Validated Self-Evaluation Report
In October 2009, Education and Children's Services was supported by
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) in conducting a Validated
Self-Evaluation (VSE).
HMIE have now published a
report on the findings of the VSE [pdf
151KB]. The report reflects the positive
improvement journey Education and Children's Services has made over
the past few years.
In consultation with HMIE six themed areas were evaluated:
- early years provision
- services for children and young people with additional support
needs (ASN)
- effective learning and teaching
- school self-evaluation
- secondary attainment and achievement
- wider achievement of young people
A range of improvement actions were also identified for each
theme.
Key Strengths
- Very effective and purposeful leadership, with a clear sense of
direction and robust and comprehensive approaches to
self-evaluation;
- The clear commitment of the Education and Children's Services
Executive Director and his SMT to integrated working and ensuring
sustainable improvement;
- Strong partnership working at strategic and operational levels
to support vulnerable children and their families;
- The overall quality of attainment and achievement in reading
and mathematics in primary schools and S1/S2; and
- The range and quality of opportunities to enhance the wider
achievements of young people in a variety of settings.
Next Steps
Key priorities for improvement are to:
- focus on raising attainment and, in particular, improve
consistency of performance at all levels of SQA examinations for S4
- S6 pupils;
- extend the range and quality of provision for children and
young people with emotional, social and behavioural needs
- develop more comprehensive and systematic approaches to
monitoring, tracking and measuring outcomes for children and young
people across all services, using information gathered from
evaluative activities to achieve further improvement; and
- develop more systematic ways of gathering the views of service
users and take account of these in the planning and delivery of
services.
