Cf E Management Board – 13 September 2012 – paper 3. 1
Summary report on key developments
A summary of the key developments for the period June until August 2012 is
given below. A summary report regarding the CfE Implementation Group
meeting held in July is attached as appendix 1.
1.
CfE Programme Reporting
1.1
Programme Highlight Report
1.1.1 The Highlight report confirmed that no major issues had been reported
(June - August), with delivery partners continuing to meet major milestones and
managing plans to militate against the resourcing issues that have been
reported previously.
1.1.2 The CfE Programme Plan has been refreshed in accordance with agreed
headings: Broad General Education 3-15, Senior Phase, Qualifications,
Measurement and Communications. The Highlight report continues to use the
previous programme structure for reasons of consistency.
1.1.3 Further advice and guidance to assist practitioners in preparing to deliver
courses within the new National Qualifications (NQ) framework has been
published.
1.1.4 Assessment overviews have been published and are available on the
SQA website for every course from National 2 – National 5.
1.1.5. A complete set of final documents for new National 2 to Higher courses
has been published and delivered to every secondary school and college in
Scotland.
1.2
Programme Plan
1.2.1 A series of customised national communications activities ‘Put yourself at
the heart of your child’s learning’ on key areas such as Assessment, Profiling
and Transitions have been published. A CfE Briefing for parents on the subject
of Broad General Education in Secondary is now on the Education Scotland
website with printed copies being sent to every school.
1.2.2 A list, by subject and curriculum area, of all support materials produced
over the last year has been published on the Education Scotland website. The
document Published and Planned support for Curriculum for Excellence gives
direct links to all existing materials as well as the support materials and events
that are planned for this year.
1.3
Development of NQ 4/5 Additional Support Materials
1.3.1 Education Scotland is working closely with ADES and the EIS in taking
this initiative forward. Work is underway in identifying authorities, schools and
departments to co-ordinate the production of these materials. Twenty out of 32
authorities have responded to the joint request from SG and EdS. A
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Cf E Management Board – 13 September 2012 – paper 3. 1
comprehensive mapping exercise has taken place, which identifies materials
currently available, and materials which can be adapted for N4/N5 courses. In
addition to course materials, a full suite of Professional Focus papers for each
qualification will be provided at N4 and N5. These papers set out the main
differences between Standard Grade/ Intermediate and the new National 4/5
courses.
A Skills for Practice resource has been developed for use by practitioners and
local authority staff to help them review and adapt their current approaches to
developing skills for learning, life and work in the context of CfE.
1.4 Assessment
1.4.1 Education authorities have indicated that they were on track with P7
profiles. Early exemplars of S3 profiles are published online (NAR).
1.5
Measurement
1.5.1 Work Package 3 definition agreed and work underway. Technical
specification of first two measures (destination / participation: improving levels
of literacy and numeracy complete and issued to IT supplier.
2. Communications and Engagement
2.1
Update from the Communications Group
2.1.1 A separate update report will be provided.
3.
Current Updates and Developments
3.1.1 A verbal update of progress achieved in August will be provided at the
September meeting.
Dr Bill Maxwell
Chair, CfE Implementation Group
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Cf E Management Board – 13 September 2012 – paper 3. 1
Appendix 1
Paper for CfE Management Board Meeting – 13 September 2012
Report from Implementation Group
The CfE Implementation Group met on Friday 6 July 2012. A summary of the
discussion and points agreed at the meeting is given below.
1.
Programme Reporting
1.1
Progress against Programme Plan
1.1.1 The Highlight report confirmed that no major issues had been reported
(April, May and June), with delivery partners continuing to meet major
milestones and managing plans to mitigate against the resourcing issues that
have been reported previously.
1.1.2 Management Board members are already aware of the work currently
underway to revise the structure of the Programme Plan which is due to be in
place in September. Delivery partners have reached the view that qualifications
development should now be incorporated into the senior phase workstream and
a number of other additional activities are also being reviewed to determine if
they should, in fact, be part of the programme, or ongoing business activities.
1.1.3 There was some discussion around qualifications and the level of content
change in certain subjects. The group also discussed the implications of this for
development of support materials, as well as implementation more generally.
1.1.4 The extent to which practitioners are aware of the materials that will be
developed and made available over the coming months was also touched on.
The group agreed that as the detail of what support materials will be available
becomes clearer, this should be brought together into an overview, along with
practical examples and a timeline which is made available to practitioners /
stakeholders.
1.2
Development of NQ 4/5 Additional Support Materials
1.2.1 The Group reviewed the work currently underway to produce the support
materials. The importance of developing a quality assurance process that gives
practitioners confidence in the materials was emphasised.
1.2.2 A detailed plan that identifies responsibilities, and what will be delivered
by when, will be available in August and it was agreed that this information
ought to be made available to practitioners.
1.3
Risk Register
1.3.1 Following the workshop held on 25 June 2012, a first draft of the new
Implementation Group Risk Register was presented for discussion.
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1.3.2 A separate risk around ensuring that benchmarking and the public
reporting of performance statistics supports the aims of CfE will be added and it
was also agreed that Scotland’s Colleges should be included alongside SQA
and Education Scotland.
1.4
Issues Log
1.4.1 It was agreed that relevant milestones from the Post-16 Reform
Programme should be included within the CfE Programme Plan and will also be
highlighted on the issues log. It was also suggested that a dependency-type
workshop, where Post-16 and CfE programmes could share plans, would be
explored.
2. Communications and Engagement
2.1
Update from the Communications Group
2.1.1 The priority focus for communications will be the Back to School –
Parents Campaign. This campaign will draw together a range of information,
including Broad General Education and what this means for every child, as well
as new qualifications and transitions. Taking this forward, the Communications
Group will be working closely with the National Parent Forum of Scotland.
2.1.2 Another key action for the Communications Group is to review the
Programme Plan and consider the best means of reaching CLD and HE. It was
agreed that the Implementation Group should invite Universities Scotland to join
the Implementation Group for a discussion about the implications of their
‘Beyond the Senior Phase’ report.
2.2
Proposed themes for the next editions of CfE Briefings
2.2.1 Feedback from practitioners indicated that the Briefing had been well
received and it would be important now to maintain momentum.
2.2.2 The group discussed possible topics for the next editions. However,
before reaching any conclusions, it was agreed that it would be useful to gauge
the response from practitioners about proposed topics and the frequency of
publication of the Briefings. A decision will also need to be taken on the
suitability of developing parental versions of future Briefings.
3. National Measures for Senior Phase Benchmarking
3.1
A paper which outlined proposals for the new senior phase
benchmarking tool was presented to the Implementation Group for comment.
3.2
The group was broadly in favour of the benchmarking approach as set
out in the paper. It was, however, noted that the audience was schools and
local authorities, and there was not yet any indication of what Scottish
Government would publish as National Statistics. It was agreed that it would be
very important to ensure any such national performance information was
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aligned in nature and timescale with the benchmarking package. Further
clarification of how this achieved was sought.
3.3
The group agreed that the report to the Management Board should
therefore set out clearly the scope of the project, the dependencies and bring
together the overall picture, including other types of measurements. These
comments were reported back to Scottish Government colleagues.
4. AOB
4.1
The group noted that Programme Management would now be migrating
to Education Scotland. Maureen Gore would be taking over the role of CfE
Programme Manager from Sandra Campbell.
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