How good is your school?

Richard Goslan investigates

You know school inspections are having an impact when parents from the other side of the world start paying attention to the reports.  

That’s exactly what happened after Netherlee Primary School, in East Renfrewshire on the south side of Glasgow, became the first school in Scotland to win the new “excellent” category from Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education.  

“I’ve had an enquiry from people as far away as Australia, who were planning to move back to Scotland and had heard about our inspection report,” says Netherlee’s head teacher, Sandra Mitchell.  

The school won a total of five “excellents” for pastoral care, climate and relationships in the school, equality and fairness, partnership with parents, school board and community and for the leadership of Ms Mitchell and her management team.  

“We’ve also had interest from people living in England who are coming back up north and they have read the reports. Parents clearly put a great deal of importance on the inspections, and we’re seeing more families either moving into the catchment area or making placing requests.  

“The report confirmed what we had done following our own self-evaluation, but it was a big boost to the morale of parents and staff.”  

It has also been a boost to the property market. House prices across the boundary between Glasgow and East Renfrewshire show a marked difference, with similar houses in Netherlee’s catchment selling for up to £60,000 more than those on the other side of the line.  

Melanie Whyte and her husband John Stoner moved into the area from Glasgow’s West End before their children were due to start at primary school, not specifically for the school’s reputation, but they were happy to discover that the house fell within Netherlee’s catchment area.  

“It wasn’t our prime consideration,” says Melanie, “but it was obvious that people were trying to buy into the area because of the school, and we were glad the house was within the catchment area of a school with a good reputation. “But personally I think Netherlee has become a bit too big, and I’d prefer a smaller school even if it didn’t have such a good report.”  

The point is that a good report doesn’t automatically make the school the perfect place for every child.  

As far as Judith Gillespie, development manager for the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, is concerned, the important thing to remember is to look beyond academic results, and see what the HMIE reports tell us about our schools. “Previously people were using examination figures, but HMIE reports are more valid than just league tables because HMIE will often give an extremely good report to a school which doesn’t achieve that much in examinations,” she says. “In the past, reports didn’t look at what schools with poor results were achieving in other areas, so in that respect the HMIE reports are a step forward.”  

An Edinburgh-based mother, Nikki Miller, noticed such a thirst for knowledge about schools that she decided to put together her own directory, The Nursery and School Guide. She lists the schools’ attainment levels in reading, writing and maths, as well as providing a link to the HMIE reports.  

“This has become a massive, massive issue for parents. There’s such a hunger for knowledge about which school their children should go to,” says Nikki. “When a school gets a good HMIE report, it spreads like wildfire, but I also wonder how many parents really look into it. I think whatever knowledge parents have about certain schools comes more from word of mouth than from inspectors’ reports.”  

Nikki’s publication has already been a big success in Edinburgh – so much so that she’s now planning to put together a similar guide for Glasgow’s schools and nurseries. “From my conversations with parents, I think there’s an increasing sense of choice, even within the state sector,” she says. “People do feel that they can choose which school their children can go to, whether that means moving into another catchment area or applying for a placement in another area.”  

A spokesman for HMIE says the inspections are simply meant to ensure that parents get the best possible deal in terms of educational attainment from their schools – with the goal of Scotland having the best schools in Europe by 2020. Inspections also make sure that parents can check the progress of schools, if inspectors need to make repeat visits.  

But one teacher from a primary school on the south side of Glasgow feels that although an inspection can certainly make a school and its teachers pull their socks up, parents are left with a false impression of what the school is like if they base their opinions purely on an HMIE report.  

“The inspections are carried out in a very false atmosphere, with the school putting on a real performance for the inspectors,” she says. “Schools have advance warning that the inspectors are coming in, so everything is sorted out before they arrive."  

It might be better if they just turned up unannounced, and saw you warts and all.“Sensible parents rely more on local feedback and word of mouth about a school than on an official inspection report."  

All parents need to do is go to visit the actual school, see what kind of atmosphere it has and what kind of welcome they get, to form a better impression of whether it’s suitable or not.  

“Parents need to look at the whole picture, not just on exam results or a glowing report, to see what’s best for their child – maybe it’s a case of going to a smaller, single-stream school, even if it doesn’t have a glowing report to its name.”  

Every parent is concerned about giving their child the best possible start in education, and reports have their purpose. But beyond the classroom, the key message is – know your own child.