The new Scottish curriculum, ”Curriculum for Excellence”, is now expected to be introduced in summer 2014. An extra in-service day is to be added to the five days that currently exist in Scotland, in order to help with the implementation of the new curriculum.
The Education Secretary in the Scottish Assembly, Ms Hyslop, said,
“Curriculum for Excellence is about far more than just the content of the curriculum and extends well beyond schools. The impact of this change will be far-reaching. It is not a centralised or top-down initiative. To achieve these ambitious goals effectively, teachers need support and challenge from all concerned, including parents, employers, further and higher education, local authorities, HMIE and the Scottish Government.
“Curriculum for Excellence must be implemented properly and with confidence to achieve a quality reform so that all children are given the best foundations in school for learning.”
Curriculum for Excellence aims to provide seamless education from age three to 18 and is taking a fresh look at what is taught in schools and how. School pupils are already seeing changes in their classrooms through the groundwork that has been ongoing since 2004. The draft outcomes provide further tools for teachers. The plans are being firmed up in this school year and in 2009-2010 all schools across Scotland will be working on delivery.
The aims of the new curriculum and qualifications are to:
Return professional autonomy and engender greater responsibility of teachers for the learning and teaching which takes place in their classroom.
* Encourage breadth of experience throughout education
* Reduce over-assessment providing more time for quality teaching and learning.
* Teaching and learning to draw out the strengths of each pupil with more personalised learning
* Greater coherence and progression of education supported by the qualifications system
* Literacy and numeracy embedded at all stages and for the first time under devolution the requirement for all teachers of all subjects in all stages to be responsible for literacy and numeracy
* A progressive educational experience with a greater focus on skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work
The consultation focused on four areas:
* Introduction of new awards in literacy and numeracy.
* Introduction of a new general qualification to replace Standard Grade (General and Credit) and Intermediate 1 and 2. Standard Grade Foundation would be removed.
* Retention of Access, Highers and Advanced Highers with a review of the content of all National Qualifications to ensure consistency with Curriculum for Excellence.
* Provide a range of opportunities to meet the needs of all young people
The consultation on the new qualifications closed in October when the Cabinet Secretary announced there would be a shift in the start of the revised qualification system by one year to ensure that teachers would have more opportunity to develop quality preparation for its delivery.
There is now a curriculum for excellene web site at …
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/
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