Inspection of education functions
Follow-through report
The Moray Council
29 June 2010
Contents
Page
Introduction
The inspection
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Continuous improvement
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Progress towards meeting the main points for action
2
Conclusion
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Introduction
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published an inspection report on the
education functions of The Moray Council in January 2008. In that report, HMIE
undertook to revisit the Council within two years to assess progress. Subsequently,
we agreed to delay the visit to accommodate ongoing changes within the Council.
Follow-through visits took place in April and June 2010 to look at the progress in
each of the main points for action.
HMIE is committed to working alongside other scrutiny bodies to reduce
unnecessary scrutiny through the new Shared Risk Assessment process. We
therefore scrutinised all available evidence about the extent to which the Council
had been making improvements in line with the original main points for action. We
then revisited the Council to follow up on the main points for action in a different and
more responsive way than in the past. HMIE worked alongside senior officers to
support and challenge their self-evaluation of their progress in relation to two main
points for action. HMIE confirmed their evaluation of their progress and this report
describes the outcomes of this process. HMIE also worked in partnership with Audit
Scotland to scrutinise aspects of corporate leadership which related to the third main
point for action. This will be the subject of a separate report by Audit Scotland and
HMIE.
1. The inspection
HMIE published a report on the inspection of the education functions of The Moray
Council in January 2008. The education authority was asked to prepare an action
plan indicating how it would address the main findings in the report. HMIE maintained
contact with the authority and made a return visit in April 2010 to assess, in
conjunction with authority officers, the extent to which the authority was continuing to
improve the quality of its work, and to evaluate progress in responding to two main
points for action in the original report.
2. Continuous improvement
The Education Service has continued to build on the key strengths identified in the
2008 HMIE report. The senior management team (SMT) has been successful in
fostering a collegiate culture of open discussion in which staff feel valued and
supported. A range of well-planned initiatives are underway which are having a
positive impact on learners’ experiences and the development of the educational
workforce. Partnership working has continued to develop and is increasingly
impacting positively on children and young people.
The service has extended its highly effective programme of professional development
of teaching staff with a strong focus on effective learning and teaching. HMIE
inspection reports and authority quality assurance visits show that staff have made
good use of courses to improve learners’ experiences, improve attainment and better
meet the needs of all learners. Application of a critical skills approach in schools
continues to be well-received by staff and young people. Young people indicate that
many new strategies being introduced by their teachers have resulted in learning
which is motivational and in lessons which are interesting. Pupils are more aware of
what they are expected to learn and more able to assess their own progress
effectively and confidently. They are clear that the opportunity to work in groups
enhances their learning and also develops their skills as individuals, team members,
leaders and citizens.
The service is now taking an increasingly systematic approach to developing the
leadership skills of staff. There is a commendable commitment to developing
distributive leadership through coaching across schools in Moray. Work on this
project has impacted positively on staff and pupils. For example, newly appointed
headteachers are now very well supported by coaches in further developing their
leadership skills. School staff welcome this well-structured approach. Recently, there
has been an increase in high quality local candidates for senior posts in schools. The
introduction of Leadership Learning Communities, although at an early stage, is
allowing staff to learn and reflect and use their new knowledge to effect positive
change in their school context.
The service is more proactive in seeking out and learning from best practice nationally
and internationally. An increasing number of schools have established educational
links with overseas partners. One primary school has been recognised nationally as
an International Champion school. Moray staff are now invited with greater frequency
to share their effective practice with the wider Scottish education and learning
community at national events and on national development groups. This has included
requests for input at the Scottish Learning Festival, Building the Curriculum Seminars
and input by Learning and Teaching Officers on literacy and numeracy to other
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authorities. Council staff, by invitation, have contributed to national steering groups on
Health and Wellbeing in Schools and on Personal Support.
A number of authority staff have undertaken international study visits and their
experiences are now being put to good effect through the implementation of new
approaches to supporting and assessing children’s learning in schools. Six Moray
schools have recently contributed to the National Assessment Resource (NAR) pilot.
Staff involved in this pilot are more confident in assessing learners’ progress within
Curriculum for Excellence and are able to share their experience with colleagues.
HMIE inspection reports on schools have shown an improving trend in terms of
evaluations of the curriculum. A number of aspects have received positive comment
including the development of skills in literacy and numeracy, the opportunities children
have to learn about the world of work and enterprise and the development of skills in
citizenship. Schools are increasingly making effective use of the experiences and
outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence in their planning and policy making. The
authority has provided helpful guidance to support schools in implementing Curriculum
for Excellence. The approach taken has received positive feedback from
headteachers and Learning and Teaching Scotland.
Educational Services has had considerable success in extending partnership working.
The collegiate, consultative and thoughtful approach to Curriculum for Excellence has
engaged wider partners in the process and has ensured progress within schools.
Close working between schools, Skills Development Scotland and Moray College has
supported the development of specific courses tailored to the needs of particular
groups of learners. This has led to a greater number of young people achieving
positive destinations. The service has systematically improved its approaches to
support for, and evaluation of, pre-school provision. As a result, HMIE inspection
reports have shown a clear improving trend in the quality of pre-school provision by
partners over the past two years. A Moray Curriculum for Excellence Parents’ Toolkit
has received national recognition and has been supported by helpful training sessions
for schools and Parent Councils.
Educational Support Services has made helpful revisions to the model of staged
intervention, identifying responsibilities at different stages and giving very clear
direction on the need to provide initial support within class via differentiation and
appropriate learning and teaching strategies. Children with additional support needs
are now increasingly part of an inclusive model where responsibility for learning in its
broadest sense is shared by all adults working with and around the child or young
person.
3. Progress towards meeting the main points for action
The initial inspection report published in January 2008 identified three main points for
action. This section evaluates the progress made with two of the action points and the
resulting improvements for learners and other stakeholders. Progress in meeting the
third action point ‘Continue to improve the strategic direction of the service’s work to
ensure greater impact on learners’ will be addressed by Best Value work planned by
Audit Scotland as part of agreed scrutiny arrangements.
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3.1
Continue to improve the quality of attainment, particularly at S5 and S6.
The Education Service has made satisfactory progress overall in addressing this main
point for action.
Effective support for literacy and numeracy has maintained good levels of attainment
at the primary stages and attainment has shown steady improvement in the early
secondary years. Maintaining a strategic focus on learning and teaching methodology
will support the improvement agenda further.
Raising attainment has remained a priority in the 2009-2012 Service Improvement
Plan. Performance analysis has improved, resulting in more focused target setting
and greater expectations of pupils particularly in S5. More pupils are now sitting at
least one Level 6 award in that year. The service is aware that this approach should
now be further developed to include S6. Senior managers and staff are now more
confident in the analysis of data due to improved training across the service. With
greater engagement at school level there is a stronger link between data review and
identified improvement priorities. The service is now taking positive steps to target
specific departments within schools where there is a need for further improvement.
Young people’s attainment in SQA examinations at Levels 3 and 4 or their equivalent
continues to be above comparator and national averages. By the end of S4, the
percentage achieving five or more awards at Level 5 or better shows steady
improvement and by 2009 is now above both comparator and national averages. The
results in 2009 are the best ever achieved by young people in Moray.
By the end of S5, the percentage of young people attaining three or more awards at
Level 6 has increased steadily over recent years. As before, there have been
fluctuations in performance in relation to five or more awards at Level 6 with a slight
dip in 2008 followed by the best performance to date in 2009.
At S6, there has been improvement in the percentage of young people gaining
qualifications in a range of measures. Increasing the number of young people who
achieve three or five or more awards at Level 6 remains a challenge for the service
and secondary schools.
Overall, the service will continue to take action to increase young people’s attainment
at S5-S6 and is well placed to do so, given the improving results at S4 and S5.
3.2
Improve approaches to self-evaluation within establishments and across
CLD and ensure that headteachers and senior promoted staff take responsibility
for monitoring and evaluating performance.
The service has made very good progress in bringing about improvement through
self-evaluation in response to this main point for action.
The Quality Improvement Framework for Schools was revised in April 2008. It now
underpins a commitment to embedding self-evaluation in the work of every
establishment and clarifies the role of the education authority in validating the
outcomes of school self-evaluation through appropriate challenge and support.
Establishments have been well supported by officers in strengthening their
approaches to self-evaluation. Evaluations by HMIE, at the time of school inspections,
have shown consistent improvement since 2007. School reviews and follow-up
activity by Quality Improvement Officers (QIOs) have resulted in a much more rigorous
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approach to validating the outcomes of establishments’ self-evaluation processes and
the impact of their improvement objectives. An increasing number of establishments
are now identifying, through self-evaluation, outcomes for learners which are
observable, directly measurable and capable of being evaluated, in their strategic
improvement plans.
All headteachers have undertaken helpful staff development activities on
self-evaluation. The service has published a useful minimum specification for
self-evaluation and an authority rubric for self-evaluation is being developed. Schools
are better able to evidence improvements in learning and teaching and attainment
following more rigorous analysis of data, direct observation of practice and systematic
use of stakeholders’ views. School staff are increasingly recognising their
accountability for the overall quality of educational experience for children and young
people. Most heads of establishments are fulfilling their responsibilities for evaluating
the quality of provision, within their establishments, more effectively. However, not all
schools are at the same stage in their development. In secondary schools, Principal
Teachers are taking greater ownership of self-evaluation. Nonetheless, there are still
departments within secondary schools where more work is required in order to
improve self-evaluation.
There is an improved culture of sharing practice across Moray with establishments
learning from each other. Most schools, especially those involved in the Tapestry
(Professional Learning Communities) Project are getting better at engaging in
professional discussions as their understanding of the self-evaluation process
expands. In an increasing number of schools, teachers are becoming involved in
peer-evaluation and this is helping to develop and improve practice.
Findings from inspections in the period from April 2008 to March 2010 have shown an
improving trend. In the pre-school sector, self-evaluation was rated as satisfactory to
very good in 15 out of 16 centres inspected by HMIE. Within the primary sector,
self-evaluation was satisfactory to very good in 12 out of 14 schools. In two out of
three secondary inspections it was rated good and very good.
The evaluations of the quality indicator ‘Improving Services’ were good and very good
in the two inspections of learning communities. Approaches to self-evaluation by the
community learning development (CLD) service are good and improving. CLD service
staff are effective at improving services. They systematically plan and evaluate their
work using a range of effective methods. Staff regularly discuss improvements
through helpful peer review. Due to improved self-evaluation and increasing capacity
for improvement at establishment level, HMI were able to disengage from
follow-through activity in almost all cases. Where follow-through inspections took
place all schools/centres had made effective progress.
The service will now continue to monitor self-evaluation progress and the impact of all
related work in all establishments and continue to offer training for senior staff on
self-evaluation. Further work will be required with a number of schools and
departments in secondary schools to improve self-evaluation skills and techniques
and support will be provided for headteachers and other senior staff in writing
Standards and Quality Reports which are fully evaluative. The service has further
plans to improve its use of data to support the improvement planning processes in
establishments.
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Conclusion
The Education Service of The Moray Council has made considerable progress since
the original inspection. It has continued to develop its strengths and is now a more
forward and outward looking organisation. The service has successfully developed its
capacity for improvement through a commitment to the development of its staff and
through a focus on improved leadership at all levels. Senior managers recognise the
need to continue their efforts to further improve attainment in S5/S6 and are
committed to further developing aspects of self-evaluation across the services.
HMIE will make no further visits in connection with the January 2008 report.
Anne Park
HM Inspector
Directorate 5
HM Inspectorate of Education
Donald Duncan
Director of Educational Services
The Moray Council
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This report uses the following word scale to make clear judgements made by
inspectors.
excellent
very good
good
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
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report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for
example, in a translation, or if you wish to comment about any aspect of our
inspections. You can contact us at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at
BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park,
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alternatively you can contact our Complaints Manager, at the address above or by
telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education
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