Curriculum for Excellence Parent council

1. Curriculum for Excellence Parent council Meldrum Academy Building the Curriculum Feb 2011

2. Why have the Curriculum for Excellence? • Great debate on the future of Scottish Education (2002) highlighted positive aspects and areas for improvement. • Equip young people with the knowledge, skills and attributes for a future in a rapidly changing world. • Raise standards • Improve skills • Close the inequality gap

3. Strengths • The flexibility which already exists in the Scottish system • The combination of breadth and depth offered by the curriculum • The quality of teaching • The quality of supporting material that helps teachers to deliver much of the current curriculum • The comprehensive principle • Consistent high performance in PISA* *Programme for International Student Assessment

4. Challenges • Reduce achievement gap that opens up and widens P5-S2 • Under achievement of those from poorer communities & low socio-economic status • Build a stronger platform of basic education • Improve staying on rates • Improve attainment for all young people • Improve positive destinations for all • Fragmentation in learning at transition • Learning disrupted by assessment

5. What is the Curriculum for Excellence? • Values driven • Identified four purposes of education Confident individuals, Responsible citizens, Successful learners, Effective contributors • A coherent curriculum from 3-18. • Relies on the professional capacity of teachers/educators to be innovative and creative.

7. Building the Curriculum 3 • 3-18 curriculum. • Broad general education S1-S3. A senior phase after this with opportunity to gain qualifications. • The curriculum is the ‘whole’ experience. • Provides a framework but not the content. Emphasis on development of skills particularly learning skills and employment skills. • Core of literacy, numeracy, health & well being • Requires partnership working within schools & clusters, between schools, across ELL and across the wider community • S1-3 broad and rich learning. Not about early presentation.

8. Curriculum • The ethos and life of the school. • Curriculum areas and subjects • The curriculum areas are not structures for timetabling • Subjects are an essential feature of the curriculum. • Interdisciplinary learning • Projects, rich tasks or courses. • Planned to overtake experiences and outcomes form a range of areas. Breadth and depth. • Progression in skills & literacy, numeracy, health & well being

9. What is the curriculum? • Entire planned learning experience • Ethos and life of the school • Lessons, events, activities • Routines • Clubs, bands, extra curricular activities • Service to the school • Volunteering in the community • Part-time job

10. Pupil timeline • Current (2010/11) S2 are the last cohort to be presented at 2012/13 S4 last presentation at S grade/Intermediate 1/2. • Aug 2010 S1 intake are the first to have the full CfE curriculum and will have new National 4/5 exams in May 2014.

11. Some of the CfE led improvements in S1 • All faculties have revised courses to address the ‘experiences and outcomes’ • Greater emphasis on active learning • A new 2 period interdisciplinary course ‘CBC’ has been introduced; Olympics, RISK, Newspaper, Energy. • These will be continued into S2 • Numeracy. Preferred methods booklet in Maths for primary and secondary. • Literacy. Whole school strategies for Reading and Writing. In-set for all staff • Health and Well being. Pupil HWB leaders, improving mental health Seasons for Growth, Bereavement Counselling

12. S3 • Continuation of the broad general education • Balance of breadth with for personalisation and choice. • Lay strong foundations for more specialised learning, qualifications and lifelong learning.

13. Building the Curriculum 5 • It sets out key messages about principles of assessment, standards and expectations, ensuring consistency, CPD and support, reporting to parents, informing self-evaluation for improvement and monitoring standards over time.

14. New National Courses The Scottish education system is world-renowned and our qualifications are highly valued. Highers, Advanced Highers and Access qualifications will remain and will be updated to reflect changes to the curriculum. There will be new qualifications for all in literacy and numeracy from 2012/2013 and Skills for Work qualifications. • National 4 – replaces Standard Grade (General) and Intermediate 1 • National 5 – replaces Standard Grade (Credit) and Intermediate 2 • Courses will be 160 hours

15. Literacy and Numeracy • Freestanding Units at SCQF levels 3, 4 and 5 (available to adult learners also) • A Literacy Unit to be included in English Courses at SCQF levels 3 and 4 (Access 3 and National 4) • A Numeracy Unit to be included in Mathematics Courses at SCQF levels 3 and 4 (Access 3 and National 4) • Some, not all, literacy/numeracy skills included in English and Mathematics at SCQF 5 (National 5) – no certification unless learner also completes freestanding Unit

17. Senior phase • Learner journeys on the LTS>parentzone site • http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/parentzone/cfe/learnerjourneys/introduction.asp • Select a school and scroll down to the end of the report to find example learner journeys.