Brae High School has received a positive follow-up inspection from Education Scotland, confirming significant improvements across key areas of the school.
The findings recognise the hard work of pupils, staff, senior leaders, and the wider school community since the previous inspection report in November 2024.
During the recent visit, inspectors engaged with children, young people, staff and parents to evaluate progress against improvement priorities identified earlier. The report highlights strong and effective action by the school and the Council to enhance the quality of learning, teaching, leadership and achievement.
Inspectors noted strong progress in school self-evaluation, praising senior and middle leaders for working “well and at pace” to strengthen systems that help staff understand performance and priorities. These developments have resulted in clearer processes, improved use of data, and a shared understanding of what is working well and what still requires attention.
The report also commends the creation of improvement teams, helping middle leaders take forward whole-school responsibilities more confidently and consistently. This work is already resulting in more coherent experiences for children and young people across both the primary and secondary stages.
In the nursery, the new manager has made encouraging early progress in strengthening approaches to learning, teaching and assessment, including clearer documentation of children’s progress and next steps.
Education inspectors acknowledge the satisfactory progress in improving learning, teaching and assessment, and highlighted feedback practices in primary classes, more consistent sharing of learning intentions, and success criteria in secondary lessons.
The school has also made steady progress in developing programmes that build effectively on prior learning, with clearer progression pathways and an expanded range of senior-phase courses that better meet the needs of young people.
A developing culture of ambition and aspiration is taking shape, supported by the school’s new vision, “Discovering our True North,” and the introduction of “aspirational learner” characteristics.
Evidence of rising attainment is already emerging, including improvements in writing in the primary school and increased qualification pass rates from National 5 to Advanced Higher.
Education Scotland concludes that Brae High School has made appropriate progress in all key areas, and inspectors are confident in the school’s capacity to continue improving. No further inspection visits are required.
Shetland Islands Council will continue to keep parents and carers informed as part of its regular reporting arrangements.
Davie Sandison, Chair of the Council’s Education and Families Committee, said: “I am very pleased to see this positive follow up report, that demonstrates the hard work of the head teacher and staff at Brae High School in the last 12 months. I hope the school continues to improve, to the benefit of pupils and the wider school community.”
The detail of the Inspection Report is available on Education Scotland’s website