ONE in 10 Scottish primary schools has been classed as “weak” on the delivery of the curriculum, new figures show.

An analysis of inspections over the past two years has also revealed one third of schools overall have been highlighted as needing improvement.

It comes at a time when primary schools were expected to have successfully introduced the Curriculum for Excellence, which aims to modernise lessons.
The results for the curriculum were better in secondary with no schools judged to be “unsatisfactory” out of the 30 inspected and just one judged to be “weak”.

Liz Smith, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservative Party, said the figures showed too many Scottish schools were failing to achieve “good” or better ratings.

She went on to call for the number of inspections by education quango Education Scotland to be increased after a decline in recent years.

“Notwithstanding the changes to the inspection process which took place in 2011, there is, quite rightly, an expectation that most primary schools will be inspected every seven years and most secondary schools will be inspected every six years,” she said.

“Inspections are a very important means of providing schools and parents with the necessary information to make judgments about educational standards and the strengths and weaknesses of each school.

“The statistics tell us there has been a marked decline in the number of school inspections which means the six and seven year cycles are not being met.”

However, the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in
Scotland (AHDS), which represents primary headteachers, said Education Scotland was working on a new framework of progress that would help support schools in the delivery of CfE.

Robert Hair, the president of AHDS, said: “It will help make sure teachers are not missing anything and that skills are not being repeated year after year. As soon as a child has mastered a skill they should be moving on and progressing.”

Education Scotland said the figures were only a “partial sample” and were not representative of the national picture.

A spokeswoman said: “Where inspectors identify an area as weak during an inspection they will work with the school and local authority to agree a plan of action.”

A school is deemed to have received a positive inspection if it is rated “satisfactory” or better by Education Scotland in three key areas.

However, a school receives a “satisfactory” rating when the strengths in a particular area “just outweigh the weaknesses” and “the school needs to take action”.

The figures, obtained by the Times Educational Supplement Scotland, showed that a total of 21 of 135 primary schools visited by inspectors had “important weaknesses” with programmes and courses that were “sufficient to diminish learners’ experiences in substantial ways”. One primary was rated unsatisfactory – the lowest possible rating – for its curriculum.

Over the past two years 64 per cent of Scottish primaries and secondaries whose inspection reports were published were rated “good” or better.

Of the remaining third 45 were rated as “satisfactory” and 15 were rated as even poorer.