Section 2: School condition

A school’s condition is the current state of its fabric. This includes the state of repair of features and facilities that are part of the school fabric and its current design. It also includes the adequacy and appropriateness of the design, the security of the school fabric, contents and occupancy and general health and safety requirements.

The following ratings are used to measure school condition:

1. Good – Performing well and operating efficiently
2. Satisfactory – Performing adequately but showing minor deterioration
3. Poor – Showing major defects and/or not operating adequately
4. Bad – Economic life expired and/or risk of failure

The current guidance states that full condition surveys of the school estate should be carried out at least every five years. These statistics reflect the latest survey and rating reported by the local authority. School level information, including survey dates, is provided in the supplementary tables.

Construction issues identified in schools between full condition surveys, such as detection of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), may not result in a change to the reported condition rating if remedial/mitigation work has been undertaken, or the issue does not affect the overall condition of the building, or a full condition survey has yet to be conducted since identification of the issue.

Further details on school condition ratings are available in the Background Notes.

Figure 2: Number of schools with a poor or bad condition rating continues to fall

The number of schools by condition rating from 2007 to 2025.

The number of schools with a poor or bad condition rating has continued to drop, with 798 fewer than in 2007 and 9 fewer than in 2024 (down from 204 last year to 195). One of the reasons for the drop in the number of poor or bad condition schools was that there were more schools that changed from a poor/bad rating to a good/satisfactory rating than vice versa.

The number of schools with good or satisfactory condition ratings increased from 1,669 in 2007 to 2,251 in 2025. The proportion of schools in good or satisfactory condition has increased 29.3 percentage points from 62.7% in April 2007 to 92.0% in April 2025.

There was a small drop the in the number of schools with good or satisfactory condition ratings between 2024 and 2025 (2,253 to 2,251), yet the proportion of schools with good or satisfactory condition ratings increased between 2024 and 2025 (91.7% to 92.0%). This is because the decrease in the total number of schools was relatively bigger than the decrease in the number of schools with good or satisfactory condition ratings.

The number of schools rated as being in good condition declined from 644 in 2024 to 581 in 2025, continuing a downward trend that began in 2021. In contrast, the number of schools rated as being in satisfactory condition rose from 1,609 to 1,670 between 2024 and 2025, extending a trend that began in 2017.

In line with the long-term trend since 2007, the overall number of schools dropped from 2,457 in 2024 to 2,446 in 2025.

Figures 3 and 4 show the number and percentage of schools by condition rating for the last five years. Figures from 2007 are available in the supplementary tables.

Figure 3: Number of schools by condition rating, 2021 to 2025 [Note 1]

Figure 4: Percentage of schools by condition rating, 2021 to 2025 [Note 1]

Note 1: Three primary schools in East Lothian have split site campuses and submitted two School Estate Core Facts Survey returns each. These schools are included twice in the school counts in this table.

A condition rating may not be available for special schools where attendance is solely by pupils who are enrolled at a different school which has been separately reported in the survey. Condition ratings may also not be available for newly built schools or schools based in buildings outwith the school estate such as hospitals. From 2024, schools where no condition or suitability rating would normally be expected have been excluded from the survey. In line with this, the percentages shown here for all years are based on the number of schools where a condition rating was reported.

Figure 5: Number of pupils in schools with a poor or bad condition rating continues to fall

The number of pupils by school condition rating from 2007 to 2025.

Considering the number of pupils in each school, there has been a 30.1 percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils educated in good or satisfactory condition schools from 62.4% in April 2007 to 92.5% in April 2025 – the highest proportion since 2007.

There are over 200,000 fewer pupils in schools with poor or bad condition ratings than in 2007. There were 3,641 fewer in 2025 than in 2024.

The number of pupils in schools with poor or bad condition ratings dropped by more than 50% in the three years from 2007 to 2010 (from 256,794 to 120,178). Thereafter, the overall trend has been for a further but more gradual fall in the number of pupils in schools with poor or bad condition to 52,556 in 2025, a 56% reduction since 2010.

In recent years, the trend for pupil in schools with bad condition has differed from those in schools with poor condition. The number of pupils in schools with a bad condition rating increased from 1,736 in 2023 to 4,292 in 2024, before decreasing to 4,223 this year – a figure which is still significantly lower than the 31,862 reported in 2007. There were six schools with a bad condition rating in 2025, unchanged from last year.

Figures 6 and 7 show the number and percentage of pupils by school condition rating for the last five years. Figures from 2007 are available in the supplementary tables.

Figure 6: Number of pupils by school condition rating, 2021 to 2025

Figure 7: Percentage of pupils by school condition rating, 2021 to 2025