The Scottish Government

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setting the context

The Scottish Government has high ambitions for Scotland; ambitions which demonstrate our confidence in the potential talents of Scotland's people. Our principal purpose is to create a more successful Scotland with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth. To deliver this purpose five overarching strategic objectives have been identified - to make Scotland smarter, safer and stronger, wealthier and fairer, greener and healthier. We believe that these objectives should be the focus of government and public services both nationally and locally.

We believe that Curriculum for Excellence can play a significant role in achieving our principal purpose and strategic objectives.

The aim of Curriculum for Excellence is to help prepare all young people in Scotland to take their place in a modern society and economy. The curriculum will provide a framework for all young people in Scotland to gain the knowledge and skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work that they need.

Curriculum for Excellence will offer better educational outcomes for all young people and will provide more choices and more chances for those young people who need them, helping us to meet the concerns raised in the recent OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report on Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland¹.

This means:

• a coherent and inclusive curriculum from 3 to 18 wherever learning is taking place, whether in schools, colleges or other settings;

• a focus on outcomes;

• a broad general education;

• time to take qualifications in ways best suited to the young person;

• more opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work for all young people at every stage;

• a focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing at every stage;

• appropriate pace and challenge for every child; and

• ensuring connections between all aspects of learning and support for learning.

We already have a great deal of excellent practice in Scotland. We need to build upon this to create more exciting, engaging, relevant learning and teaching in every pre-school centre, school and college, or wherever the child or young person is learning. Local authorities and schools will need to build strong partnerships with a range of organisations including colleges, universities, employers, Skills Development Scotland, community learning and development bodies and the voluntary sector and other providers to deliver a personalised learning experience for every child and young person.

General Education

Every child and young person is entitled to expect their education to provide them with:

• a curriculum which is coherent from 3 to 18;

• opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work (including career planning skills) with a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing;

• a broad general education, including well planned experiences and outcomes across all the curriculum areas from early years through to S3;

• a senior phase of education after S3 which provides the opportunity to obtain qualifications as well as to continue to develop the four capacities;

• personal support to enable them to gain as much as possible from the opportunities which Curriculum for Excellence can provide; and

• support in moving into positive and sustained destinations beyond school.

It is the responsibility of schools and their partners to bring the experiences and outcomes together and apply these entitlements to produce programmes for learning across a broad curriculum, covering science, language, mathematics, social studies (including Scottish history), expressive arts, health and wellbeing, religious and moral education and technology. Throughout this broad curriculum it is expected there will be an emphasis on Scottish contexts, Scottish cultures and Scotland's history and place in the world. This planning should demonstrate the principles for curriculum design: challenge and enjoyment; breadth; progression; depth; personalisation and choice; coherence and relevance.

Learning should be made available in a range of ways including interdisciplinary learning and a range of opportunities which ensure a broad approach, enabling, for example, a coherent understanding of environmental issues.

The curriculum framework sets out what a child or young person should be able to do and the experiences that contribute to their learning, rather than detailed definitions of content or prescribed hours of study.

The experiences and outcomes are grouped into five levels - early (in which most children will undertake learning to the end of P1); first (in which most children will undertake learning by the end of P4); second (in which most children will undertake learning by the end of P7); third (in which most young people will undertake learning during S1 - S3) and fourth (in which most young people will have undertaken learning by the end of S3). For all young people, learning, at whatever level, will be managed in a manner that paves the way for work towards qualifications in the senior phase at the SCQF level appropriate to the needs and achievements of each young person.

The intention must be to avoid driving young people through the levels as fast as possible. This arrangement of experiences and outcomes is intended to give teachers ² and other staff the flexibility and scope to follow issues through and to provide personalised and varying programmes of learning so that the young person is secure at a level before moving on.

The experiences and outcomes can be packaged in different ways appropriate to the individual child or young person. Building the Curriculum 3: A Framework for Learning and Teaching gives further details about the role of curriculum areas and subjects in the new curriculum. For example, in early secondary some young people might learn about elements of the modern language outcomes as part of learning about hospitality or business; or outcomes related to mathematics in the context of learning about geography; or outcomes related to geography in the context of learning about science. Planning should be done in a way that enables all young people to capitalise on the specialist expertise of subject teachers. In all cases from 3 to 18, the focus should be on good quality learning and teaching.

Assessment will be an integral part of learning and teaching, helping to provide an emerging picture of a young person's learning and achievements as he or she develops across the four capacities. Up to the end of S3, assessment by teachers will be the main means of assessing each young person's achievements. Assessment should be planned and used in ways which reflect the principles for curriculum design.

At the end of S3, a young person's progress within the outcomes should be recorded by their teachers. Teachers will be expected to assess the level and extent of achievement by reference to the young person's learning across curriculum areas, wherever the learning has taken place. This will be the opportunity to bring together the teachers' judgements and the young person's own record of their achievements and skills by drawing on a range of evidence. Young people will have been learning how to evaluate and present their skills through personal learning planning from early years.

We are aware that some schools and local authorities have sought to increase pace, challenge and achievement by entering cohorts of pupils for National Qualifications ³ before the end of S3. The Scottish Government has reaffirmed its commitment to the principles set out in the national guidance on early presentation ⁴. Decisions about early presentation must be made in the best interests of an individual pupil - not classes, cohorts or year groups. The Scottish Government would not support early presentation other than in exceptional circumstances related to an individual young person. It is important that the full period to the end of S3 is used to provide a rich curriculum allowing young people to study and have experiences that provide both breadth and depth of learning. The expectation is that young people will reach a deeper and more secure level of attainment and achievement at the end of S3 than they do at present. If necessary, the Scottish Government will strengthen the existing guidance on when young people can be presented for National Qualifications and/or arrange for Age and Stage regulations to be introduced to reinforce this policy.

Senior Phase

As young people move into S4, they will continue to develop the four capacities to become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. To do so, they must continue to have opportunities that reinforce their broader learning and achievements through a range of experiences including enhancing skills for life and skills for work, an active and healthy lifestyle and an appreciation of Scotland and its place in the world. There will be opportunities to maintain and enhance their literacy and numeracy skills. They will also start building their lifelong portfolio of qualifications.

The qualifications young people aim for should be flexible and designed to offer pathways to the next stage, whether in further or higher education, employment or training. They should be able to be taken at school, college or other settings and they should provide credit for young people's attainment.

Full details of the proposals for the next generation of National Qualifications are outlined in this document and are summarised briefly below.

(i) National Qualifications at Access, Higher and Advanced Higher will be retained as points of stability. Highers, in particular, will remain the 'gold standard' of the Scottish education system. The content of all National Qualifications will be updated to reflect the values, purposes and principles of Curriculum for Excellence. Some aspects of the structure of these qualifications will also be reviewed.

(ii) A new qualification will replace the present Standard Grade General and Credit levels and Intermediate 1 and 2 ( SCQF 4 and SCQF 5) qualifications. The new qualification will be available in a wide range of subjects, as at present. The new qualification will reflect the best features of Standard Grade and Intermediate. Standard Grade Foundation level will be removed and Access 3 will provide certification at SCQF level 3. (See Annex A Table 1 for illustration of new qualifications on SCQF Framework.)

(iii) New awards in literacy and in numeracy will be available at SCQF levels 3 to 5.Curriculum for Excellence brings a sustained focus on developing literacy and numeracy skills in our young people. To help strengthen this focus, the Scottish Government is proposing new separate awards to accredit young people's literacy and numeracy skills - the Scottish Certificate for Literacy and the Scottish Certificate for Numeracy. The awards will be available at SCQF levels 3 to 5. The expectation is that all young people will be presented for these awards unless there are exceptional reasons for not doing so. The intention is also to ensure that the structure of these awards is flexible enough to make them available to adult learners.

(iv) Increased flexibility to better meet the needs of young people. Suggestions include:

• studying National Qualifications over 18 months (or 2 years) as well as one year;

• introducing a winter diet of examinations; and

• encouraging the most able young people to bypass lower level qualifications and to study Highers from S4 onwards.

One other feature of the senior phase will be the introduction of a Scottish Science Baccalaureate and a Scottish Language Baccalaureate. The Baccalaureates will comprise Higher and Advanced Higher courses together with an interdisciplinary project. The aims of these awards are to encourage more pupils to study science and language subjects in upper secondary school; raise the status of S6; and help schools to develop greater links with higher education, colleges and employers. These awards are not part of this consultation. The Scottish Government announced details of these awards in June.

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