School inspectors will not hinder the government’s drive to free teachers from unnecessary bureaucracy by asking for reams of evidence from headteachers, Scotland’s chief inspector has indicated.

Education secretary John Swinney this week advised teachers to “focus on young people” and not to “fill a lever arch file with endless amounts of detail”.

He issued the advice as he launched new guidance designed to give “absolute clarity” to teachers about “what is and what is not required” under the Curriculum for Excellence.

‘No disconnect’

In response, Bill Maxwell, Scotland’s chief inspector of education, told TESS: “I can absolutely give you reassurances that there won’t be a disconnect [between the new guidance and inspection]. Nowadays we have, on a number of occasions, seen inspection reports where effectively the main point of action has been about reducing bureaucracy and improving, streamlining processes.”

School inspectors were already undergoing training so that the new guidance would be embedded, he said.

The guidance comes amid fears that teachers are becoming bogged down in excessive paperwork and red tape in the name of CfE. However, one expert in curriculum theory, Professor Mark Priestley, has hit out at Mr Swinney’s attempt to bring coherence to CfE, saying that the new guidance had added “new complexity”.

Primary headteachers’ organisation AHDS has, meanwhile, questioned whether future inspections would actually reflect the new guidance. Only last week, Education Scotland issued a briefing to schools on the evidence that would be required before and during an inspection, AHDS president Robert Hair said.

This is an edited article from the 2 September edition of TESS. Subscribers can view the full article here. This week’s TESS magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here​

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