Education inspectors find five areas for improvement

● Report notes strengths but calls for greater consistency

Five areas for further improvement have been identified in a major report covering the whole spectrum of education in Scotland.

The chief education inspector has published a review of his findings after analysing all sectors - from early years provision to adult learning - from January 2012 until June last year.

Bill Maxwell found “many strengths” across all sectors of education and examples of “outstanding and innovative practice”.

But inspectors also concluded some key aspects of education provision and practice need to be improved.

They called for greater consistency between different schools, finding children’s attainment and achievement are too variable across different primary schools.

At secondary school level, the “quality of learning and teaching was commonly found to be too variable within schools”.

The report, entitled Quality and improvement in Scottish education 2012-2016, set out five areas where more needs to be done. They are: n Fully exploiting the flexibility of curriculum for excellence to meet students’ needs better; n Improving arrangements for assessing and tracking pupils’ progress; n Maximising the contribution of partnerships with oth-

0 Inspectors said Scottish education has gone through a significant period of reform er services, parents and the wider community; n Improving self-evaluation by students; n Growing a stronger culture of collaboration between establishments to promote innovation, and share good practice.

Inspectors state Scottish education has gone through a period of “very significant reform”, impacting on every part of the system during the period covered by the report.

At the same time, there have been “substantial constraints” on public finances, presenting challenges for the education sector, the report notes.

Strengths identified within Scotland’s education system include a “strong commitment” of leaders and staff to improving outcomes for children and young people.

Inspectors also detected a continual improvement in the quality of learning experiences for pupils, meaning youngsters are increasingly well motivated and engaged.

Education provision was also found to be “highly inclusive” and more young people are having a wider range of their achievements accredited through youth award schemes.

Dr Maxwell said: “Addressing these five priority areas for improvement effectively will make a decisive contribution to achieving the twin aims of excellence and equity for Scottish learners.” It has been said that teenagers are programmed to wake up late, but new research suggests that simply turning down the lights at night could help them get to sleep – and make it easier to get up in the morning.

Delaying school start times – which has been suggested as a way to fit in with young people’s sleep patterns – will not help youngsters get enough rest, the study suggests.

The research by Surrey University and Harvard Medical School suggests the problem is teenagers’ exposure to light. Getting up late in the morning leads to them leaving the lights on later at night, which delays their biological clock, in turn making it harder to get up.

Instead of moving UK school times, the modelling, published in Scientific Reports, suggests that young people should be exposed to bright light during the day, with the lights turned down in the evening and off at night.

Lead author Dr Anne Skeldon said: “Teenagers are more sensitive to light, so there are physiological differences. But if you were to look at teens who were hunter gatherers they wouldn’t have had a problem getting up in the morning. Modern lifestyles make it harder to get up.”