How effective is our leadership and approach to improving Gaelic?

HM Inspectors mainly evaluated leadership of change in sgoiltean as having strengths. There are too many inconsistencies across sgoiltean and sectors. Further improvements are required where children’s and young people’s experiences are diminished and year on year change is not planned.

How vision, values and aims support Gàidhlig  

In successful practice, the agreed vision, values and aims articulate well to Gàidhlig as a language, medium, associated culture and community. Most staff have a clear understanding of the social, cultural and economic context of their communities, of which Gàidhlig is part. Too often at àrd-sgoil, the vision, values and aims need to connect more explicitly to Gàidhlig and national priorities. 

Staff’s collaboration and leadership in Gàidhlig 

Almost all specialist staff for Gàidhlig across stages aim for the highest possible standards. In leading change, specialist staff for Gàidhlig are passionate ambassadors for Gàidhlig. The specialist staff team have a shared purpose to support children’s and young people’s fluency, progress and attainment. They collaborate well with each other in taking forward improvements. 

Children, young people, staff and parents are enthusiastic about learning and using Gàidhlig for most of the time in sgoil. This has a positive impact on creating a culture and environment that is conducive to achieving outcomes for immersion and Gàidhlig Medium Education. 

Barriers to improving Gàidhlig

There remains some indifference towards Gàidhlig in some sgoiltean, which specialists of the language find a barrier to change. All staff need an improved understanding of linguistic equalities.

Strategic planning for continuous improvement Gàidhlig Medium and Learner Education

In most cases, senior leaders’ strategic planning for improvement and reporting on standards is clear at the primary stages. At sgoil-àraich and àrd-sgoil, the distinctive features of Gàidhlig Medium Education are not captured consistently well enough at a strategic, whole-school level. Senior leaders’ evaluation of Gàidhlig is not yet of a consistently high quality in Standards and Quality Reports. As a result, this slows the pace of change and improvement in such areas as developing an immersion curriculum.

Senior leaders across 3-18 education retain a much-needed strong emphasis on raising attainment in Gàidhlig. This is particularly important for children and young people most affected by poverty and gaps in learning from the pandemic COVID-19 and absences. In àrd-sgoiltean, raising attainment is restricted to within literacy and Gàidhlig as a subject within CfE rather than how the entire curriculum supports increased knowledge, skills and fluency. As young people move through secondary stages, there are too few opportunities to develop literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum, as well as subjects through Gàidhlig.

In a minority of cases, Gàidhlig Medium Education is not available in sgoil-àraich. As a result, parents do not benefit from the free 1140 early learning and childcare hours through Gàidhlig. Where this is the case, local authorities are not strategically planning well enough for continuity in learning or raising attainment. Children’s total immersion in Gàidhlig has gaps in learning at a crucial formative stage in their total immersion.

Senior leaders who are newly establishing Gàidhlig Medium Education are putting strong systems in place to embed this new option of education. Senior leaders revisit the sgoil’s strategic direction and the curriculum to plan for children’s bespoke learning, diversity and inclusion for Gàidhlig. Overall, the pace of developing new Gàidhlig Medium Education provision across Scotland is too slow. There are particular challenges to attracting educators to rural areas. As a result, children’s and young people’s learning of Gàidhlig is too often interrupted or stopped.

Senior leaders’ clear planning for Gaelic (Learners) across stages results in children and young people enjoying learning the language in a few schools. At the primary stages, a majority of teachers need to be more ambitious in what children can achieve. Teachers should increase their use of national Benchmarks for Gaelic (Learners) across stages. At the secondary stages, senior leaders’ more thorough planning of Gaelic (Learners) in the curriculum and its promotion is needed to increase uptake for Gaelic (Learners). Far more schools in Scotland should be offering Gaelic (Learners), including through digital approaches, such as e-Sgoil.

Effective self-evaluation for impact

The majority of senior leaders who use bespoke frameworks, such as the Advice on Gaelic education, increase impact and equity for learners in Gàidhlig Medium Education. They also make good use of data and national objectives for Gàidhlig.

Teachers are very positive about masters’ level learning on immersion. They have rich dialogue with peers and tutors to support professional development. Senior leaders’ and staff’s continued professional dialogue, learning and self-evaluation needs to be more explicitly focused on Gàidhlig to impact more on quality of practice.

Recruitment of staff for Gàidhlig Medium Education

In successful practices, senior leaders and local authorities have collaborated very well to adopt creative ways to recruit staff for Gàidhlig Medium Education. HM Inspectors found very few emerging practices impacting on recruitment from foundation and modern apprenticeships in education and childcare. Senior leaders in local authorities could make better use of technology, partners and the local community to address the ongoing challenges from teaching and senior leadership vacancies. Scottish Government and Gàidhlig organisations need to offer continued support and solutions.

Developing leadership skills in children and young people

In a majority of sgoiltean, children and young people had their views listened to, with decisions informed. Many children and young people are on pupil councils and other groups. These groups should deal routinely with improving Gàidhlig as well as general aspects of the sgoil. There is much potential for linking children and young people to community groups. 

A majority of sgoiltean developed children and young people’s leadership skills through national events such as the John Muir Award, Film G and ‘An Deasbad Nàiseanta.’ Staff did not always provide a planned, progressive experience leading to these events. They could make more use of accreditation to recognise young people’s leadership skills from taking part in these events. 

The young leaders’ programme works well as a way of developing skills, giving opportunities for making decisions and creating immersion opportunities for younger peers. Children, young people and parents could contribute more consistently to improving their experiences of Gàidhlig Medium and Learner Education.

Creating the conditions for continuous improvement

A majority of headteachers establish a culture of collegiate collaboration, where staff feel valued and confident that their evaluations matter. Headteachers involve staff, children and young people, parents and partners effectively in quality assuring the Gàidhlig aspects of the sgoil through a bespoke lens. An increasing number of staff are improving how they gather evidence for self-evaluation that is based on Gàidhlig-specific resources. When this is done well over time, there is clear impact on quality and standards. In small sgoiltean, staff are very proactive in seeking links with other establishments to foster a culture of improvement. 

Across a minority of 3-18 sgoiltean, staff use well, on a whole-sgoil basis, the GTCS Professional Standards that are bespoke to Gàidhlig. The standards that relate to Gàidhlig need to be used more widely as core competencies and responsibilities for all staff. This should encourage staff in English Medium Education to enable more children and young people to learn Gàidhlig and about Gàidhlig as an Indigenous language of Scotland. Children and young people should also continue to develop informed attitudes, understanding and connections to Gàidhlig culture, heritage, economic and bilingual benefits, music and sustainability.

In a majority of sgoiltean, headteachers are allocating regular opportunities for staff to take forward professional dialogue, learning and review focused explicitly on Gàidhlig. In the most effective practice, this is agreed as part of educators’ collegiate activity time, for which clear objectives are set. This is impacting positively on increasing staff confidence in leading change and on the quality of learning and teaching in these sgoiltean. 

In a few cases, headteachers who are not speakers of the language learn Gàidhlig, along with a few members of staff. This enables headteachers to use their acquiring Gàidhlig for socialising and in the daily business of the sgoil. In a minority of sgoiltean, newly appointed headteachers need to access professional learning on Gàidhlig Education more swiftly after taking up post. This will enable them to better understand their role for Gàidhlig. Headteachers for whom Gàidhlig Medium Education is new would also benefit from bespoke national leadership programmes.

In a few cases, senior leaders and local authorities have collaborated very well to adopt creative ways to recruit staff for Gàidhlig Medium Education. This includes using full-time contracts rather than part-time, creating promoted posts, such as principal teachers to lead Gàidhlig Medium Education, foundation apprenticeships and assistance with housing. In too many 3-18 sgoiltean, teaching and senior leadership vacancies present significant challenges and interruptions to children’s and young people’s learning through the medium of Gàidhlig. In some of these cases, more use could be made of technology, incentive schemes to attract teachers and by developing planned roles for partners. Teachers can harness further the skills and expertise of the local speakers of Gàidhlig in the community. 

In a minority of sgoiltean, a 3-18 Gàidhlig provision can serve the whole local authority or extend across a few catchment areas for English Medium Education. Often, these sgoiltean could be more assertive in their strategic planning and promotion of Gàidhlig, as done when sgoiltean have a specialist academy, such as for music and sport.

Planning for continuous improvement

In most cases, sgoil improvement plans have a focus on Gàidhlig. These projects are monitored and evaluated to ensure they lead to improved outcomes for children and young people. Most staff feel consulted on what should be prioritised for improvement. In the most effective planning, local authorities’ templates for improvement planning connect Gàidhlig to the national improvement framework, their Gàidhlig Language Plan and local authorities’ priorities. This helps staff to collaborate well on improvements.

Senior leaders need increased access to quality national data and measurable objectives on Gàidhlig. For example, more of the CfE data collected on young people’s attainment is starting to be made available nationally. The data in Insight, the professional benchmarking tool for analysing attainment data in the secondary senior phase, could be articulated further to Gàidhlig Medium Education. This should give a clear picture of young people’s positive destinations after school to support effective planning of future improvement priorities. At times, there needs to be a more concentrated, sustained emphasis on improvement projects so that changes are tangible and not symbolic.

At the àrd-sgoiltean, almost all specialist staff for Gàidhlig lead change well in delivering Gàidhlig and Gaelic (Learners) as subjects within curricular areas. They articulate a realistic vision for strategically improving Gàidhlig within their settings. Their further empowerment is often restricted by a lack of strategic planning processes for Gàidhlig. In most àrd-sgoiltean, senior leaders need to give clearer strategic direction to improving well-paced continuous improvement that recognises the importance of revitalising the Gàidhlig language. Senior leaders need to plan more thoroughly to increase uptake for Gaelic (Learners) across stages. Declines in uptake for Gaelic (Learners) is a critical pattern in too many sgoiltean. National and Gàidhlig organisations need to support sgoiltean with a promotion strategy and campaigns, so young people are aware of the benefits of learning the language.

In sgoiltean with Gàidhlig and English Medium Education, senior leaders need to increase their testing of change to be clear of the impact of change on immersion. In most sgoiltean, senior leaders and staff should capture their approaches to immersion and Gaelic (Learners) in a policy and detail how this relates to all areas across the sgoil. This will guide staff in ensuring high standards in Gàidhlig Medium and Learner Education. 

Leadership for raising attainment

The needs of children and young people in Gàidhlig Medium Education are considered well in how senior leaders use pupil equity funding. In a minority of cases, specific grants for Gàidhlig have been targeted to fund staffing to support interventions for those children requiring support with their fluency in Gàidhlig. Senior leaders and partners should continue to plan for groups of children who did not benefit from total immersion at sgoiltean-àraich due to the pandemic, and young people across the broad general education who did not have regular access to Gàidhlig during the pandemic. 

Leadership of the curriculum in Gàidhlig Medium and Learner Education

In most 3-18 sgoiltean, senior leaders and staff should be empowered further to influence change or impact significantly on the leadership of the curriculum. At the primary stages, senior leaders and staff should make more use of Gàidhlig language and culture as a context of the curriculum. At the secondary stages, senior leaders should develop a clear strategy to increase the proportion of the curriculum available through Gàidhlig. 

The pace of delivering the secondary curriculum, through Gàidhlig and for Gàidhlig as a second language remains very slow over time. There is a lack of ownership of who and how senior leaders in sgoiltean are supported in addressing this significant priority. In some cases, senior leaders are not utilising qualified teachers who are fluent in Gàidhlig in contributing towards the curriculum for Gàidhlig. To enable headteachers at the secondary stages to be empowered in leading the curriculum for the Gàidhlig sector, they would benefit from regular professional learning on the design of a Gàidhlig Medium Education curriculum. This includes making more use of CfE to the benefit of learners in the Gàidhlig sector. Some headteachers are still to harness and transfer the creativity they show in designing the curriculum for English Medium to Gàidhlig Medium Education. They should engage further with how the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) can apply to Gàidhlig Medium Education, including for short courses and awards.

Senior leaders across 3-18 sgoiltean should increase the pace of learning and teaching of Gàidhlig as an additional language for children and young people in English Medium – Gaelic (Learners). Learning through technology and digital platforms should be promoted further to ensure continuity into the senior phase. 

Across almost all 3-18 sgoiltean, children, young people, staff and parents show a strong commitment to learning and using Gàidhlig. This impacts on the culture and immersion environment in sgoiltean for Gàidhlig Medium Education. 

One local authority is implementing a ‘Gaelic First Policy’ whereby there is a presumption that all children will attend sgoil-àraich and continue with Gàidhlig Medium Education into primary. This increases enrolment, although not yet as a consistent pattern. Senior leaders could usefully promote Gàidhlig Medium Education more in the lead-up to times of enrolments. They should ensure that relevant websites and sgoil handbooks contain details of the benefits of Gàidhlig Medium Education, bilingualism and curriculum offers. 

In a minority of sgoiltean, senior leaders make positive progress in newly establishing Gàidhlig Medium Education. In so doing, local authorities take forward parental requests for Gàidhlig Medium Education as part of the Education (Scotland) Act 2016. In a few 3-18 sgoiltean, local authorities established a catchment area specific to Gàidhlig Medium Education. This clarified for parents how and where they could access Gàidhlig Medium Education. In a few sgoiltean-àraich and bun-sgoiltean, staff and partners have worked very well together to develop and increase uptake of children registering for Gàidhlig Medium Education. These increases should be used to plan long-term for the curriculum at the secondary stages. 

Gàidhlig ambassadors: Emerging practice in leadership improvement

Across most bun-sgoiltean and àrd-sgoiltean, most children and young people contribute effectively to the life of the sgoil and wider community. This is often through leadership roles including sustainability, promotion of children’s rights, reading and writing buddies, digital leaders and pupil librarians. Through these roles, children’s and young people’s views are sought, listened to and acted on. As a result, children and young people who access these opportunities develop their confidence, social skills, and leadership skills well. Senior leaders and staff should continue to ensure that all children and young people are supported to lead change and improvement across the sgoil in an impactful way.

• How clear are the staff team on why the Gàidhlig language needs to be sustained, and how well is our sgoil’s planning for improvement impacting sufficiently on creating a sustainable future for Gàidhlig?
• How well does the sgoil’s vision, values and aims guide the strategic direction and pace of change for Gàidhlig? 
• How well does strategic planning encompass national and local planning priorities for Gàidhlig? 
• How well does the sgoil’s self-evaluation draw on a wide range of data and evidence and lead to identified priorities for both Gàidhlig Medium and Learner Education? 
• What positive impact have you achieved to date for Gàidhlig Medium and Learner Education, and what do you intend to achieve in the coming year?