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Publication - Statistics

School Estate Statistics 2022

Published
6 September 2022
From
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
Directorate
Learning Directorate
Part of
Education
ISBN
9781804358702

Results of the 2022 School Estates Core Facts Survey.

This document is part of a collection

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Chapter 4: School suitability

  • 87.8% of schools of a good or satisfactory suitability in April 2022.
  • 88.5% of pupils in schools of a good or satisfactory suitability in April 2022.

Suitability provides a measure of the extent to which a school building and its grounds provide an environment which supports quality learning and teaching. The following ratings are used to measure school suitability:

  • A: Good – Performing well and operating effectively;
  • B: Satisfactory – Performing well but with minor problems;
  • C: Poor – Showing major problems and/or not operating optimally;
  • D: Bad – Does not support the delivery of services to children and communities.

The proportion of schools with good or satisfactory suitability has increased 6.5 percentage points from 81.3 per cent in 2016 to 87.8 per cent in 2022 (Table 4.1).

Taking into account the different number of pupils in each school, there has been a 5.4 percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils in good or satisfactory suitability schools from 83.1 per cent in 2016 to 88.5 per cent in 2022 (Table 4.2).

Table 4.1: Suitability of schools, 2016-2022 [Note 1]
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 [Note 2] 2022 [Note 3]
Count
A: Good 728 777 788 816 862 893 958
B: Satisfactory 1,324 1,271 1,295 1,327 1,292 1,277 1,218
C: Poor 445 447 405 336 328 304 290
D: Bad 22 16 8 9 6 5 5
Suitability not recorded 5 5 5 4 1 3 6
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 2,052 2,048 2,083 2,143 2,154 2,170 2,176
C: Poor or D: Bad 467 463 413 345 334 309 295
Percentage
A: Good 28.8 30.9 31.5 32.7 34.6 36.0 38.6
B: Satisfactory 52.5 50.5 51.8 53.3 51.9 51.5 49.1
C: Poor 17.6 17.8 16.2 13.5 13.2 12.2 11.7
D: Bad 0.9 0.6 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2
Suitability not recorded 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.2
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 81.3 81.4 83.3 86.0 86.5 87.4 87.8
C: Poor or D: Bad 18.5 18.4 16.5 13.8 13.4 12.4 11.9

Note 1: Suitability as reported in April of relevant year.

Note 2: No suitability was recorded for one special school located in a hospital, one primary school temporarily located in a community center and one primary school in a refurbished building not yet surveyed.

Note 3: Suitability was not recorded for two special schools located in hospitals, two special school hubs with no pupils currently on roll, one new Special School and one new Primary school not yet surveyed.

Table 4.2: School pupils by suitability of school, 2016-2022[Note 1][Note 2]
2016 2017 2018 2019 [Note 3] 2020 [Note 3] 2021 [Note 4] 2022 [Note 5]
Count
A: Good 250,508 271,260 279,971 281,391 289,046 295,385 309,695
B: Satisfactory 312,851 302,296 311,869 324,392 326,281 327,344 312,789
C: Poor 104,009 101,321 92,890 83,050 77,597 74,384 78,225
D: Bad 8,095 5,795 2,292 2,300 3,668 3,412 2,160
Suitability not recorded 2,086 2,150 2,180 643 0 193 378
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 563,359 573,556 591,840 605,783 615,327 622,729 622,484
C: Poor or D: Bad 112,104 107,116 95,182 85,350 81,265 77,796 80,385
Percentage
A: Good 37.0 39.7 40.6 40.7 41.5 42.2 44.0
B: Satisfactory 46.2 44.3 45.3 46.9 46.8 46.7 44.5
C: Poor 15.4 14.8 13.5 12.0 11.1 10.6 11.1
D: Bad 1.2 0.8 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.3
Suitability not recorded 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 83.1 84.0 85.9 87.6 88.3 88.9 88.5
C: Poor or D: Bad 16.5 15.7 13.8 12.3 11.7 11.1 11.4

Note 1: Suitability as reported in April of relevant year.

Note 2: Refers to pupils on the school roll the previous September except where rolls have been updated to reflect the number of pupils on 1st April. Schools opened after September but before April will have no pupils recorded unless the school roll was supplied during this collection. Please see section 6.1 of the background notes for more information.

Note 3: Pupil rolls for 2018 and 2019 were corrected in September 2020 as special school pupils were missing from these figures.

Note 4: No suitability was recorded for one special school located in a hospital, one primary school temporarily located in a community center and one primary school in a refurbished building that has not yet been surveyed.

Note 5: Suitability was not recorded for two special schools located in hospitals with no pupils currently on roll, two special school hubs with no pupils currently on roll, one new Special School and one new Primary school not yet surveyed.

Contact

Email: school.stats@gov.scot

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