Standards and Quality in Schools
Perth and Kinross Council · 24 August 2026
Back to Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee — 24 August 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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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: 24 August 2026 Report Title: Standards and Quality in Schools, Learning Communities and Pre-school Centres/Day Care of Children Report Number: 26/217 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 Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 1 June 2026. 1.2 Sections 1. Purpose 2. Recommendation 3. Background/Main Issues 4. Recently Published Reports 5. Performance Summary 6. Conclusion 7. Impact and 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.
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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 improvement framework for early learning and childcare sectors is framed around four key headings, each of these includes a number of QIs for actual inspection. • Leadership • Children thrive and develop in quality spaces • Children play and learn • Children are supported to achieve 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. 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
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• 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 1 June 2026, the following reports have been published by Education Scotland:1 • Dunbarney Primary School and Nursery Class Dunbarney Primary School and Nursery Class was inspected in February 2026 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 2025 pupil census, the school had 200 primary school children and 15 nursery school children enrolled. The primary school had a staffing complement of 12.25 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers. The detailed summarised inspection findings for Dunbarney Primary School Nursery Class and Dunbarney Primary School are available on the Education Scotland website. • Murthly Primary School and Nursery Class Murthly Primary School and Nursery Class was inspected in January 2026 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 2025 pupil census, the school had 46 primary school children and 11 nursery school children enrolled. The primary school had a staffing complement of 2.77 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers. The detailed summarised inspection findings for Murthly Primary School Nursery Class and Murthly Primary School are available on the Education Scotland website. • Breadalbane Academy Breadalbane Academy was inspected in January 2026 by Education Scotland. Education Scotland will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The evaluations against the QIs are shown in Appendix 3. At the time of the 2025 pupil census, the school had 362 secondary school children, 157 primary school children and 39 nursery school children enrolled. The primary school had a staffing complement of 14.32 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers, and the secondary school 1 As at 31 March 2026
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had a staffing complement of 37.7 FTE. As Breadalbane Academy is an all-through school, gradings were given separately for the Nursery class, but not separately for Primary and Secondary. The detailed summarised inspection findings for Breadalbane Academy Nursery and Breadalbane Academy are available on the Education Scotland website. • Kettins Primary School Kettins Primary School was inspected in March 2026 by Education Scotland. Education Scotland will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The evaluations against the QIs are shown in Appendix 4. At the time of the 2025 pupil census, the school had 28 primary school children enrolled. The primary school had a staffing complement of 2.82 FTE teachers. The detailed summarised inspection findings for Kettins Primary School is available on the Education Scotland website. 4.2 Care Inspectorate Inspections - Day Care of Children 4.2.1 A total of 2 inspections have been undertaken and published2 by the Care Inspectorate since the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 1 June 2026. 4.2.2 For the 8 indicators inspected; 2 received a ‘Very Good’ grading, 4 received a ‘Good’ grading and 2 received an ‘Adequate’ grading. 4.3 Care Inspectorate Inspections - Kids Clubs 4.3.1 A total of 3 Kids Club inspections were published3 by the Care Inspectorate since the Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee on 1 June 2025. 4.3.2 For the 11 indicators inspected; 2 received a ‘Very Good’ grading, 3 received ‘Good’ grading and 6 received a ‘Adequate’ grading. 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 35 ELC providers, 49 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 March 2026 3 As at 31 March 2026
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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 9 9 9 - 33 Good 11 13 14 14 1 53 Satisfactory 5 8 4 2 1 20 Weak - 1 3 - - 4 Unsatisfactory - - - - - - Total 22 31 30 25 2 110 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 9 6 12 10 3 40 Good 11 24 24 15 - 74 Satisfactory 6 12 9 1 1 29 Weak - 1 2 - - 3 Unsatisfactory - - - - - - Total 27 43 47 27 4 148 Secondary 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 - - - - - - Very Good - 1 - - - 1 Good 1 1 2 2 - 6 Satisfactory 3 3 3 1 - 10 Weak - 1 1 1 - 3 Unsatisfactory - - - - - - Total 4 6 6 4 0 20 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 May 2025 using national and comparator authority information is shown in Appendix 5.
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5.1.6 For all ELC QIs evaluated from 2016/17 to date, 78% were graded as ‘good’ or better. 5.1.7 For all primary school QIs evaluated from 2016/17 to date, 78% 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 18 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 4. 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 7 8 6 5 26 Good 8 6 10 8 32 Adequate 3 3 2 5 13 Weak 0 0 0 0 0 Unsatisfactory 0 0 0 0 0 Total 18 17 18 18 71 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 1 June 2026. 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.
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7. Impact and Value Assessment 7.1 This report has been classified as being an operational report and as such does not require a full Impact and Value Assessment. 8. Appendices 8.1 Appendix 1 - Inspection Report: Dunbarney Primary and Nursery School 8.2 Appendix 2 - Inspection Report: Murthly Primary and Nursery School 8.3 Appendix 3 - Inspection Report: Breadalbane Academy 8.4 Appendix 4 - Inspection Report: Kettins Primary School 8.5 Appendix 5 - Summary of Education Scotland Inspections 8.6 Appendix 6 - Summary of Care Inspectorate Day Care of Children Inspections