Transforming lives through learning The ‘Scottish approach’ to improving education and the role of HGIOS within it Dr Bill Maxwell Chief Executive 13 May 2015

Transforming lives through learning Vision, aim and context  National Debate and CfE set high level vision and purpose for education in Scotland  Co-produced - consensus and engagement with strong guiding coalition  3 clear priority aims now agreed nationally  raising attainment  eradicating inequity  enhancing public confidence

Transforming lives through learning A strategy for ‘whole-system’ improvement designed for a specifically Scottish context...  building on respect for education and teachers  focusing on education as a ‘common societal good’ rather than a ‘market commodity’  local authority duty to drive improvement  building on pioneering work in some key areas  curriculum design and assessment  self-evaluation and inspection

Transforming lives through learning...informed by a growing body of international evidence It depends where you are starting from.... How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better (McKinsey, 2010) different approaches appropriate to different stages in the improvement journey poor fair good great excellent

Transforming lives through learning A ‘good to great’ strategy based on:  giving practitioners more scope to exercise professional judgement and innovate  promoting engagement in collaborative learning and enquiry at all levels of the system  creating a strong culture of evidence-based evaluation - from local to national level  building ‘intelligent’ accountability systems which support improvement  a 3-way partnership – school – LA – national bodies

Transforming lives through learning in summary we are aiming to build a ‘learning’ education system:....in which a ‘virtuous cycle of improvement’ continuously drives innovation, learning and the spread of new knowledge about professional practice

Transforming lives through learning BETTER LEARNING applied and developed flexibly in local contexts impact evaluated at multiple levels knowledge drawn out about ‘what works’ knowledge spread effectively to practitioners The Virtuous Cycle of Improvement external research and intelligence

Transforming lives through learning 5 steps to creating the virtuous cycle 1.Setting the right high-level framework – CfE 2.Ensuring high level capacity in the workforce 3.Building the capacity of schools to self-improve 4.Ensuring a strong flow of evidence and knowledge back into the system 5.Ensuring knowledge is spread back to practitioners in the most useful form possible

Transforming lives through learning 5 steps to creating the virtuous cycle 1.Setting the right high-level framework – CfE 2.Ensuring high level capacity in the workforce 3.Building the capacity of schools to self-improve 4.Ensuring a strong flow of evidence and knowledge back into the system 5.Ensuring knowledge is spread back to practitioners in the most useful form possible

Resources to support self- improvement …setting the agenda

Insight Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool

Transforming lives through learning Resources to support self- improvement …making change happen

school improvement partnership programme.... Then making the improvement literacy and numeracy hubs Raising Attainment for All collaborative professional enquiry

Transforming lives through learning A key tool in the toolkit - How good is our school? How should it evolve? 2015 HGIOS 4 ??????

Transforming lives through learning Round table discussion  What sort of resources and support have had the most impact in driving self-evaluation and improvement in your local authority/school?  Do we have a balanced package of resources and support to help schools be inward, outward and forward looking?  How does HGIOS need to change to maximise its role in the modern ‘school improvers’ toolkit and what other tools do we need to build around it to ensure self-evaluation leads to real improvement?