There was a bitter irony at the end of last week for those who work in Scottish schools. On the one hand, on Friday afternoon there was welcome news from Education Scotland that its inspections plan for the coming months was not going ahead. At a time when Covid-19 shows no signs of going away any time soon, chief inspector Gayle Gorman explained that she was “acutely aware of the pressures schools remain under”.

Excellent, you might have thought - that will help to reduce the strain on teachers and let them focus on the job at hand. Who, after all, would want to be scrutinised and evaluated in a pandemic?

Unfortunately, that was exactly what teachers endured that very same day, when yet another round of specious school league tables was published by several media outlets - and billed by some as a list of the “best” and “worst” secondary schools in the country.

We’ve gone into detail before about how misleading and potentially damaging such league tables are. Schools’ placings tend to correlate very closely with the affluence of their part of Scotland and don’t reflect the outstanding work that goes on in many of the lowest-ranking schools (while also potentially obscuring some higher-ranking schools that may not be doing as well as they could be). What’s more, the fraught and inconsistent approaches to senior-phase assessment around Scotland in 2020-21 will have made such league tables even more misleading.

One headteacher of a school at the lower end of the list spoke for many when he said he was “proud” to be number 291 out of 340, because “we are so much more than this number and refuse to be defined by it”.

But back to the good news: there was a collective sigh of relief about Education Scotland’s announcement last Friday, with comments on social media including “Some common sense at last” and “Thank you, Santa”. Some people were wary, though, and questioned whether the “recovery” visits due to start in February would be inspections in another guise. Overall, however, most responses chimed with the EIS union’s view that “a sensible and practical decision” had been made, at a time when the pandemic continues to have “a profound impact on all aspects of school life”.

We’ve heard from several school leaders in recent weeks who have told us that they desperately need some respite. After nearly two years of Covid disruption, if the Education Scotland announcement is a sign that national education agencies are listening to teachers, that’s got to be welcomed.

Of course, with the publication of the Muir review’s findings early in the new year, we’ll have a better idea of how Education Scotland will be reformed and what the Scottish Qualifications Authority will be replaced by. We’re not hearing any predictions of radical change - education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville told MSPs that, whatever reform lay ahead, “externally assessed examination will remain part of the new system”.

Let’s hope, nevertheless, that Education Scotland’s announcement is a sign that the relationship between teachers and national education agencies will be recalibrated.

The NASUWT union, in its submission to the Muir review, complained of a tendency in Scottish education to “prioritise the voices of those who are not practising teachers”, with those employed by national bodies having more influence than they should.

“Without proper engagement with classroom teachers and the voice of teachers firmly embedded therein, any new body is simply not going to have the support of the profession,” the NASUWT said.

Education Scotland, it seems, read the room last week when it made its announcement on inspections - and teachers around the country will be hoping this is a sign of things to come. 

@Henry_Hepburn

This article originally appeared in the 10 December 2021 issue under the headline “Inspections hiatus gives teachers a hint of a brighter future”