Standards and Quality in Schools
Perth and Kinross Council · 1 September 2025
Back to Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee — 1 September 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
Our vision is a Perth and Kinross where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequalities ___________________________________________________________________ Committee or Board: Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee Date of Meeting: 1 September 2025 Report Title: Standards and Quality in Schools, Learning Communities and Pre-school Centres/Day Care of Children Report Number: 25/219 Report Author: James Chiles, Performance & Improvement Officer (FBSCommittee@pkc.gov.uk) Organisational Lead: David Macluskey, Strategic Lead – Education and Learning ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Purpose 1.1 This report sets out the key findings following inspections of schools and nurseries by Education Scotland/His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) and of early learning and childcare (ELC) settings undertaken by the Care Inspectorate in the day care of children. Reporting is of inspections reported since the previous Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 2 June 2025. 1.2 Sections 1. Purpose 2. Recommendation 3. Background/Main Issues 4. Recently Published Reports 5. Performance Summary 6. Conclusion 7. Impact Value Assessment 8. Appendices 2. Recommendation It is recommended that the Sub-Committee: 2.1 Considers and comments as appropriate on the contents of the report.
Page 2
2 3. Background/Main Issues 3.1 Education Scotland/HMIE Inspections 3.1.1 As required for the National Improvement Framework, HMIE will report on and provide grades for the following Quality Indicators (QIs) as part of full model inspections: • QI 1.3 – leadership of change; • QI 2.3 – learning, teaching and assessment; • QI 3.1 – ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion; and • QI 3.2 – raising attainment and achievement. Short model inspections focus on QIs 2.3 and 3.2. 3.2 ELC Inspections 3.2.1 ELC settings are subject to inspections from the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland and can experience joint inspections where both scrutiny bodies evaluate the quality of the provision. Due to higher levels of scrutiny in the ELC sector, it has been agreed nationally that an ELC setting which has been inspected by the Care Inspectorate will not receive an inspection by Education Scotland within 18 months. 3.2.2 The quality framework for daycare of children, childminding and school- aged childcare is framed around four key questions. Each of these include a number of QIs for actual inspection which are: • How good is our care, play and learning? • How good is our setting? • How good is our leadership? • How good is our staff team? The final key question is: What is our overall capacity for improvement? This requires a global judgement based on evidence and evaluations from all the other key areas but is not evaluated specifically. 3.2.3 Each QI is graded on a 6-point scale in which 1 = unsatisfactory, 2 = weak, 3 = adequate, 4 = good, 5 = very good and 6 = excellent, and the overall key question evaluation is based on the lowest QI rating if more than one is completed. Following the publication of Funding follows the child and the national standard for early learning and childcare providers: principles and practice, all ELC settings must gain evaluations of good or better to be able to provide funded ELC in partnership with the local authority.
Page 3
3 3.2.4 Recommendations and requirements may follow an inspection. • Recommendations: statements that set out actions the care service provider should take to improve or develop the quality of the service; and • Requirements: statements which set out what is required of the care service provider to comply with relevant legislation. 3.2.5 Care service providers must submit an action plan to the Care Inspectorate addressing any requirements and recommendations identified. Progress against the action plan is monitored by the Care Inspectorate through annual return and self-assessment forms submitted by the care service provider, and through subsequent inspection. 4. Recently Published Reports 4.1 Education Scotland/HMIE Inspections 4.1.1 Since the Executive Sub-Committee of Learning and Families Committee on 2 June 2025, the following reports have been published by Education Scotland1: • Blackford Primary School Blackford Primary School was inspected in April 2025 by Education Scotland. Education Scotland will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The evaluations against the QIs are shown in Appendix 1. At the time of the 2024 pupil census, the school had 54 primary school children enrolled. The primary school had a staffing complement of 4.08 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers. The detailed Summarised inspection findings for Blackford Primary School is available on the Education Scotland website. • Guildtown Primary School Guildtown Primary and Nursery School were inspected in March 2025 by Education Scotland. Education Scotland will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The evaluations against the QIs are shown in Appendix 2. At the time of the 2024 pupil census, the school had 38 primary school children, and 12 nursery children enrolled. The primary school had a staffing complement of 2.60 FTE teachers. The detailed Summarised inspection findings for Guildtown Primary School is available on the Education Scotland website. • Perth Academy Perth Academy was inspected in November 2023 by Education Scotland. On 20 May 2025, Education Scotland published a follow-up report on the progress made on areas for improvement identified in the original inspection. This report is available as Appendix 3. 1 As at 31 May 2025
Page 4
4 4.2 Care Inspectorate Inspections - Day Care of Children 4.2.1 A total of 5 inspections have been undertaken and published2 by the Care Inspectorate since the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 2 June 2025. 4.2.2 For the 20 indicators inspected; 11 received a ‘Very Good’ grading, 8 received ‘Good’ grading and 1 received ‘Adequate’ grading. 4.3 Care Inspectorate Inspections - Kids Clubs 4.3.1 There have been no Kids Club inspections published3 by the Care Inspectorate since the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 2 June 2025. 4.4 Care Inspectorate Inspections - Childminding Services 4.4.1 There have been no Childminding inspections published4 by the Care Inspectorate since the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 2 June 2025. 5. Performance Summary 5.1 Education Scotland/HMIE 5.1.1 This section provides a summary of the performance of ELC settings and schools since August 2016 in inspections undertaken by Education Scotland. Since August 2016, the inspection model has changed with QI 1.1 Self-Evaluation for Self-Improvement no longer being evaluated. 5.1.2 30 ELC providers, 41 primary schools and 5 secondary schools have been inspected since the beginning of academic session 2016/17. 5.1.3 Table 1 below gives a summary of the evaluations for each QI for all ELC, primary and secondary school inspections. 2 As at 31 May 2025 3 As at 31 May 2025 4 As at 31 May 2025
Page 5
Table 1: Number of QI Evaluations - 2016/17 to date. ELC QI Grading 1.3 Leadership of change 2.3 Learning, teaching & assessment 3.2 Securing children’s progress 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality & inclusion 1.1 Self- evaluation for self- improvement All QIs Excellent - - - - - - Very Good 6 8 9 8 - 31 Good 11 12 14 12 1 50 Satisfactory 4 6 3 1 1 15 Weak - 1 3 - - 4 Unsatisfactory - - - - - - Total 21 27 29 21 2 100 Primary Schools QI Grading 1.3 Leadership of change 2.3 Learning, teaching & assessment 3.2 Raising attainment & achievement 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality & inclusion 1.1 Self- evaluation for self- improvement All QIs Excellent 1 - - 1 - 2 Very Good 7 6 10 8 3 34 Good 9 18 20 13 - 60 Satisfactory 6 10 7 1 1 25 Weak - 1 2 - - 3 Unsatisfactory - - - - - - Total 23 35 39 23 4 124 Secondary Schools
Page 6
6 QI Grading 1.3 Leadership of change 2.3 Learning, teaching & assessment 3.2 Raising attainment & achievement 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality & inclusion 1.1 Self- evaluation for self- improvement All Qis Excellent - - - - - - Very Good - 1 - - - 1 Good - - 2 1 - 3 Satisfactory 3 3 2 1 - 9 Weak - 1 1 1 - 3 Unsatisfactory - - - - - - Total 3 5 5 3 0 16
Page 7
5.1.4 In Perth and Kinross, there is an expectation that ELC provision and schools meet “good” evaluations in all QIs. This is higher than the national “satisfactory” expectation. Therefore, where a school or ELC setting receives less than a “good” evaluation, the Quality Improvement Officer for the school/setting works with the Headteacher/Manager to develop an action plan which will secure improvement in the areas of identified need. 5.1.5 Benchmarking data for ELC, primary and secondary inspections up to March 2024 using national and comparator authority information is shown in Appendix 4. 5.1.6 For all ELC QIs evaluated from 2016/17 to date, 81% were graded as ‘good’ or better. 5.1.7 For all primary school QIs evaluated from 2016/17 to date, 77% were graded as ‘good’ or better. 5.1.8 For all secondary school QIs evaluated from 2016/17 to date, 25% were graded as ‘good’ or better. 5.2 Care Inspectorate 5.2.1 This section provides a summary of the performance of ELC settings in inspections carried out by the Care Inspectorate. A total of 4 Day Care services across Perth and Kinross have been inspected by the Care Inspectorate and reported to the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee since the beginning of the financial year 2025/26. 5.2.2 Table 2 below gives a summary of the evaluations for each Key Question. A summary list of inspections, as well as benchmarking over a longer time period (since financial year 2021/22) against national and comparator data, can be found in Appendix 5. This also includes an analysis of overall evaluation statistics to give the current position of inspections. Table 2: Number of Evaluations Received in Perth and Kinross 2025/26 to Date. QI Grading How good is our care, play and learning How good is our setting How good is our staff team How good is our leadership All QIs Excellent 0 0 0 0 0 Very Good 4 2 3 2 11 Good 1 2 2 3 8 Adequate 0 1 0 0 1 Weak 0 0 0 0 0 Unsatisfactory 0 0 0 0 0 Total 5 5 5 5 20
Page 8
8 5.2.3 There is an expectation that ELC providers meet “good” evaluations in all QIs. Therefore, where an ELC provider receives less than a “good” evaluation, the Service Manager and Quality Improvement Officer for the ELC establishment works with the Headteacher/Manager/Leader to develop an action plan which will secure improvement in the areas of identified need. 5.2.4 In November 2024, Wild Sparks Outdoor Nursery located outside Coupar Angus took the business decision to close its nursery provision from June 2025. The Early Years Team have provided support to the manager ensuring all parents/carers had childcare provision from August 2025 where required. 6. Conclusion 6.1 Inspection reports provide further information on the standards and quality in Perth and Kinross schools, nurseries and funded partners providing ELC. This report sets out the outcomes of Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate reports of schools and ELC settings inspected and published since last reported to the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 2 June 2025. The overall performance of schools and ELC settings in inspections is strong, and where necessary, action plans put in place provide evidence of continuous improvement. 7. Impact Value Assessment 7.1 The Impact Value Assessment (IVA) undertaken in relation to this report can be viewed on the Perth and Kinross Council website via the link: Standards and quality in schools, learning communities and pre-school centres/day care of children 8. Appendices 8.1 Appendix 1 – Blackford Primary School 8.2 Appendix 2 – Guildtown Primary and Nursery School 8.3 Appendix 3 – Perth Academy 8.4 Appendix 4 - Summary of Education Scotland Inspections 8.5 Appendix 5 - Summary of Care Inspectorate Day Care of Children Inspections
Page 9
9