Scottish Government

BACKGROUND NOTES

1. Sources

1.1 The information in this publication is derived mainly from the Pupil Census from 21 ^stSeptember 2009 and previous years.

2. Coverage and Timing

2.1 The Pupil Census covers all publicly funded schools in Scotland (local authority and grant-aided). Where a school has more than one department, for example a secondary school with a primary department, these are counted as separate schools. The census of independent schools is published separately and will be available on the Scottish Government website.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00733

2.2 Some special schools have pupils from a wide age range and the data collected from this sector reflects this. Where pupils attend a 'special unit' attached to a mainstream school, they are usually included in the figures for the mainstream school. Some schools and local authorities have reported pupils from 'special units' separately.

2.3 Pupils included in this census are those recorded by the school as being on the roll of the school except those in full time education at another institution (i.e. "status 01" in the data specification only).

2.4 Results of the census of teachers will be published in "Teachers in Scotland, 2009" and will be available on the Scottish Government website.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/schoolstats

3. Census content

3.1 The content of the Pupil Census is considered in consultation with local authorities. The Scottish Government operates in the light of National Statistics guidelines, which restrict data collection to only the information that is required, at a level which is fit for purpose, whilst always trying to minimise the burden on data providers. Recommendations for changes to the census are made through the Scottish Exchange of Educational Data (ScotXed) network.

4. Collection methods

4.1 The information required to complete the September 2009 Pupil Census was collected electronically, through local authorities, from all publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools, as part of the ScotXed programme. The information is that stored on schools' management information systems, thus reducing the burden on schools.

4.2 ScotXed supports and promotes effective and secure data exchanges so that key partners in school education in Scotland can benefit from access to information to monitor and improve education services. Partners include local authorities, schools, the Scottish Qualifications Agency, HM Inspectorate of Education, Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Government. Further information, including specifications of the data exchanges, can be found at www.scotxed.net.

5. Definitions and Data Quality

5.1 A class is a group of pupils normally supervised by one teacher. The group may sometimes be supervised by more than one teacher, for example, when pupils are receiving learning support from a teacher who is not the class teacher. In this publication a class with two teachers is still counted as one class. Only pupils on the school roll have been included in the figures in order to avoid double counting of pupils.

5.2 Maximum class sizes in primary schools are as follows:

• 30 for single stage class P1-P3 (with 25 set as a norm for P1)
• 33 for single stage class P4-P7
• 25 for composite stage class

5.3 A composite class is a class of pupils from two or more stages.

5.4 The ethnic background and national identity categories were based generally on those collected in the 2001 population census and were agreed following consultation. Pupils and parents were given the option of not disclosing their ethnicity and in such cases pupils were not attributed a category. About 97.6 per cent of pupils disclosed their ethnic background, similar to 2008.

5.5 There would appear to be inconsistency between schools and between local authorities in the reporting of special schools as separate identities, as well as changes over the past years. We therefore advise caution when comparing results with previous years and across local authorities. See also the 'narrative' of all changes to the list of schools,
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/openingsnarrative07

A few authorities do not have special schools and may fund places in neighbouring authorities for their pupils. The number of special schools includes 45 where there were no pupils based, but which received pupils based in other schools.

5.6 At September 2009 there was one grant-aided mainstream school, with primary and secondary departments, and seven grant-aided special schools. These schools are included in national totals, but are identified separately in the local authority level tables. In publications prior to 2003 they were included within the local authority of their location.

5.7 Free school meal data collected in the Pupil Census only counts those pupils who are registered for free school meals at the time of the census. More complete information is collected in the February School Meals Survey. The figures collected in the annual School Meals Survey are currently used in funding calculations and in benchmarking schools. Information from the Pupil Census is used only where linkage to other pupil characteristics, or attainment, exclusions and attendance data is necessary.

5.8 Education authorities must have arrangements in place to identify pupils with additional support needs and from among them those who may require a Co-ordinated Support Plan and the particular additional support needs of the pupils so identified. The statutory criteria and content for a Co-ordinated Support Plan can be found in the supporting children's learning code of practice at:
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/publications/s/publication_tcm4510131.asp?strReferringChannel=inclusiveeducation

5.9 This is the first year in which pupils who previously had a Record of Need were not collected through the Pupil Census, but recorded against either CSP and/or IEP. For those pupils who had a Record of Needs ( RoN) immediately prior to the commencement of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, on 14 November 2005, the education authorities were, within 2 years (November 2007), to establish whether or not such pupils required a co-ordinated support plan. The provision being made for the recorded pupil is preserved as a minimum level of support unless there is a significant change in the individual's additional support needs or until the date that it is established that they require a plan, or if they do not require a plan, 2 years from the date that that is established. When comparing 2009 data with results from 2008, such pupils are referred to in this publication under the heading "with RoN" to reflect the categorisation of additional support needs as collected through the Pupil Census in 2008.

5.10 Individualised Educational Programmes ( IEPs) are written plans setting targets that a child with additional support needs is expected to achieve. Targets should be limited in number and focus on key priorities of learning. They should be simple, clearly expressed and measurable.

5.11 Pupils may have an IEP with another record of support needs such as CSP. Pupils with any combination of support needs are categorised in this publication as having Additional Support Needs.

5.12 The number of pupils identified with Additional Support Needs has increased markedly between 2008 and 2009. This on the whole has been driven by changes in recording practices and efforts to improve processes around data capture by Glasgow City.

5.13 Pupil census figures on children looked after by the local authority are as reported by schools. The definitive source for statistical information in relation to the number and characteristics of looked after children ( LAC) is the Scottish Government 'Children Looked After Survey ( CLAS). The information in the CLAS is provided by local authority social work services departments. We currently suspect that the reporting of a child's LAC status by schools in the Pupil Census is not 100% accurate. However, it has been difficult to quantify this accurately due to previous limitations in the level of detail collected in the CLAS. However, the CLAS has recently undergone a significant development to move towards collecting information on looked after children at an individual child-level. This development will, in future, enable us to carry out additional quality assurance checks on the looked after status for children reported by schools with that reported by local authority social work services departments. These additional checks will help us ensure schools more accurately report the LAC status for children in school and will be carried out, where possible, on the Pupil Census data once the 2008/09 CLAS data becomes available in February 2010.

5.14 The urban/rural classifications in Table 1.3 are defined as in the Scottish Household Survey, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/08/17898/24432.

5.15 For the purposes of this report denominational schools have been restricted to those schools where a specific denomination is named. Multi- and inter-denominational schools have therefore been grouped with non-denominational schools.

6. Pupil number projections

6.1 Pupil projections are produced by the Scottish Government for use in teacher workforce planning and for other policy developments. The modelling process uses information from:

1. Pupil Census September 2009 and previous.
2. General Register Office for Scotland - mid-year population estimates up to 2008.
3. General Register Office for Scotland - 2008 based population projections

Methodology - Primary and Secondary

6.2 Firstly, the percentage of pupils of each age, in each sector, compared to the total number of children in the population was calculated.

6.3 Then, for a given cohort moving through the school, the participation rate for a given year was projected using the knowledge of the previous year's participation rate for that cohort, together with the average change in participation rates at that age. For example, if 98.2 per cent of 6 year-olds were in mainstream primaries in 2009, and on average over the past four years the participation rate of 6 year-olds had increased 0.3 percentage points by the time they are 7, then the projected participation rate for 7 year-olds in 2010 would be 98.5 per cent.

6.4 A similar methodology was used for 16 - 18 year olds, but some changes were made to avoid distortion due to leavers. The average change in participation rates were based on fewer years, so that more recent years were given greater weight. In addition, where the participation rate for 17 and 18 year-olds resulted in a lower participation rate than the average over previous years, the average was used instead.

6.5 The participation rates for 19 year olds was calculated using the 4 year average rates for 2006-2009.

6.6 Participation rates for cohorts not yet in the system were calculated using four year average rates for 3, 4 and 5 year-olds, which are then projected forward using the same methodology as above.

Special Schools

6.7 Pupil numbers in special schools are projected using age-specific participation rates.

Independent Schools

6.8 Following trends in recent years, the number of pupils in independent schools has been projected to remain constant. Projections for publicly funded schools have then been reduced to account for the resulting slight decrease in the proportion of the population in publicly funded schools.

7. Rounding

7.1 All percentages are rounded separately and breakdowns may consequently not sum to 100 per cent.

8. Disclosive data

8.1 Numbers less than five are generally deemed to be disclosive and hence not published. Where figures have been removed they are replaced by *. Other figures in the table may also be removed to stop a disclosive figure from being calculated from the total. However, in some cases where there are a large number of pupils in the unknown category or where data is believed to be incomplete i.e. ethnic background and disability respectively, there often exists a large enough amount of uncertainty for figures to be published.

8.2 Occasionally it has been preferable to swap a small number of data rather than removing figures elsewhere in the publication. Swapped data has still usually been marked as *.

9. Other data

9.1 Some further data, for example some school level data, will be made available on the Scottish Government website www.scotland.gov.uk/schoolstats

9.2 Analysis on a more local level will also be available via the Scottish Schools On-line website - www.ltscotland.org.uk/scottishschoolsonline/index.asp and also through the Neighbourhood Statistics website - http://www.sns.gov.uk.

10. Symbols

10.1 The following symbols are used:

. . = not available

- = nil or rounds to nil

# = not applicable

* = disclosive data

11. General

11.1 This is a National Statistics publication. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.

11.2 The report was edited by: Paul Gona, Mal Cooke and James Boyce.

11.3 All tables are available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00777

12. Enquiries

12.1. Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this bulletin should be addressed to

Telephone 0131 244 0183 or e-mail school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

12.2 Media enquiries about the information in this notice should be addressed to:

Lisa McDonald: 0131 244 2960