Map view of Scottish schools, select by Inspection Report grade?

[decaman]

I'm considering a move back to Scotland and would like to start to get an idea of school performance. In England, I use the locrating website to get a map view of schools and it allows me to select schools according to the Ofsed report. Locrating doesn't appear to have inspection data for Scottish schools - is there a tool available that can give this info?
Thanks

[prettybird]

We don't have Ofsted up here - it's HMI.

HMI inspections are in theory done once within a cycle of a school (ie 7 years per primary, 6 per secondary) but usually less frequently than that (I get the impression that schools that have had a good HMI report aren't inspected as often as both ds' primary and his secondary had longer gaps - but I might be adding 2+2 and making 5).

I don't know if any website ranks schools according to their HMI report. Personally I ld rather look at the full reports - and check when it was last done.

I do know that the site that includes a traffic light system for the likelihood of getting into a particular school (sorry, can't remember its name but it's linked to one of the estate agent sites) is crap. Bears absolutely no relationship with reality.

[decaman]

Thanks Pretty - the problem is that I'm not sure which area I want to live in; to a certain extent I will decide on location according to how good the schools are. I can't realistically check all the Inspection reports for Central belt & Borders to find out which are the good schools. Shame none of the estate agents are running a good map tool like locrating - it's really helpful when you are looking at areas to live in.

[prettybird]

You just need to ask on here - give us a rough idea of any areas you are thinking about and you'll almost definitely get good feedback from the MNers on here.

On the ground experience is so much better than outdated HMI reports. Plus you'll get a realistic feel as to whether placing requests will be accepted - which is often different to what you would expect from the school handbook.

[prettybird]

Schools in Glasgow that have good reputations are Shawlands I might be biased (placing requests to date are accepted), Hyndland (might struggle with placing requests), Hillhead, Jordanhill (don't even think of a placing request). Holyrood seems to be ok but I'm not sure I'd recommend Lourdes (2 of the Catholic schools - don't know about the rest).

Ross Hall, King's Park and Hillpark get varying reports and anyway there's only one Southside School

Outside Glasgow, the East Renfrewshire schools (especially St Ninians) and the East Dumbartonshire schools (eg Bearsden Academy) are good - but you pay for the location and some of the good results are due to their more favourable demographics. I also know parents at both the specific schools I'd mentioned and I'd say that Shawlands is a more holistic school - and still gets good results once its mixed demographic is taken into consideration.

Balfron High seems to be a good school in Stirlingshire even if it's a PFI school that has had to partially shut for the moment due to building problems

That's most of the schools that I can think about where I know parents who have experience of them.

Hope that helps.

[Lightbulbon]

Buy a house in an expensive area and the high school is likely to be high in the league tables.

Are you looking at primary or secondary?

Do you understand the system here eg catchments?

[cdtaylornats]

www.educationscotland.gov.uk/parentzone/myschool/findaschool/index.asp

This might help

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

I can help with Stirlingshire, bits of Falkirk, west Lothian, midlothian and Edinburgh.

[Behooven]

St Ninians isn't any use if you are non dominational though - all the East Ren schools are v good relatively.

[Behooven]

denominational

[RJnomore1]

I wouldn't recommend Barrhead or st Luke's as high performing. All east ren schools on the other side of the motorway are - but like everywhere you cab link that back to simd deciles.

Best performing local authority areas over all are usually east ren and Aberdeenshire.

[decaman]

Thanks for all the info - lots of good ideas. I should probably be clearer about my position - it's very early days, ie I haven't even told suggested to DH we're moving back yet. DS is in Infant school, DD is in pre-school but if when we move I want to make sure I get into the right catchment for secondary as well as primary.
Any Doonhamers about?

[decaman]

Lightbulbon just had a quick look at the catchment system - it seems really organised and must better than the shambolic Surrey system which leaves quite a few children with no local secondary.

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

Yes, it is straightforward and you still have the option to request a place at another school if you prefer but obviously there is no guarantee that that will be accepted.

I don't know Dumfries area at all, but focusing your search will help you in your search a bit.

I suppose you need to think about where you are likely to get work, transport links for seeing family, what you like to do in your spare time e.g. are you more a seaside or countryside or city type of family, how much you have to spend and then when you've decided on that you can target schools that you think would best suit your requirements and then I think you can usually find the catchments on the council website.

[prettybird]

Actually finding catchment maps is incredibly difficult. However, once you've found a house you're interested in, you can plug the post code in and find out the catchment/primary secondaries unless you have a friend at the council who manages to unearth a city wide catchment map for you

[DanyellasDonkey]

In my area, I've never known people bother with league tables or HMI reports. 99% of kids go to their local schools.

[LunaLoveg00d]

Moffat schools are very good. If you google "league tables Scotland" that will give secondary performance data, which will help you see where schools are better, and you can search for feeder primaries into certain secondaries.

League tables aren't published for Primary schools.

[prettybird]

Make sure to look in detail on what basis the league tables are calculated.

The number of Highers in S5?
The number of Highers by the end of S6?
Do they include Advanced Highers? A school that successfully offers lots of Advanced Highers could look "worse" than a school that just offers more Highers in S6
Any demographic adjustment? ie does the school do as well (or more importantly, better) as would be expected given its demographic?

The Sunday Times, Evening Times and Herald league tables are each calculated differently.

[Lightbulbon]

P4 entry is usually easier because class sizes go up.

[sittingonthedock]

Actually since glasgow city council updated their website there is an interactive map for catchment areas