SCOTTISH schools will be given surprise inspections under plans for a radical shake-up of the way education is monitored.

Under the proposals, which will be piloted from late October, primaries and secondaries will be give as little as two days to prepare for a visit by school inspectors.

Currently, primary schools are given two weeks' warning ahead of a visit, with secondaries receiving three weeks' notice.

Inspection body Education Scotland will also pilot "neighbourhood reviews" which will look at a secondary school and its cluster of surrounding primaries and nurseries to give parents an overview of what a pupil will experience as they grow up in a particular community.

These reviews, which will be piloted from 2016, will also examine the way other establishments and services work such as colleges, community learning, voluntary services and careers information.

And as part of the move to look at the wider experience of pupils rather than individual schools in isolation inspectors will examine particular themes such as how well the Curriculum for Excellence has been implemented, or efforts to close the attainment gap between rich and poor.

Alastair Delaney, director of inspection at Education Scotland, said: "By engaging with a wide range of organisations, both nationally and internationally, we want to ensure that inspection continues to make a significant contribution to improvement in our education system.

"The next step is to try out the approaches for which we found there was most support. We shall then work to gather views and evaluate these try-outs. The evaluations will help inform further developments before any roll-out nationally of new approaches to inspection.

"One area this review has looked at is shifting the focus from the establishment to the learner. Rather than inspecting the establishment itself, the inspection will instead focus on the learner’s journey and their experience of the different elements of their education."

Eileen Prior, executive director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, welcomed the move to introduce alternative approaches.

She said: "Short or no-notice inspections have been discussed for some time and they seem quite attractive because the stressful preparation time will be removed and inspectors will see the school as it operates normally.

"There are, of course, difficulties with it too such as absent staff or school trips, but parents want inspectors to get a taste of their school as it really is, and to get clear and meaningful feedback on strengths and areas for development."

A spokesman for the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union, also welcomed attempts by Education Scotland to reduce pressure on school staff caused by inspections.

He added: "The move to short-notice inspections may help ease the stress that can build up in the run-up to an inspection visit, but it may also create other practical issues if they are announced during a period of unexpected staff shortage.

"There may also be a potential risk of headteachers putting staff on year round alert due to the short notice nature of inspections. As ever, the key to positive inspections will continue to be dialogue with all staff."

The Education Scotland review of school inspections was triggered by significant changes to education delivery in Scotland, including the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, and societal changes such as demographic shifts and the increasing use of technology.

There have been ongoing concerns that the current notice period for inspections gives schools too long to prepare with the resulting reports not providing evidence of how schools are run throughout the rest of the year.

The period of preparation can also be very stressful for school staff and distract them from the core business of teaching pupils. There has also been concern that because inspections can be infrequent they do not provide an up-to-date picture of a school.