BACKGROUND NOTES
1. The information in this publication for 2009 is derived from the 21 st September 2009 staff census of all publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools. Information about centrally employed staff was also collected from local authorities.
2. Information relating to pre-school teachers was collected from providers as part of the pre-school census in January 2009.
3. This is the seventh full annual staff census. Comparison of figures from these full censuses with data prior to 2003 may therefore be affected by the change in collection method.
Coverage
4. The staff 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 will be available from the Scottish Government website. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/schoolstats
5. Results of the pupil census, also taken on 21 st September 2009, were published in "Pupils in Scotland, 2009", which is available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00777
6. Results of the pre-school and childcare census, taken during the week starting on 19 th January 2009, were published in "Pre-School and Childcare Statistics 2009", which is available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/09/22154942/0
Census consultation
7. The content of the Teacher 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.
Collection methods
8. The information required to complete the September 2009 staff 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 generally that stored on schools' management information systems, thus reducing the burden on schools.
9. 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 Authority, HM Inspectorate of Education, Learning and Teaching Scotland and Scottish Government Education Analytical Services Directorate. Further information, including specifications of the data exchanges, can be found at www.scotxed.net .
Definitions and Data quality
10. Tables in this publication cover publicly funded schools only, i.e. local authority and grant-aided schools.
11. Unless clearly stated as headcount, figures are always full-time equivalents. Where a teacher works in more than one school, this is counted as one person in the headcount.
12. Figures for 2007 and 2008 censuses have been revised and therefore differ from those published at the time. While the exact number of teachers reported is always likely to be affected by a handful of missing data, it was identified that a considerable number of teachers, particularly probationer teachers, were missing from returns. Additional steps have now been added to the quality assurance process to ensure that this problem does not recur. It is likely that revised data for 2003 to 2006 will be pubished in due course.
13. Figures in this publication are reported on a different basis to those in the quarterly Public Sector Employment in Scotland publication. In particular, figures here do not count both those who are on sick leave, parental leave or some secondments and their replacement, but try to show the number of teachers working at a given time. The methodology in Public Sector Employment in Scotland is therefore more useful for considering payroll implications.
14. Figures for the special school sector are compiled from special schools only, and do not include teachers of special classes in mainstream schools. There may be inconsistency between schools and between local authorities in the reporting of special schools and special classes, as well as changes between years. We therefore advise caution when comparing results with previous years and across local authorities.
A few authorities do not have special schools, and may fund places in neighbouring authorities for their pupils. Special schools data include those where there were no pupils based, but which received pupils based in other schools.
15. 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.
16. While 1,090 teachers in the census reported being chartered teachers, data from the General Teaching Council showed that by September 2009 904 teachers had gained chartered teacher status. It is therefore assumed that the other teachers had only embarked on the course, or were being paid on the chartered teacher pay scale. All chartered teachers have been included in this publication as teacher grade.
17. The Teacher Induction Scheme, for newly qualified probationer teachers, was introduced in 2002. Probationers on the scheme have 70 per cent of the normal class contact time without this affecting their full time equivalence. In previous years Teachers in Scotland has published centrally held administrative data for those figures. However for 2009 data linkage with GTC information has allowed induction scheme teachers to be accurately included and identified in the census.
18. Teachers are asked to supply their main subject taught. Where numbers in a given subject are small these have been included with "other".
19. Tables in this publication show class contact time ( CCT) based on posts and are not grossed up to the full time post. A teacher having a post with FTE of 0.3 and a CCT of 6 hours appears as 0.3 FTE in the category 'up to 10 hours'. In previous publication this teacher would have appeared FTE 0.3 with 20 hours CCT as that is what their equivalent CCT would be if they were working full time.
20. Information on qualifications and GTC registration is no longer collected as a part of Teacher Census.
21. The ethnicity and national identity categories were based broadly on those collected in the 2001 population census and were agreed following consultation. In choosing them it was necessary to balance the competing needs of not grouping different peoples together too much, while having large enough groups for valid analysis. Teachers were given the option of not disclosing their ethnicity. About 98 per cent of teachers disclosed their ethnic background. Where "minority ethnic groups" are referred to, this includes all categories of ethnic background other than "white- UK" and "white-other".
22. Roman Catholic approval means teachers have been approved as to their religious belief and character by representatives of the Roman Catholic church.
23. Supply teachers were separately identified as either covering a vacancy (and hence included in the total) or covering absence (and so not included to avoid double counting). In practice some schools may not have included the shorter term, sick absence cover staff in their returns, so figures for these may be an undercount.
24. There are some differences in the way in which authorities deal with centrally employed teachers. In some cases these visiting specialists are considered as allocated to the schools where they teach, and have been included, with relevant partial FTE, in the school-level data. In other cases they are included in the centrally employed staff table. We are also aware that local authorities have changed procedures for reporting during recent years, so figures are not comparable.
Disclosive data
25. For certain types of information, numbers less than five are deemed to be disclosive, and hence not published. Where figures have been removed they are replaced by a *. 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 incomplete i.e. ethnic background and disability respectively, there often exists a large enough amount of uncertainty for figures to be published.
Rounding
26. All percentages and FTEs are rounded separately and breakdowns may consequently not sum to Scotland figures.
Symbols
27. The following symbols are used:
. . | = | not available |
# | = | not applicable |
- | = | nil or rounds to nil |
* | = | disclosive data |
Other data
28. Some further data, such as some schools level data, will be made available on the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk/schoolstats .
General
29. All tables are available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00785
30. 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
31. This report was edited by: Kasia Bejtka, Mal Cooke.
Enquiries or comments
32. Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this bulletin should be addressed to:
Kasia Bejtka,
Pupil, Teacher and School Statistics,
Scottish Government,
Area 1B-South,
Victoria Quay,
Edinburgh, EH6 6QQ.Tel - 0131 244 4933
Email - school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
33. Media enquiries about the information in this bulletin should be addressed to: Lisa McDonald: 0131 244 2960
27 th November, 2009