Targeting Excellence - Modernising Scotland's Schools

Action for Improvement

Actions for improvement are under way in schools across Scotland. There are many interlinking initiatives and strategies. This section reviews these, starting with the major focus on the early years. It identifies the key priorities in developing and further modernising the curriculum in schools and the importance of supporting children's learning in and out of school. The major initiative on New Community Schools brings many of these initiatives together in a wide ranging pilot programme.

Chapter 1 - Targeting Excellence in the Early Years

"Good quality childcare and early education can help chidren become confident in themselves, in relationships, and in learning."

The early years of childhood - covering pre-school and the first few years of primary school - are a time when all children are eager to learn about themselves and the world around them. They develop an astonishing range of skills during this period. Good quality childcare and early education can help children become confident in themselves, in relationships, and in learning. It is in these years that the foundations for lifelong learning are set.

The early years of learning are therefore crucial. A coherent set of policies and initiatives to support early years is being developed, linking early education with childcare and support for parents. This is a time of rapid development in early years services: the Government is committed to a major expansion of pre-school education and childcare services, and to ensuring that provision is of high quality. Where early years services fully meet the needs and preferences of children and of their parents, they will bring benefits not only to individual children but also to families and local communities.

Very Young Children

1. Opportunities for learning through play are important for the very youngest children. It is also important to recognise that children develop within the family, with the well-being and broad skills of parents fundamental to a child's progress. The Government is therefore committed to an expansion of family centres and similar provision. This will provide both good quality childcare and access to wider support for parents, including access to advice and opportunities to build confidence and skills. This expansion will be targeted on areas of greatest need to help children be ready to gain maximum benefit from the planned learning that pre-school education provides. Local authorities are being asked to plan provision in co-ordination with Health bodies in order to help parents give their children the best start in life.

Early Childhood: Expansion of Pre-School Provision

2. The pre-school years - when children are aged 3 to 5 - are an important and distinctive phase in a child's development. They benefit greatly in educational, emotional and social terms from a well planned pre-school learning experience. This prepares children for primary school and has a positive impact on later educational attainments. The curriculum for pre-school - developed by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools - emphasises the importance of learning through play and allowing children to develop their own natural curiosity and creativity. In this way, children get into the habit of learning. Pre-school education also helps children develop emotional maturity and social skills. This benefits both education and behaviour later on.

3. The Government recognises the importance of pre-school education and wants to see all children, whose parents wish it, benefit from pre-school education from the term after their third birthday. They are therefore committed to providing access to A part-time quality education place for every pre-school year child by winter 1998/9 A part-time quality education place for every three year old (in the year before their pre-school year) by 2002.

4. Excellent progress with this ambitious expansion plan has already been made: according to local authority returns, just under 95% of eligible pre-school year children are now accessing a pre-school education place. An additional £138 million has also been secured over the next three years to ensure the second goal is met.

Planning for the Early Years

Stirling Council has taken a holistic approach to planning their early years services. It has a Children's Committee which addresses all issues of relevance to early years services. It has conducted a review of its 'Early Years Policy' and has agreed principles which closely mirror those of the Government. These include

The involvement of the private and voluntary sectors in its expansion plans Taking a lead role in establishing Stirling's Early Years Forum Linking its plans for pre-school to Children's Services Plans.

Linking Pre-School Education and Childcare

5. The Green Paper Meeting the Childcare Challenge: A Childcare Strategy for Scotland (Cm 3958) set out the Government's plans for developing and implementing a Scottish childcare strategy to improve access to affordable, high quality care.

6. Pre-school education is closely linked to childcare, particularly where children attend day nurseries so that parents may balance work and family responsibilities. Local authorities have therefore been asked to plan pre-school education provision in the light of the desirability of the integration of childcare and early education and the contribution that the private and voluntary sectors can make to meeting children's and parents' needs. For their part the Government Has issued joint guidance on the planning of pre-school education and childcare services Intends to consult on achieving a better and more consistent regulatory framework for early years education and childcare.

Promoting and Ensuring Quality for Pre-School Education and Childcare

7. The expansion of pre-school education and childcare must be firmly linked to the raising of quality standards. The Government will promote a co-ordinated and quality assured approach to the care and education of pre-school children in a number of ways, including Launching an 'early years best practice initiative' to spread innovation and excellence in the delivery of education and childcare Developing quality standards for childcare and pre-school education to support self-evaluation by pre-school centres in all sectors. This will be similar to the publication by HM Inspectors of Schools - How Good is our School?.

8. The Government is ensuring that the expansion of pre-school education is underpinned by strong quality standards. To achieve this All grant-funded pre-school education centres are quality assured through registration with the Department, monitoring by authorities, and by regular, independent inspection by HM Inspectors of Schools Rigorous self-evaluation is the foundation of quality assurance. HM Inspectors of Schools have published Performance Indicators to help centres in this process. All centres must identify their strengths and areas for development; and propose targets for improvement Local authorities have a major role to provide quality support services to their own grant funded centres and to partner centres from whom they commission places. This includes visiting centres in their area, evaluating development plans, offering advice on the curriculum, sharing information on current developments and assisting centres in meeting the "Points for Action" set out in HM Inspectors inspection reports. They are also encouraged to offer in-service training to staff working in the pre-school sector HM Inspectors have published curriculum guidelines for pre-school year children that cover all aspects of children's learning and also support their emotional, personal and social development. These guidelines - A Curriculum Framework for Children in their Pre-school Year - are now being extended to cover 3 year olds. All centres receiving grant must follow these guidelines.

The Community Approach - Pre-school First Step Project

First Step is a successful, community managed provision for parents and children living in the Musselburgh East area of East Lothian. First Step provides opportunities for parents and children to realise their own value and potential. First Step's services include A local learning centre for families to meet Structured play - offering children a quality learning experience Opportunities for self development, to help parents increase their confidence as well as their parenting and work related skills Day care provision Access to social, educational and training opportunities to help people move into further education or employment Access to counselling and advisory services.

First Step aims to cross the boundaries of Nursery Education, Social Work and Community Development to meet the needs of families by providing a parent managed, open door approach. Every parent receives an induction pack full of information about the project and the facilities on offer, including speech therapy, first aid and dental health advice.

The Statutory Framework for Pre-School Education and Childcare

9. Parents are not required to send their children to pre-school. The Government will preserve parental choice in this matter. But it is equally determined to ensure that, where parents do want to take advantage of pre-school services, they can find places that meet their needs and preferences, and those of their children. The most effective way to ensure this will be to place a statutory duty on local authorities to provide sufficient places, whether at their own hand or by working in partnership with other providers (playgroups, private day nurseries or nursery departments of independent schools). The partnership approach is vital. It allows local authorities to respond flexibly to the needs of parents and to build on existing arrangements in their areas. Children's and parents' needs differ from place to place and can change over time; some parents may wish to combine pre-school education with daycare and partnership arrangements can be an effective way to provide for such needs.

10. Local authorities already prepare a range of plans which touch on pre-school education and childcare. For example, Children's Services Plans (produced under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995) set objectives for a broad range of services including daycare and childcare services, and services to meet the needs of vulnerable children. Local authorities have also been asked to produce plans for the provision of pre-school education and childcare, and to ensure that these plans are fully aligned with, and consistent with, their Children's Services Plan.

11. The Government have indicated their intention to examine, through a review, whether the strategic planning of services for children could be better focused by a revision of the statutory framework that governs it.

Managing the Transition from Pre-School to Primary

12. The transition from pre-school to primary should be a natural progression in a child's development. Where this happens The individual child remains the focus, encouraging continuity in the child's educational experience Primary teachers will have a good picture of children's particular needs, abilities, aptitudes and achievements and can therefore respond effectively to the learning needs of individual children Teachers are better equipped to assess the need for early intervention in literacy and numeracy on entry to primary school.

13. The Government intends to improve continuity between pre-school and early primary education. Important work in this area is already in hand Clear links have been made between the pre-school curriculum and the 5-14 programme which promote continuity and progression between pre-school and primary school More detailed guidance has been issued to pre-school centres on the observation, assessment, recording and reporting of children's progress - and consideration is also being given to how information should be passed on to primary teachers Information about a child's progress in pre-school education should be shared with parents and primary schools. HM Inspectors recently ran a pilot project on the transfer of useful information from pre-school to primary; and this will be evaluated in the wider context of the assessment of children's progress in primary school The Government is committed to reducing class sizes to a maximum of 30 children and this, together with the initiative on classroom assistants, will allow for an adult:pupil ratio closer to that experienced by children in their pre-school stage.