CfE Implementation e-bulletin
May 2014
Welcome to the May edition of the CfE
Implementation e-bulletin.
With the first of the exams for the new National
Qualifications coming to an end soon, schools will be
planning ahead for the next session. To help with that we
have included in this edition a reminder about the support
that is available on Glow for the new National
Qualifications.
As with every monthly edition we aim to provide easy
access to the most up to date resources, materials and
information available to help promote positive
engagement among practitioners, pupils and parents, as
we work together to embed Curriculum for Excellence.
Dr Bill Maxwell
Chair of the CfE Implementation Board
Curriculum for Excellence: National Implementation Plan 2014-15
The Curriculum for Excellence national Implementation Plan for next year,
2014-15, and the progress report for activities on the 2013-14 Implementation
Plan have now been published online.
We have responded to feedback from practitioners by producing the forward
plan a few months earlier this year to help assist you in your own planning for
local activity, to take forward the next steps in your areas, establishments or
services. The implementation plan sets out the objectives we need to achieve,
the activities at local level that will be required to achieve these objectives and
the national support that will be available.
Recognising Achievement, Profiling and Reporting - new resource
This new resource aims to bring together the range of material to support
practitioners in developing their understanding of recognising achievement,
profiling and reporting in the context of Curriculum for Excellence.
It includes: presentations on key messages in recognising achievement,
profiling and reporting; a range of support materials; recent NAR exemplars;
links to pertinent guidance materials from Education Scotland; direct links to
Glow 'Watch Again' videos of related Glow Meets; support and findings from
research.
SQA guides to the new National Qualifications
SQA has published their latest guides to the new National Qualifications. Guides
have been published for teachers, lecturers, learners, parents/carers, employers
and universities. They are available to read and download from SQA’s website.
National 1 Units
SQA has developed the new National 1 Units in three phases. Unit Support
Notes and Unit assessment support for Units in Phase 3 are now available. Unit
Support Notes can be found at www.sqa.org.uk/national1.
Unit assessment support packs are held securely and teachers/lecturers can
arrange access to them through their SQA Co-ordinator.
SQA School Co-ordinator Conferences – June 2014
SQA is hosting five conferences to meet, support and listen to SQA Coordinators ahead of the new Highers being introduced in session 2014–15. The
conferences will focus on operational and qualifications developments and will
include a range of keynote information sessions. Visit www.sqa.org.uk/cfevents
to find out more.
New Higher
Past paper guidance for new Higher Courses
SQA has published guidance to help teachers and lecturers identify which
existing Higher past paper questions can be used to help learners revise for the
new Higher exams that will take place in 2015. To find out more, visit
www.sqa.org.uk/cfenews.
Updated specifications and Unit assessment support for new Higher
Courses
SQA has updated documents containing mandatory information on the new
Higher Courses. These are planned updates, which have taken place following
the publication of the Higher assessment support materials. As part of these
updates, SQA has also updated packages 1 and 2 of Unit assessment support
for Higher. To find out more, visit www.sqa.org.uk/cfenews.
Support for the new National Qualifications
It is now almost 18 months since Education Scotland and ADES launched the
dedicated area on Glow for web based course materials to support the new
National Qualifications. As well as nationally prepared materials from Education
Scotland, teachers were also encouraged to submit their course materials so
that these could be shared on a national basis. This has been a great success,
with many excellent materials being provided by local authorities, schools and
practitioners.
This collegiate approach to developing the support materials has resulted in a
significant bank of resources being established which teachers across the
country are using effectively.
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Materials have
National 3.
Materials have
National 4 and
Materials have
Higher.
been published for each of the 39 new qualifications at
been published for each of the 95 new qualifications at
5.
been published for each of the 48 new qualifications at
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Materials have been published from 22 local authorities.
There have been over 60,000 visits to the website.
Over 17,000 unique Glow users have accessed the website.
The benefits of this joint approach are clear and we are committed to continuing
to build on this success as we prepare further for National 1 and National 2 and
also Advanced Higher.
Assessing Progress and Achievement
Papers offering advice on assessing progress and achievement in each
curriculum area have now been published. They are designed to:
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provide information on significant aspects of learning in the curriculum
area
provide an outline of what breadth, challenge and application look like
in the curriculum area
support quality assurance and moderation activities in planning for
progression and approaches to managing assessment within the
curriculum area.
These resources can be accessed through the assessing progress and
achievement professional learning resource section of the Education Scotland
website.
Last chance to sign up for Insight events
The Insight regional events are now underway. Insight is the new name for the
Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool and is designed to analyse, compare and
improve the performance of pupils in the senior phase. Insight is going live in
August and events are taking place across Scotland to help secondary schools
and local authorities prepare. The events include presentations from the
Scottish Government about the purpose of the tool and Education Scotland
about how Insight will be used in inspections. There is also a group activity
where delegates are asked to log onto Insight and work through a series of
questions.
There has been good attendance at the events that have taken place so far.
There is still the chance for schools to register for future events which are
taking place as follows:
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4 June St Joseph's College, Dumfries,
9 June Morgan Academy, Dundee
11 June Nicolson Institute, Stornoway
17 June The Anderson High School, Shetland
18 June Kirkwall Grammar School and Stromness Academy, Orkney
To register please contact insight@scotland.gsi.gov.uk. To find out about the
themes coming out of the events, please visit the event twitter page
#insightevents.
SSLN – Numeracy resource
SSLN 2013 (Numeracy) publication
Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published numeracy results of the 2013
Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN). The SSLN is an annual
survey which monitors national performance in literacy and numeracy in
alternate years at P4, P7 and S2. This is the second time that numeracy results
have been published. The full report is available on the Scottish Government
website.
Education Scotland has published a professional learning resource to support
teachers in developing the numeracy skills of their pupils. The support materials
are available on the Education Scotland website. Numeracy resources based on
the survey results will be made available from June 2014 onwards.
Stòrlann Commonwealth Games Pack
Stòrlann Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig, with funding from Education Scotland, has
distributed an attractive, colourful pack on the Commonwealth Games to
schools across the country. The pack includes a poster with the Commonwealth
flags; a poster showing the 17 Games sports; stickers for sports, and two sets
of cards about the sports and the Commonwealth countries.
The cards convey information to encourage Gaelic reading, comprehension and
speaking, and there are assignments too. There are questions on lifeskills
maths, and plenty opportunities for research. Support materials for the pack
and online interactive games and word-searches are on the website.
An exciting competition is being run for classes in P5-7 and S1-3, with prizes
from Bòrd na Gàidhlig. All the information is available at
http://storlann.co.uk/gcf. We hope there will be plenty winners with this
Commonwealth Games pack!