The Scottish Qualifications Authority has appointed a headteacher as a senior adviser as part of efforts to create “a new and more positive relationship with Scotland’s teachers”, according to education secretary Jenny Gilruth.
The SQA - which is due to change into a new organisation Qualifications Scotland later this year - has announced that Sarah Brown, who has been headteacher at Kinross High School since 2015, will lead the development of a dedicated schools unit.
Rebuilding trust with teachers
New interim SQA chief executive, John Booth, says the headteacher’s experience of school leadership and teaching will help the body “reset relationships and rebuild trust” with the profession.
The creation of the schools unit and the appointment of a headteacher to lead it has been talked up by the SQA to rebut suggestions that the creation of Qualifications Scotland is little more than a rebrand.
The SQA has said the appointment will help it deliver three key commitments: to reset relationships, harness technology and evolve qualifications.
It envisages that Ms Brown - who starts her new job in July - will play a key role in wider work to win back trust with teachers and learners by “engaging openly” and ensure that the national awarding body is “better connected to those it serves”.
In February, in evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, SQA chair Shirley Rogers said the schools unit would “specifically engage with schools and provide a conduit into the SQA to make schools’ navigation of and communication with the body as easy as possible”.
Ms Rogers said it would be up to the appointed headteacher to “take the bones of that proposal and consider everything from the creation of a portal for teachers to engage with us to how we can structure ourselves to better support schools”.
The schools unit will become fully operational within Qualifications Scotland when it replaces SQA later this year. Ms Brown’s secondment is for an initial 18 months.
Mr Booth, who replaced Fiona Robertson when she stepped down last month, leading to the chief examiner and chief executive roles being split, described the appointment as “a crucial step forward”.
‘Qualifications Scotland has to feel tangibly different’
He added: “Qualifications Scotland has to feel tangibly different for those we serve, and Sarah’s appointment will help us build on the work already underway to reset relationships and rebuild trust.”
The appointment of a senior adviser is part of ongoing work commissioned by Ms Gilruth and led by Ms Rogers to strengthen the way Qualifications Scotland will support schools, learners and educators.
Relationships between schools and the SQA were strained to breaking point during the pandemic when the annual SQA exams were cancelled - five years ago tomorrow - and teachers were responsible for grading students. In 2021 it was announced that the SQA would be replaced.
More recently, there has been the fallout over the drop in the Higher history pass rate, by just over 13 percentage points between 2023 and 2024.
Ms Gilruth told the education committee in October that when the SQA becomes Qualifications Scotland, it will have to be “less defensive”, “less about gatekeeping” and put teachers’ and students’ views “at its heart”.
Listening to teachers’ views
She added that for too long it had felt like the SQA was “distanced from the profession”, but the new body was “an opportunity for Scotland’s teachers to engage with [Qualifications Scotland] more directly”.
The education secretary said it would be “more on the front foot at engaging with teachers, listening to their views”.
Commenting on Ms Brown’s appointment today, Ms Gilruth said it would “help to strengthen [Qualifications Scotland’s] engagement with the teaching profession and support for Scotland’s schools”.
She said: “It is clear that Sarah Brown will bring a wealth of secondary school teaching and leadership experience. This will be crucial for creating a new and more positive relationship with Scotland’s teachers as we move forward with qualifications reform work.
“That is why I commissioned the SQA chair to create a new, dedicated schools unit which will ensure that Scotland’s schools are at the heart of how the organisation delivers qualifications and assessment.”
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