Abstract
This paper examines how staff in schools formulate decisions about pupil organisation. A small sample of primary and secondary schools from across Scotland was involved in the study.
In 1996 Her Majesty's Inspectors published a report entitled
Achievement for All
(SOEID, 1996) which, it was envisaged, would form the basis of school evaluations into the effectiveness of classroom organisation. This report, and in particular the six principles on which it suggested effective organisational arrangements should rest, formed the organising framework for the study.
The study had three main aims:
to ascertain the extent to which the principles outlined in the HMI report had been used by school staff when making decisions about which form of organisation to use
to comment on the perceptions of teaching staff of how well the arrangements in place were working
to ascertain how the impact on teaching and learning was being evaluated.