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CHAPTER 4 - Primary Education

Compulsory Descriptors
Primary Education

Primary education in Scotland provided by the education authorities is normally offered in 7-year primary schools or, in the remoter areas, where numbers would not justify separate schools, in the primary department of a combined primary/secondary school. In a very small number of cases infant schools exist which take pupils for the first two or three years of primary education and pupils transfer thereafter to a primary school for the rest of their primary education. Primary schools providing the full seven years of primary education vary considerably in size, from schools in rural areas of fewer than 20 pupils, with one teacher who is both teacher and head teacher, to schools of over 600 pupils, with several classes at each stage and several promoted members of staff. Just over one-third of the primary schools in Scotland have fewer than 100 pupils, and less than one in ten have 400 or more pupils.

4.1 Historical Overview

Compulsory Descriptors
Historical Perspective

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

The idea of elementary or primary education for all children from the age of 5 years goes back well over 400 years to the year 1560, when the Protestant Reformer, John Knox, called for a school in every parish. This call was reiterated by an Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1696 but the Union of Parliaments in 1707 between Scotland and England delayed further Government intervention in this respect until the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 finally ensured compulsory primary education. After 1890, primary education was provided free. From then until 1965 the content and methods of primary education developed very gradually. The publication in that year by the then Scottish Education Department of Primary Education in Scotland (The Primary Memorandum) had a very great influence in freeing teachers from some of the curricular and methodological restrictions which had grown up, a process which was aided by the disappearance of streaming of pupils in the primary schools and of formal selection for secondary school.

Since 1988 a revised curriculum developed by the Scottish Executive Education Department ( SEED) using working parties of teachers and educationists has been developed in a series of advisory documents and this is now being implemented as the 5-14 Programme.

In November 2004 the Curriculum Review Group published the document A Curriculum for Excellence, which outlined the purposes and principles of education from age 3 to 18 in Scotland. The Group considered that the overall purpose of a curriculum 3-18 is to produce successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. In their response to the document, the Ministers for Education set in motion a programme of work to create a single, coherent, Scottish curriculum 3-18.

4.2 Ongoing Debates

Compulsory Descriptors
Reform Proposal

A number of general developments are relevant to both primary and secondary schools. See section 2.2.

4.3 Specific Legislative Framework

Compulsory Descriptors
Educational Legislation

Primary education is defined by law in Scotland as education that is appropriate for children who have not attained the age of 12 years. However, the Education Acts lay down very little that is specific to the primary school as, to a great extent, they are mainly concerned with conferring powers on education authorities. One matter which is dealt with, however, is the question of the age at which education becomes compulsory and the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 deals at some length with how the age is to be determined and interpreted. The only stipulation in the Education Acts about the curriculum is that religious education is compulsory, although parents have certain rights to remove their children from it.

A number of provisions in the Acts have important consequences for the primary school: the provision that it is the parents' duty to provide efficient education and that it is the education authority's duty to provide adequate and efficient education for their area; the provision in the 1981 amendment Act to the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 that parents can choose the school to which they send their children; and the various provisions which allow education authorities to support children in economic need.

Regulations made by the Scottish Minister for Education and Young People (formerly by the Secretary of State), as a result of powers granted in the various Education Acts, are also important and deal with a range of matters which concern the administration of primary schools, for example keeping class registers, the maximum size of classes, and the nature of promoted posts.

As a consequence of the Teaching Council (Scotland) Act 1965, a teacher must be registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland ( GTCS) as a primary teacher in order to teach in a primary school. This means that the teacher must have trained specifically for work in the primary school.

4.4 General Objectives

Compulsory Descriptors
Aims of Education, Teaching Objective

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

In general terms the purpose of primary schooling is to provide a broad basic education concentrating on enabling children to read, write and count, but also introducing them to ways of examining and understanding their environment, helping them to express themselves through art, music, drama and physical activity and developing their awareness of religious, moral and social values and acceptable behaviour. Increasingly, pupils are being made aware of the impact of technology on society and are introduced to the use of computers from an early stage.

4.5 Geographical Accessibility

Compulsory Descriptors
School Distribution

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

In urban areas and in many of the smaller towns in Scotland children normally live within walking distance of a primary school. In rural areas schools are normally farther apart, as, in many parts of Scotland, they were built at a central point in the parish, and not necessarily in a village, to suit a 19th century distribution of rural population. Children are, therefore, usually transported to school by bus or car if they are under 8 and live more than 2 miles (3.2 km) from it or over 8 and live more than 3 miles (4.8 km) from it, although education authorities can, in special circumstances, provide transport for children who would otherwise have to walk a shorter distance along a busy or dangerous road. In remote areas primary school children may have to travel a long way to school, in some cases as far as 25 km every day and in one or two cases involving crossing of water, although education authorities usually try to avoid this by providing a school on the island or peninsula from which the children come. Because of falling numbers of children of school age, education authorities have found it necessary to close and amalgamate schools in both rural and urban areas, a process which sometimes brings them into conflict with local communities.

4.6 Admission Requirements and Choice of School

Compulsory Descriptors
Admission Requirements, Choice of School

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

The law requires that all children between the ages of 5 and 16 should receive education and therefore the age of admission to primary school is 5. However, children normally only enter school at the beginning of the academic session in the month of August. The law provides for a date to be set each year (normally taken to be 1 March) so that children born before that date will be admitted to school at age 4 in August of the previous year and children who are born on or after that date will be admitted in August of that year.

Most education authorities allocate children to schools in their area by defining catchment areas for each school. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980, as amended in 1981 and 2000, allows parents to express a preference for the particular school they want their child to attend, even if they do not live within the catchment area for that school. If parents express a preference for a particular school (through a "placing request"), the education authority has a duty to grant the request wherever possible. Parents have a right to appeal against an education authority's decision not to grant their placing request, first to the authority itself and then to a court. However, the size of the school, the current roll, the number of children who already live in the catchment area and other factors will affect the education authority's ability to grant a placing request and are taken into account in a court case.

4.7 Financial Support for Pupils' Families

Compulsory Descriptors
Grant, Family Allowance

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

The law ensures that no pupil is prevented from attending school because of economic need. Primary education is provided free by every education authority. Each education authority is required also to provide books, materials, stationery and mathematical instruments. Education authorities have a duty to provide free school transport for pupils in their area attending designated schools, if they consider it necessary. All authorities provide free school transport for pupils under the age of 8 years who live more than 2 miles (3.2 km) from their school, and for any other pupils who live more than 3 miles (4.8 km) away. However, many provide free transport to pupils within those distances, after taking into account safety considerations in individual circumstances. Authorities also have a duty to provide a free school meal and milk for pupils whose parents are in receipt of Income Support or Income-Based Jobseekers Allowance or are asylum seekers.

4.8 Age Levels and Grouping of Pupils

Compulsory Descriptors
Class Composition, Grouping

Primary schools are organised in classes, by age, from primary 1 (P1) to primary 7 (P7). All primary school classes contain both boys and girls and cover the full range of abilities. There is no selection or streaming by ability and children are automatically promoted by age from one class to the next. Each class is normally the responsibility of a class teacher who teaches all or most of the curriculum. Education authorities frequently provide some support for the class teacher in art, drama, music and physical education by employing specialist teachers who normally teach in several different schools.

In the larger primary schools there will usually be more than one class at each stage, the normal maximum class size, by regulation, being currently 33. In 1998, however, regulations came into force which ensured that by August 2001 children in the first three years of primary education (P1 - P3) were taught in classes with a maximum of 30 pupils. In smaller schools children of a number of different stages will be combined in one class with one teacher. As far as possible the education authorities try to keep such composite classes to a limit of 25 pupils. In the very smallest schools, where there are fewer than 20 pupils, one teacher will teach all children in one class.

Three broad stages are normally distinguished in primary schools: P1 to P3 (the infant or early education stage); P4 and P5 (the middle stage); and P6 and P7 (the upper primary stage).

4.9 Organisation of School Time

Compulsory Descriptors
Arrangement of School Time

The following two sub-sections show the organisation of time on a yearly and a weekly/daily basis in Scottish schools.

4.9.1 Organisation of the School Year

Compulsory Descriptors
School Year

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

The length of the school year, for both primary and secondary schools, is nationally determined. Since 1 April 2001 the actual number of hours for teachers in education authority schools is determined by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers ( SNCT). Teachers in education authority schools are required to work a 35-hour week.

For pupils in both primary and secondary schools the academic year covers three terms and lasts a minimum of 190 days (38 weeks). Teachers work one week more, devoting five days to in-service training as part of their contract (see section 8.2.12).

The school year begins in mid-August and there are breaks of one or two weeks in October, December and April, the length of the break being a matter for decision by each education authority. Some education authorities also have a short break in mid-February. Schools also have a small number of single day holidays, usually on Mondays. These are determined locally and reflect Scotland's system of local holidays. The closure for the longer summer holidays takes place around the end of June. The actual dates of the school terms vary according to the education authority. Independent schools, particularly the independent boarding schools, tend to have a slightly shorter school year and some follow traditional English dates for holidays.

4.9.2 Weekly and Daily Timetable

Compulsory Descriptors

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

There is no fixed daily and weekly timetable applying to all schools in Scotland. The law does not define the length of the individual school day or week for pupils. These are matters for the discretion of the education authorities. Authorities do, however, adhere to a widely accepted norm for the length of the pupil week in primary schools - 25 hours (with reduced hours for younger classes). There are usually two school openings a day - morning and afternoon - which are separated by a break for lunch. The lengths of the morning and afternoon are not fixed and the length of the lunch break can vary considerably from place to place. The school day is in most cases encompassed between the hours of 9.00 and 15.30. There is no centrally set timetable, nor is there a fixed lesson length.

4.10 Curriculum, Subjects, Number of Hours

Compulsory Descriptors
Curriculum, Curriculum Subject, Time-table

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

Curriculum

The curriculum in Scottish primary schools is not determined by statute or regulation but by advice from the SEED in the various publications under the general title of the 5-14 Programme. The aim of the curriculum is to provide breadth, balance, coherence and progression, and to attain this the curriculum has been divided into a number of broad areas, set in an appropriate balance. Progression is measured by attainment of 6 levels based on an expectation of the performance of the majority of pupils at certain ages between 5 and 14. It is recognised that pupils learn at different rates and some will reach the various levels before others. The curricular areas are:

• language (including English and a foreign language)
• mathematics
• environmental studies (science, technology, geography, history, modern society)
• expressive arts (art and design, drama, music, physical education)
• religious and moral education
• health education and personal and social development

Some aspects, such as information and communication technology, are developed in all areas of the curriculum.

The class teacher is expected to be able to teach all aspects of the curriculum but, in practice, may well receive support for at least part of the year from visiting teachers of art, drama, music and physical education.

Knowledge and understanding of language and use of the skills of talking, listening, reading and writing permeate the curriculum but are the particular concern in the English and foreign language aspects of the curriculum. From Primary 6 onwards all pupils in Scotland are entitled to the experience of learning a modern language. For those children who are native speakers of Gaelic a number of schools teach in that language and in some schools pupils are able to learn Gaelic as a second language.

The development of knowledge, understanding and skills in mathematics includes dealing with number, money and measurement. There is emphasis on the acquisition of computational skills, information handling (which is concerned with the collection and organisation of facts and figures) and study of shape, position and movement. In all of these pupils are expected to develop skills of problem-solving and enquiry and a mathematical vocabulary.

As the pupils mature, they refine and extend their study of the environment in its social, geographical, historical and scientific and technological aspects.

From the earliest years, expressive arts (music, art, physical education and drama) provide for the development of important practical skills and techniques, the expression of feelings and ideas, and evaluation and appreciation of the work of others.

Religious and moral education promotes a broader, growing awareness of spiritual values and beliefs. Health education is delivered as part of a comprehensive programme of personal and social education. This is intended to ensure that information is given, not in isolation but as part of a programme aimed at helping young people to develop sound lifestyle choices and healthy living.

The Scottish Executive's strategy for Enterprise in Education, Determined to Succeed (DtS), is another important part of personal and social education. Through a range of enterprising learning and teaching across and within the curriculum, all primary school pupils are being given opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge and positive attitudes that prepare them for the world of work and for life more generally. The Schools Enterprise Programme (see relevant references in sections 5.3.1 and 5.3.2), which ran between 2001-04) gave primary and secondary school pupils experience of quality enterprise projects, linked, in most cases to other subjects being taught. . All enterprise in education activity has now been integrated into the wider DtS learning and development strategy.

While time allocations to the various curricular aspects are not determined by regulation, the 5-14 National Guidelines recommend that in each week 20% of the available time should be devoted to language, 15% to mathematics, 15% to environmental studies, 15% to expressive arts, and 15% to religious and moral education, health education and personal and social development. This leaves 20% of the time flexible - to be allocated at the discretion of the school.

In August 2001 SEED issued a circular (Circular 3/2001) to education authorities setting out the degree of flexibility within current guidance on the delivery of the school curriculum. Schools are encouraged to make appropriate adaptations of the curriculum to suit their particular pupils and circumstances.

This flexibility is central to meeting the purposes and principles of education 3 to 18, as outlined in A Curriculum for Excellence, in November 2004. In their response to this document, Scottish Ministers gave the commitment create a single, coherent Scottish curriculum 3-18. They outlined a number of key areas of work to achieve this, including de-cluttering the curriculum in primary schools to free up space for children to achieve and teachers to teach. This is being taken forward as part of a larger programme curricular review.

4.11 Teaching Methods and Materials

Compulsory Descriptors
Teaching Method, Teaching Aid

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

Methods in the primary school are determined by the fact that classes are of mixed abilities (and often of mixed ages). Class teachers must therefore have expertise in a variety of class control mechanisms and in a wide range of teaching/learning techniques.

An outside observer in a Scottish primary classroom would notice that the approach to teaching was a judicious mixture of whole-class, group and individual pupil techniques, with particular attention given to pupils needing support with learning. The use of group methods is particularly characteristic and for them to be successful the pupils must be trained to work co-operatively as well as independently, following a programme laid down daily by the class teacher. The approach to teaching and learning in primary schools is expected to pay due attention to pupils' continuity of experience from one stage to the next and to curricular progression within stages. Teachers may deliver the programme either in the form of discrete subjects or by an integrated approach linking together aspects of the curriculum.

Modern educational technology has its place in Scottish primary schools to support learning. Most primary schools make use of the many available television programmes which are broadcast by the BBC and Independent Television ( ITV), often recording the programmes to allow more flexible use. Schools also use programmes broadcast on radio or made available by the BBC as tape-recordings. Computers have become established learning tools in all primary schools. Examples of their use are to encourage children to write, to collect and store information about the environment, to develop contacts and project work with schools in other countries and to provide practice in mathematics.

Special assistance for pupils with additional support needs is described in section 10.5.

4.12 Pupil Assessment

Compulsory Descriptors
Evaluation, Pupil

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

Teachers assess their pupils' progress in a variety of ways. They watch them work, discuss their work with them, set special tasks, in which the teacher can make judgements about the pupils' performance, and set formal assessments or tests, some of which are produced by the school and others nationally. Teachers received guidance on the process of evaluation in the publication: National Guidelines: Assessment 5-14. This encouraged them to use on-going classwork assessment to guide their interaction with pupils and their planning of teaching and to make a professional judgement from time to time about pupils' overall attainment in relation to the nationally defined levels of performance.

Teachers can use National Assessments (called National Tests until August 2003) in English language (reading and writing) and mathematics to confirm their professional judgement of the attainment levels reached by pupils. When a teacher judges that a pupil (or pupils) has/have largely completed one of the five levels (A-E) of the curriculum in the National Guidelines covering these subjects, he or she selects an assessment unit at the appropriate level from a web site and sets it for the pupil(s). These National Assessments do not lead to certification of pupils but are a means of helping teachers to ensure that their assessments are in line with nationally agreed standards. Under the terms of Departmental Circular 12/92, education authorities have agreed to ensure that schools, using nationally devised tasks in this way, confirm pupils' progress in English language and mathematics and report the results of the tests individually to parents.

For reporting on the progress of pupils to parents an exemplar report has been devised which gives information on the level of attainment in each aspect of the curriculum. This report also provides parents with information on their child's personal and social development in school. The report contains a form which allows parents to comment on it and to note points which could be discussed at parent-teacher meetings. Guidance suggests that all reports should comment on pupils' strengths and development needs, provide an overall assessment of levels of attainment, identify suitable next steps in learning, and provide an opportunity for parents to respond to the report to a named teacher. Education authorities typically require their schools to use a locally adapted version of this model.

The report on each pupil, as well going to parents, is often used, sometimes along with other internal records of teachers' assessments, to convey information to the pupil's next teacher or to the secondary school that he or she moves on to.

4.13 Progression of Pupils

Compulsory Descriptors
Promotion to the next Class

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

Pupils in primary schools in Scotland are normally promoted automatically by age from year to year. There is no requirement to achieve any particular level of attainment to progress to the next class and no system of "repeating" to enable pupils to redo a year's work. The school's system of support for learning addresses the needs of low attainers as they move from class to class with pupils of their own age.

4.14 Certification

Compulsory Descriptors
Certification

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

There are no formal certificates awarded to pupils for work in the primary school. Some schools use various kinds of informal certificate of their own devising to reward pupils for good work and to motivate them.

4.15 Educational Guidance

Compulsory Descriptors
Guidance

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

In Scotland the provision of pastoral support services is a feature of all educational institutions both in the public and private sectors and in both schools and post-school educational institutions.

In every type of school, all teaching staff are responsible for the care and guidance of pupils, though there are specialist guidance staff in secondary schools. Pastoral support in primary schools typically falls into the category of general support. Since primary teachers come to know their pupils very well, they are in a position to offer understanding of and support for pupils' emotional and personal development. Head teachers and senior promoted staff are also aware of individual pupils' personalities and seek to work in partnership with parents to promote their children's development and support them in any difficulties.

Health and personal development are integral aspects of the curriculum. Many schools call on the services of health professionals to help in promoting awareness of healthy living.

4.16 Private Education

Compulsory Descriptors
Private Education, Financing

The law permits individuals and bodies to provide education outside the education authority system, with certain provisos. In the case of groups of fewer than five pupils of school age, those offering the education must prove to the satisfaction of the education authority that they are providing satisfactory education. If there are five or more pupils of school age, the school must be registered with the SEED and is subject to inspection by HM Inspectorate of Education before final registration is granted. HM Inspectors have to be satisfied that the premises conform to certain basic accommodation standards, that the owners are 'fit and proper persons' to run such an establishment and that the teachers are similarly acceptable.

The Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 makes some changes to the arrangements for the registration of private schools. It requires prospective managers of any new private school to apply for provisional registration before the school becomes operational and it gives Scottish Ministers wider powers to refuse provisional registration. Private schools in Scotland are normally referred to as independent schools. Only a very small proportion of children and young people in Scotland (approximately 4%) attend such schools. Parents pay fees for the attendance of their children at these schools.

Independent schools vary enormously in size, ranging from fewer than 20 pupils to over 2,000. Some offer a complete education from pre-school age to 18; others are for primary age or secondary age pupils. Independent schools have some freedom in the number of days on which they have to open in the year. There is no legal requirement for an independent school to follow a particular teaching programme. In some the courses bear close resemblance to those offered in education authority schools. Others are modelled on English 'preparatory schools' or 'public schools' and prepare their pupils either to enter the English public schools system or to sit English examinations. A number have a very strong religious orientation. One is a specialist music school. Most of the larger independent schools are members of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools ( SCIS) in which they can come together to discuss matters of common interest and to organise training for their staff and governing bodies.

Independent schools are inspected by HM Inspectorate of Education in the same way as local authority schools. In carrying out such an inspection, HMI take into account the stated educational aims of the school. In addition, as a result of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, a programme of inspections of the care and welfare of residential pupils in independent schools which are boarding schools is carried out by HM Inspectors. The Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 further adds to this to allow Scottish Ministers to serve a Notice of Complaint on an independent school in a case of "failure to provide adequately for the welfare of a child or children attending the school".

As from April 2005 all independent boarding schools will fall to be registered and inspected by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care in accordance with the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001.

Primary education is offered in a number of independent schools, which are mainly situated in or near the urban areas. They range from very small schools, some run by groups with a particular religious orientation, to large primary departments with 1,000 pupils or more in the large independent schools in the cities. Some of the independent schools, on the model of the English preparatory school, take pupils mainly from the 8-13 age range and prepare them for the Common Entrance Examination for the English 'public school' system. A number of children from outside Scotland attend its independent schools.

4.17 Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures

Compulsory Descriptors
Alternative School

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

The range of independent schools offering primary education is indicated in section 4.16.

The law also allows parents to educate their children at home and a very small number do so. Under these circumstances parents have to satisfy the local education authority that the education they are offering is suitable for the child's age, ability and aptitude. If the local education authority is aware of children who are being home educated and there is evidence that they are not being provided with an efficient education, the authority has a duty to intervene.

4.18 Statistics

Compulsory Descriptors
Statistical Data

Additional Descriptors (x to left denotes that additional descriptor is covered below)

Further and more detailed statistics to supplement those given here are available on the Scottish Executive web site at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats

Publicly Funded Primary Schools (September 2003 Schools Census)

Independent Primary Schools (September 2003 Independent School Census)

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