New school inspection regime leads to 'tougher' ratings

A new inspection regime introduced two-and-a-half years ago has made it more difficult for schools to be rated “very good” or “excellent” overall, say education directors and headteachers.Figures uncovered by Tes Scotland show that whilst three-quarters of schools were rated “good” or better overall under the old inspection framework, that proportion has now dropped to around half of schools (roughly 58 per cent) under the new regime introduced at the start of the 2016-17 school year. There has been a drop in the number of schools being rated “very good”, and a rise in the number of schools rated just “satisfactory”. A total of 28 per cent of primaries and 27 per cent of secondaries achieved a “very good” rating overall under the How Good Is Our School 3 (HGIOS 3) system over an eight-year period, but just 15 per cent of primaries and secondaries had done so up to May last year under its successor, How Good Is Our School 4 (HGIOS 4). When it came to the “satisfactory” rating, 19 per cent of primaries and secondaries were rated "satisfactory" under HGIOS 3, but a much larger proportion – 34 per cent and 32 per cent respectively – were rated “satisfactory” under HGIOS 4.