What is Curriculum for Excellence?
Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in education in Scotland by providing an improved, more flexible and enriched curriculum for all children and young people from 3 – 18. The curriculum includes all of the experiences which are planned for children and young people through their education, wherever they are being educated. All schools and nurseries in North Lanarkshire are working hard to raise standards so that children and young people will develop all of the skills necessary to continue to be successful when leaving school and entering the world of higher education, training or work.
Curriculum for Excellence is underpinned by the values inscribed on the mace of the Scottish Parliament – wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity. The purpose of Curriculum for Excellence is encapsulated in the four capacities – to enable each child or young person to be a Successful Learner, a Confident Individual, a Responsible Citizen and an Effective Contributor.
What are the Curriculum Areas in Curriculum for Excellence?
There are eight curriculum areas:
- Expressive Arts
- Health and Well Being
- Languages (Literacy)
- Mathematics (Numeracy)
- Religious and Moral Education
- Social Studies
Importantly literacy and numeracy are given added importance because these skills are so vital in everyday life. All teachers will have responsibility to teach literacy and numeracy.
Learning is divided into two phases. The General Phase is from nursery to the end of Secondary School Year 3. Learning is divided into levels. These levels will replace the 5-14 levels that you are familiar with. The new levels are as follows:
|Early||The pre-school years and P1 or later for some|
|First||To the end of P4, but earlier or later for some|
|Second||To the end of P7, but earlier or later for some|
|Third and Fourth||S1-S3, but earlier for some|
The Second Phase is from Secondary School Year 4 and beyond.
|Senior||S4-S6 and college or other means of study|
How will my child’s learning be assessed?
There will be new ways of assessing each child’s progress to make sure that potential is achieved. New qualifications are being developed:
- Literacy and Numeracy Tests (at the end of S3) from 2012/13
- National 4 and 5 qualifications from 2013/2014
- Access, Highers and Advanced Highers to be updated to reflect Curriculum for Excellence
In playrooms and classrooms staff will be using improved ways of assessing children’s learning taking account of national and local advice and guidance. Your child’s progress will be reported to you so that you know how well your child is doing.
Each year your nursery/school will let you know what is being done to implement Curriculum for Excellence so that you can be confident that your child is receiving a high quality education.