Independent review proposed to support further improvement in educational attainment in Moray
Moray Council is proposing an independent review of educational attainment to help strengthen and accelerate improvement across schools to ensure the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
The proposal comes as recent exam results and attainment data show encouraging signs of progress, particularly in S4 attainment and across Broad General Education. A record 97 young people achieved six or more National 5 passes in S4 this year, while every secondary school improved in at least one National 5 attainment measure. Last year (2024/25) also saw 93.45% of Moray school leavers go into a positive destination.
While recognising these successes, a report to the Education, Children's and Leisure Services Committee on 1 September highlights that further work is needed to make sure the pace of consistent improvement is increased across the education system.
The proposed review will consider attainment and achievement data, current improvement activity, leadership and support arrangements, learning and teaching, curriculum pathways, tracking and monitoring systems, and opportunities to share effective practice more widely across Moray schools. The initial focus will be on the senior phase, while also taking account of improvement work across Broad General Education.
Chair of the committee and Council Leader, Cllr Kathleen Robertson, said: “Improving educational attainment and helping our young people achieve their best is one of our key priorities because it has such a significant impact on the life chances of children and young people across Moray.
“Across our schools there has already been a huge amount of work undertaken to improve attainment, and the latest exam results provide encouraging signs that this work is beginning to make a difference. Those improvements reflect the hard work, commitment and professionalism of our learners, teachers, support staff and school leaders. However, we also need to recognise that improvement has not yet been consistent across all schools or at the pace we would like to see, and we want to understand what more we can do to support sustainable progress.”
Karen Greaves, Chief Executive of Moray Council, added: “I fully recognise the challenges our teachers and Head Teachers are up against, including recruitment and ICT limitations. I propose this review in the context of bringing in independent expertise to help us understand what is working well, where our improvement efforts can be strengthened and what additional support may be required across the system.
“We know raising attainment is not an overnight fix and it needs a whole system approach to be improved. The review should work in parallel with the wider progress community planning partners can make on issues such as the impact of poverty, health and wellbeing within the community and addressing community resilience and participation.”
If approved by committee, findings from the review, along with recommendations and proposed improvement actions, will be reported back to a future meeting of the Education, Children's and Leisure Services Committee.