Data on children and young people - Scotland

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels dataset

This provides information on the performance of school pupils in literacy and numeracy. The data reports on pupils’ achievement of the expected Curriculum for Excellence level, based on teachers’ professional judgements. The data covers school years 2016/17 to 2021/22, for all Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7, and Secondary 3 pupils in publicly funded mainstream schools in Scotland. It also covers all pupils based in publicly funded special schools and units.  

This dataset could be used to provide a measure of prior attainment in any education-related project in Scotland. As Scotland does not carry out formal standardised tests, such as the national curriculum key stage tests in England, this is the only dataset that can allow prior attainment to be considered. It could also be used to look at children’s progression through primary school and how this later impacts on school leavers’ qualifications. The dataset could be used to analyse how early absences in primary school affect both primary and secondary attainment levels.  

From a methodological perspective - as these are teachers’ professional judgements on pupils’ achievements - this dataset could be used to look at the accuracy of teachers’ early judgements on pupils’ achievements, compared to their later educational attainment. This could enable exploration of the accuracy of these judgements, but also how they vary by factors such as race/ethnicity, gender, social class and poverty. The resulting research findings could then be used to identify opportunities to improve educational attainment, reduce bias based on equality group membership, and close the attainment gap. 

Health and Wellbeing Census 

This is a Scottish local authority data collection covering children and young people’s health and wellbeing. Scottish Government has collected nationally consistent data from 16 local authorities for reporting, and this dataset is being made securely available for research.

Children and young people's wellbeing is important for their healthy development and long-term outcomes into adulthood. In Scotland, the National Improvement Framework lays out the importance of placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of education. Key areas of focus include: closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people; improvement in skills; and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people.

Health and wellbeing in early years formed one of Scotland’s six Public Health Priorities. The data can help us better understand factors that influence children and young people’s attainment, achievements and long-term outcomes.  

There are a range of research questions that can be undertaken with this dataset due to the richness of the data collected. Research could explore: 

• children’s peer and family relationships and how these impact on children's wellbeing 

• children’s health behaviours and how these vary by equality group membership, engagement in school, and the quality of family and peer relationships 

• how social media use impacts on children's lives.  

This is just a snapshot of the wealth of research that could be undertaken with this dataset.