
authority, had been a great success. Effective strategic links between the senior
managers in Leisure and Communities and Education had been established.
Members of the lifelong learning partnership were enthusiastic, committed and
actively engaged in developing quality learning opportunities for all Dundee learners.
The partnership was effectively chaired by the Director of Leisure and Communities.
Leisure and communities staff were engaged in a wide range of effective partnership
working which appropriately targeted the needs of Dundee’s learners. They
positively contributed to JATs, local community planning partnerships, family learning
and the Discovery Learning programme. Staff and volunteers from the Xplore and
Peer Mentoring projects engaged well with young people from a number of
secondary schools to increase their confidence and extend their achievements. The
participation of headteachers in local community planning partnerships, along with a
wide range of statutory and community representatives was a positive development.
The authority was well placed to build on the success of the pilot projects such as
the collocation and peer mentoring to ensure an increased community focus and
more consistent service to learners across the city.
4.4
Monitor and evaluate the actual impact of strategies designed to
improve attainment and demonstrate their effectiveness through improved
outcomes
The Council had made good progress in taking forward this recommendation.
Since the original inspection the department have developed a culture of continuous
improvement. This was being supported by the recently established Audit Group to
monitor progress against all aspects of educational performance. The Audit Group
provided good information on improvement, and was used to identify remaining
areas of concern which were included as actions within the departmental service
plan. As part of this process, officers had established new support and challenge
mechanisms in all primary and secondary schools to share best practice and to
address areas of concern. This approach is due to be extended to the pre-school
sector over the coming year. Strong links had been established with the Universities
of Dundee and Abertay, and Dundee College to develop a research base to support
and evaluate research and improvement strategies. Examples included the impact
of the use of hand held game consoles to motivate learners, the Friends programme,
pedagogical developments and Assessment is for Learning.
The Education Department had improved the degree to which staff were involved in
the development of the Council’s vision and aims for education and their role in
helping to realise them. The Council’s programmes for CPD were viewed positively
by staff and the courses themselves were judged to be very successful by those
attending them. Through the development of Cluster Support Teams, which were
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based around each secondary school, local issues had been identified and solutions
developed to enhance the learning experiences of children in the cluster and
promote the closer involvement of their families and the wider community. Senior
officers met regularly with staff, parent focus groups and the City Pupil Council to
review their experience of services. This was leading to further improvements in the
experience of learners.
The Education Department had developed its management information systems to
be more rigorous and put in place well developed research methodologies to further
strengthen its quality assurance processes. It was now well placed to set clear and
realistic targets for improvement, particularly in relation to attainment.
5. Conclusion
The authority had taken effective action to implement the recommendations of the
original report. It had demonstrated improved capacity for continuous improvement.
The authority had made very good progress on two action points, and good progress
on the remaining two. HM Inspectors will make no further visits to the authority in
relation to this report. The District Inspector will continue to monitor the impact of the
authority’s work on attainment and exclusions.
Annette Bruton
HM Chief Inspector
Directorate 5
9 March 2009
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If you would like an additional copy of this report
Copies of this report have been sent to the Chief Executive of the local authority,
elected members, the Director of Education, other local authority officers,
Members of the Scottish Parliament, Audit Scotland, heads of the local authority
educational establishments, chairpersons of the local authority Parent Councils
and to other relevant individuals and agencies. Subject to availability, further
copies may be obtained free of charge from HM Inspectorate of Education,
Directorate 5, Denholm House, Almondvale Business park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA or by telephoning 01506 600256. Copies are also
available on our website www.hmie.gov.uk.
HMIE Feedback and Complaints Procedure
Should you wish to comment on any aspect of education authority inspections
you should write in the first instance to Annette Bruton, HMCI, at HM
Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park,
Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
If you have a concern about this report, you should write in the first instance to
our Complaints Manager, HMIE Business Management and Communications
Team, Second Floor, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale
Way, Livingston, EH54 6GA. You can also e-mail
HMIEComplaints@hmie.gsi.gov.uk. A copy of our complaints procedure is
available from this office, by telephoning 01506 600200 or from our website at
www.hmie.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our complaints
procedure, you can raise your complaint with the Scottish Public Services
Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent and has powers to
investigate complaints about Government departments and agencies. You
should write to the SPSO, Freepost EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also
telephone 0800 377 7330 (fax 0800 377 7331) or e-mail: ask@spso.org.uk.
More information about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the
website: www.spso.org.uk.
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HM Inspectorate of Education
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