Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation: headteacher survey 2018

Headteachers’ experience of the fund, covering themes such as governance, planning and evaluation, impact and sustainability.


7. Governance and administration

7.1. The survey built on previous exercises by asking for headteachers' views on national and local governance and organisation around the Attainment Scotland Fund, and the support they receive from Scottish Government, Education Scotland, their Attainment Advisor and/or their local authority.

7.2. Respondents were asked to indicate what they felt was working well and what could be improved around: i) Challenge Authority/Schools programme funding and ii) Pupil Equity Funding. Responses are summarised below.

7.3. This suggests that views are broadly similar to those expressed through the 2017 survey, with local authority and Attainment Advisor support the main positives, and organisational and staffing issues the main areas for improvement. However it is notable that the greater autonomy and flexibility provided to schools has been added as a key positive this year, primarily based on feedback from PEF-only schools.

Working well CA/SP (n=175) PEF (n=184)
Support from local authorities 30% 17%[9]
Support from Attainment Advisors 23% 14%
Collaboration and sharing of practice/experience 15% 11%
Access to resources and funding 7% 15%
Greater autonomy/flexibility for schools - 15%
Positive experience of initiatives 5% 9%
A collective, shared focus 4% 5%
Could be improved CA/SP (n=87) PEF (n=139)
Need to address organisational issues, bureaucracy 22% 19%
Staffing issues, insufficient resourcing, workload 14% 12%
More collaboration, sharing of practice and experience required 13% 19%
More support required from local authorities 11% 9%
More support required from Attainment Advisors 3% -
Better access to resources and guidance required 3% 12%
Inaccurate or imprecise targeting of pupils 3% 7%
A consistent, shared focus required 2% 4%

Contact

Email: socialresearch@gov.scot

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