Context

• Government carried out extensive research• Asked parents what they know and want to know• Main concern was: ‘What’s happening to my child?’• Plea: ‘I want to hear about Curriculum for Excellence

from the professional who knows my child’• Local context: ‘I want to hear how my child’s school is

implementing it’• Toolkit of information produced as support for staff• Equips practitioners to talk to parents• Developed in consultation with practitioners and parents

Curriculum for Excellence?

‘Curriculum’ in this context means ‘all that is planned for children and young people throughout their education’:

• The ethos and life of the school as a community• Curriculum areas and subjects• Interdisciplinary learning• Opportunities for personal achievement

What’s the aim?

Curriculum for Excellence: the three pillars

• Raising standards• Improving knowledge• Developing skills

…Bringing life to learning and learning to life

What’s the aim?

Curriculum for Excellence: the three pillars

1. Raising standardsIt’s raising standards of education to meet the increasing challenges of a changing world – preparing our young people for the unknown. Higher standards will be expected than at present to equip our children for the increasing complexity of the world. Standards will be monitored by schools, centres, HMIE and Local Authorities.

The three pillars cont.

2. Improving knowledge

It’s bringing learning to life – building on the many ways that teachers already make learning engaging. It offers experiences around real life issues, working in groups, working outside the classroom, working in different environments with interesting materials and tools.

Making learning more relevant will help improve achievements

The three pillars cont.

3.Developing skills

It’s bringing real life to learning – making learning relevant to the world young people live in; developing skills for learning, life and work.

Everyone will develop important skills in literacy and numeracy that will underpin all learning. Industry and enterprise will offer opportunities for young people to develop skills needed for the world of work.

The three pillars cont.

Other life skills include developing critical thinking, personal learning planning, career management, working with others, leadership, physical coordination and movement, enterprise and employability.

The individual’s health and wellbeing have a new important focus.

The challenge

Equipping our children with the knowledge and skills we believe they will need

• to succeed in a future we don’t yet know• to secure jobs yet to be invented• to build self-esteem and resilience• to harness knowledge yet to be discovered.

Why change?

• Preparing young people for an ever changing world

• Nurturing them to be:– successful learners– confident individuals – responsible citizens – effective contributors

• Build on Scotland’s reputation for having a great education system

What’s different?

• A planned ‘learning journey’ from 3 to 18• Improved learning and teaching• New qualifications• More rigorous assessment• Provides skills for learning, life and work• Learning more relevant to the modern world

The curriculum

• Broad and deep education• General education till the end of S3, then options• Covers expressive arts, health and wellbeing,

languages, mathematics, religious and moral education, sciences, social studies, technologies

• All staff have responsibility for:– literacy– numeracy– health and wellbeing

How does it work?

• Broad guidance• National standards and resources• Putting trust in the professionals• Sharing best practice across the profession• Unique ‘Glow’ network joins up the country

More rigorous assessments

Ongoing assessment by the teacher will provide a rich picture of how much young people know, how well they are doing and what they need to learn next to progress.

From time to time teachers will summarise children’s progress through the Curriculum for Excellence levels.

What will young people experience?• A broad and deep education• Learning according to needs and interests• Better engagement• More able to apply knowledge• Support for learning and with life’s challenges• Easier transitions: between stages, beyond school• Make useful links between subjects• Active learning: questioning, doing, thinking• Sense of progress through assessment• Options in the senior phase• Achievements outside school valued: whole picture

Skills for learning, life and work

All teachers are responsible for 3 fundamental aspects of learning: literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

Literacy – reading, writing, interpreting information, spoken language, using computers, film and new media.

Numeracy – arithmetic, numbers, calculations, finance.

Skills for learning, life and work cont.

Literacy and numeracy skills help children grasp every other subject and are vital for work and throughout life.

Health and wellbeing – nurturing mental, emotional, social and physical skills to develop self-esteem and positive relationships; and to pursue a healthy lifestyle and fulfil children’s potential. It covers topics from nutrition to exercise, healthy eating to drink/drug awareness, anti-bullying to buddy schemes.

Learner focus

Teachers and practitioners will ensure that young people can learn in ways that work for them, at the right pace for them and with enough challenge to stretch them. They will consider what each child already knows and what they need to know to make learning personal, interesting and relevant to them, for example – where and how they live and what their ambitions are.

Learner focus cont.

The combination of deep and broad knowledge, skills and work experience will give children greater choice to make their learning fit their abilities, interests and ambitions.

Broad and deep education

Underpinning all learning, all our young people will further develop their levels of skill and knowledge in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing.

Active learning

Active learning doesn’t mean all lessons are outdoors or involve running around.

It means encouraging children to ask questions, seek answers for themselves, work together and discuss ideas, challenge and come up with their own solutions.

It’s proactive learning; taking responsibility for learning; taking an active interest.

Transitions

What young people do at school prepares them for what they do next in life, so we want to make school a useful experience for all.

Teachers and practitioners work together to ensure smooth progress from one year to another. This is particularly important at transition times – nursery to primary, primary to secondary and beyond. These stages are carefully planned to support children and young people right through from 3 to 18.

Making connections

It’s about making connections, not just across the curriculum but with industry, news and popular culture to sustain young people’s learning beyond the school.

Professionals work together, seeing the young person as a whole. That might bring together teachers and speech therapists, planning what’s best for the young person.

Inter-disciplinary learning

Teachers and practitioners are encouraged to make connections between subjects and help young people see how knowledge and skills can be taken from one ‘lesson’ and applied to another.

Learning another language can be a real help to understanding English and improving literacy. Calculating angles in craft based projects puts numeracy skills to good use.

Support for learning

Teachers and practitioners will be responsible for identifying the personal support a child needs on a day to day basis. They work with other professionals – like speech therapists, health and social workers to plan a child’s support.

Young people may have specific support needs, for example during periods of change – moving up from nursery to primary, primary to secondary and on to college or work.

Support for learning cont.

Home life sometimes presents challenges – living with drug abuse, being a young carer, moving house, divorce, bereavement.

Whatever the issue impacting on learning, children and their families are invited to ‘Just Ask’ for help. Additional targeted support for learning will be provided eg to help children with learning difficulties like dyslexia and number blindness.

Just ask for help – www.infoscotland.com/justask

Our aim for young people

We all want a good education for our children so that they are equipped for life and all it might throw at them. We call this developing ‘the 4 capacities’:

1. Successful learnersMotivated to reach their potential, determined to succeed, learning how to learn as well as gaining knowledge – skills for learning, life and work.

Our aim for young people cont.

2. Confident individualsAble to ask questions, explain ideas, challenge, stand up for themselves, relate well to others, take the initiative, lead.

3. Effective contributorsGroup projects and workplace experience help children learn the skills of team working and encourage creative thinking, discussion of ideas, problem solving and partnership.

Our aim for young people cont.

4. Responsible citizenseg As they go on to study, work or bring up their own family, our children will know how to respect themselves and others and will be able to understand the world we live in and how they can participate responsibly and fully in shaping it.

Trusting professionals

Curriculum for Excellence marks a shift from prescriptive guidance to more professional freedom and responsibility. Teachers are working with the new guidance which what experiences children and young people are entitled to and the outcomes they should achieve.

This supports professionals to teach subjects more creatively and gives them the responsibility to make it work.

Building on the best

There have always been inspiring teachers. Now teachers are sharing ideas, good practice and experiences through Glow, an online community that is a world first for Scotland. All teachers will be able to learn from the best.

Glow provides a powerful tool for CPD by allowing collaboration and joined-up working with easy access to shared resources, which is connecting people and ideas through communities of practice.

Professional development

This is a chance for all those responsible for children and young people to learn and grow too. There is guidance, training, information, tools and resources to help.

Professional development is often best carried out with colleagues to promote understanding and collaboration. Colleagues can share ideas and resources, and engage in professional dialogue to take the lead in development and innovation.

Professional development cont.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority oversee the development of qualifications in Scotland. The SQA Academy and Scotland’s colleges have created a unique suite of staff development opportunities to support the teaching profession.

 

What does it mean for Scotland?

1. Prepared for life We live in a fast changing world where technology, travel, migration, advanced knowledge and the effects of industry and consumerism impact on individuals, society and the environment. We aim to provide our children with the knowledge and skills we believe they will need to succeed in a future we don’t yet know, to secure jobs yet to be invented, to build self-esteem and resilience, and to harness knowledge yet to be discovered.

What does it mean for Scotland? cont.

2. Growing talent This is a drive to provide a universal education

service, nurture our young people, teach our children how to learn, be adaptable and thrive.

3. Creative education Scotland has a world-wide reputation for the

quality of its education system. We want to keep it like that. These changes will secure the best chance for our children’s future in a competitive global economy.

What parents can do – Early Years

Sharing, planning and learning!• Play, Talk, Read with your child – visit this

website for more ideas – http://www.infoscotland.com/playtalkread/

• Sing songs together, dance, have fun• Praise effort• Go out for walks and visits and talk about what

you see• Help them to think about others• Talk to the staff working with your child

What parents can do – Early Years cont.

• Share important information with staff• Take an interest – find out what they are doing at

nursery or school and think about what you can do at home to build on this

• Read them anything!• Look for opportunities at home to develop literacy

and numeracy skills: counting, money, time, measuring, matching, size, reading, pointing out words, naming things

• Encourage them to make their own choices• Help prepare for change – talk about it together

What parents can do – Early Years cont.

• Ask for extra help if you think your child needs it for any reason. Visit www.infoscotland.com/justask

• Be there – help, listen, support and encourage• Talk to them about how they are feeling

What parents can do – Primary

Sharing, planning and learning!• Listen, talk, share and encourage – this has a big

influence on children's learning• Do things together – learn together and have fun

together• Praise effort• Encourage a ‘can do’ approach – ‘give it a try,

you might just like it’• Help them to respect others• Talk to them about their strengths and interests,

and help them make choices based on these

What parents can do – Primary cont.

• Find out what learning is happening at school and do what you can at home to build on that

• Help them work on tasks on their own and then talk about it with you afterwards

• Encourage any reading – books, online, it all helps!

• Look for opportunities at home to develop literacy and numeracy skills: money, number problems, time, measuring, matching, size, reading, writing, understanding instructions, questioning information

What parents can do – Primary cont.

• Encourage them to make their own choices• Ask for extra help if you think your child needs it

for any reason. Visit www.infoscotland.com/justask

• Be there – help, listen, support and encourage• Talk to them about how they are feeling

Further information

Parents can find out morewww.parentzonescotland.gov.uk

Teachers and other professionals: www.curriculumforexcellence.gov.uk

The partners working to deliver Curriculum for Excellence are:

Scottish Government www.scotland.gov.ukThe government has responsibility for the national education system

Learning and Teaching Scotland www.LTScotland.org.ukDevelops the curriculum, provides information and guidance on learning and teaching

Scottish Qualifications Authority www.sqa.gov.ukDevelops, marks and manages the qualifications process

HMIE www.hmie.gov.ukThe inspectors who monitor the quality of education

Attainment Levels

The expectations about progression through curriculum levels are:• the early curriculum level in the pre-school years and P1• first curriculum level to the end of P4• second curriculum level to the end of P7• third and fourth curriculum levels – S1 to S3 (fourth curriculum

level broadly• aligns to SCQF level 4)• the senior phase – S4 to S6, and college or other means of study.

These expectations apply to the learning of every child and young person as far as this is consistent with their learning needs and prior achievements.