Shaping the Future: Strengthening Scotland's education system through empowered schools

Final report of the Independent Professional Advisor on future school reform in Scotland, with a focus on improvement, funding and governance.


Footnotes

1 David Hume: Moral Philosophy | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

2 From Complete Poems, edited by Michael Grieve and W.R. Aitken (Carcanet Press, 2 vols., 1993-4)

3 National Discussion Scottish Education - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space

4 SNP could take more than a century to close attainment gap - Scottish Liberal Democrats

5 PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment | OECD

6 OECD| PISA Scores

7 Education at a Glance 2025 | OECD

8 Education and skills - National Improvement Framework 2025: improvement plan - gov.scot

9 Public service spending and performance in Scotland | Institute for Fiscal Studies

10 Teaching Scotland's Future - Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland

11 therealdavidcameron.net

12 Education Governance: Next Steps: Empowering Our Teachers, Parents and Communities to Deliver Excellence and Equity for Our Children

13 International Council of Education Advisers: third report 2021-2023 - gov.scot

14 International Council of Education Advisers: third report 2021-2023 - gov.scot

15 Chapman and Donaldson| Where next for Scottish Education: Creating tomorrow’s education for today

16 Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education

17 School teachers - Pupil and teacher characteristics 2025 - gov.scot

18 International Council of Education Advisers: third report 2021-2023 - gov.scot

19 International Council of Education Advisers: third report 2021-2023 - gov.scot

20 Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education - gov.scot

21 Education (Scotland) Act 2025

22 Written question and answer: S6W-28044 | Scottish Parliament Website

23 Reforms must go 'far beyond' Scottish education bill, MSPs told | Tes

24 New chief says SQA 'shouldn't be marking our own homework' | The Herald

25 School inspections are changing - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space

26 Improving outcomes for young people through school education | Audit Scotland

27 Misleading Educational Statistics - Enlighten

28 How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better | McKinsey

29 How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top | McKinsey

30 National Improvement Framework Interactive Evidence Report

31 How good is our school? (4th edition)

32 How-Good-Is-Our-Education-Authority-Framework_August-2024.pdf

33 Local Government Benchmarking Framework | Improvement Service

34 Metrics for success for Scottish Education

35 Metrics for Success for Scottish Education

36 PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment | OECD

37 CSR-data-paper-2024.pdf

38 Findings - National Qualifications experience 2020: rapid review - gov.scot

39 Education (Scotland) Act 1980

40 Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000

41 Education (Scotland) Act 2025

42 Concordat between the Scottish Government and Local Government

43 Education governance: next steps: empowering our teachers, parents and communities to deliver excellence and equity for our children

44 Education Reform – Joint Agreement

45 Thematic Inspection of Readiness for Empowerment

46 Local authority approaches to supporting school improvement | National thematic inspections | Inspection reports | His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland

47 Where next for Scottish Education: Leading from the classroom March 2024

48 Education Governance: Next Steps: Empowering Our Teachers, Parents and Communities to Deliver Excellence and Equity for Our Children

49 Les Walton CBE - Association of Education Advisers

50 Supporting documents - International Council of Education Advisers: third report 2021-2023 - gov.scot

51 International Council of Education Advisers minutes: October 2025 - gov.scot

52. Organisations – Scotland's Health on the Web

53 LFR 01 2024-25 and POBE 2025.

54 Value for Money in School Education | OECD

55 Local government budgets 2025/26 | Audit Scotland

56 Where do councils get their funding from? - The Funding of Local Government in Scotland, 2026-2027 - gov.scot

57 Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2026-2027 - gov.scot

58 Briefing: Local government budgets 2024/25

59 Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000: statutory guidance - gov.scot

60 14 Principles of Democracy | liberties.eu

61 Local Financial Return (LFR) - gov.scot

62 Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

63 Scotland's Equity Toolkit: supporting recovery and accelerating progress

64 Why has Education Scotland stopped sharing inspection overviews? | Tes

65 Factors influencing primary school pupils’ educational outcomes

66 The Attainment Scotland Fund | Scottish Attainment Challenge | Learning in Scotland | Education Scotland

67 Pupil Equity Funding: national operational guidance 2023 - gov.scot

68 Devolved school management: guidelines - gov.scot

69 Education Reform – Joint Agreement

70 Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment: review and key recommendations - gov.scot

71 GTC Scotland: The Standard for Headship

72 ADES Towards a world class learning system

73 Education Reform – Joint Agreement

74 International Council of Education Advisers: third report 2021-2023 - gov.scot

75 The Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) | About Curriculum for Excellence | Curriculum for Excellence | Education Scotland

76 Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group: initial teacher education intake figures 2024 - gov.scot

77 Audit Scotland| School education

78 The Atlas Of Management Thinking

79 AHDS Workload survey report - AHDS

80 Governing Education in a Complex World | OECD

81 EIS Response To Governance Review| Final Version.pdf

82 Curriculum and Assessment Board minutes: December 2021 - gov.scot

83 Additional Support for Learning: A Review of System Delivery for Learners

84 How is Scotland Performing?

85 National Improvement Framework Interactive Evidence Report

86 Scottish Local Government Finance and 2025-26+Local+Government+Finance+Circular+10-2024+-+12+December+2024.pdf

87 LFR 01 2024-25 and POBE 2025.

88 Explore the data | Benchmarking

89 Improving outcomes for young people through school education

90 Briefing: Local government budgets 2024/25

91 Improving outcomes for young people through school education

92 Building the Curriculum 3: A Framework for Learning and Teaching

93 Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education

94 Full Report: Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence | OECD

95 An Empowered System | Resources | Education Scotland

96 Education Reform – Joint Agreement

97 Creating an empowered system: an evaluation strategy

98 Supporting documents - International Council of Education Advisers Report 2018-2020 - gov.scot

99 Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education

100 University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Education - Research - ELP - News - Creating tomorrow’s education for today

Contact

Email: EducationStrategicEngagement@gov.scot

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