CfE Implementation e-bulletin
April 2014
Welcome to the April edition of the CfE
e-bulletin.
As I am sure you will know, April marks a
significant milestone as the first run of new
national courses comes to a conclusion and the
first diet of examinations for new NQs gets
underway. The Implementation Board would
certainly like to wish all young people in
Scotland taking these National Qualifications
the very best and recognise the huge amount
of commitment from practitioners, parents and
carers that has brought them to this stage.
Of course that professional commitment
continues throughout the learning journey,
from the Early Years to the Senior Phase.
At every stage and in every sector, young people, teachers, parents and
partners continue to work hard to realise the full potential of Curriculum for
Excellence and help realise our collective ambitions for education in Scotland.
As a result, we are aiming for our young people to be better prepared for
learning, life and work than ever before.
Education practitioners have worked tirelessly to develop new ways of learning
and teaching to help young people achieve the deeper learning and higher
standards set within the Curriculum for Excellence framework.
I hope you find this bulletin useful as you take forward the challenge for your
learners.
Bill Maxwell
Chair of the CfE Implementation Board
National Qualifications
The Education Scotland website has a collection of resources to help teachers,
students and parents prepare for exams. This includes general information and
advice, plus subject-specific revision resources.
The Parentzone website also has information that will be helpful for parents and
carers who have children sitting exams in the coming weeks.
Revision in a Nutshell – subject guides for learners
The National Parent Forum of Scotland has prepared a series of revision support
materials for learners who are sitting the new National 5 qualifications. The
Revision in a Nutshell subject guides are designed to complement learning and
revision in the classroom. The subject guides cover 20 of the most popular
subjects. They provide links to:
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SQA Specimen Papers and marking instructions
useful SQA past papers and marking instructions, with questions listed
school websites with helpful course content and revision activities
revision materials on BBC Bitesize, YouTube and to teacher blogs.
Unit assessment support for new Higher Courses – package 3 now
available
SQA has published the third of its Unit assessment support packages for Units in
the new Higher Courses. Packages 1, 2 and 3 are now available and
teachers/lecturers can arrange access to these materials through their SQA Coordinator. Find out more at the SQA website.
Unit assessment support for new Higher Courses – package 3 now
available
SQA has published the third of its Unit assessment support packages for Units in
the new Higher Courses. Packages 1, 2 and 3 are now available and
teachers/lecturers can arrange access to these materials through their SQA Coordinator. Find out more at the SQA website.
Key curriculum support
Key Curriculum Support is an online one-stop-shop for CfE guidance, support
and resources, which aims to assist practitioners and parents when searching
the web for curriculum-related materials and advice. This guide was created
following feedback from some practitioners that information and resources were
located on numerous different websites and were not always easy to
find.
Higher coursework information
SQA has published coursework information for all subjects that will include
coursework (assignments, practical activities etc.) as part of the Course
assessment in new Higher Courses. This has been published in two parts:
General assessment information and Coursework assessment tasks.
Find out more at the SQA website.
Annotated Unit assessment support for Gàidhlig Courses
SQA has published annotated Unit assessment support packs for National
Literacy Units in National 3 and National 4 Gàidhlig Courses. As part of SQA’s
commitment to Gaelic-medium provision in the Senior Phase, these annotations
are written in Gàidhlig.
Unit assessment support packs are held securely and teachers/lecturers can
arrange access to them through their SQA Co-ordinator.
SQA Subject events and conference for Higher Education Institutions
As part of SQA’s ongoing engagement with the Higher Education (HE) sector,
they have organised a conference for admissions staff across the UK university
sector, and four broad subject area information events for HE academic staff.
These events will take place in May 2014.
Find out more at the SQA website.
Getting ready for the exams
In the run-up to this year’s SQA exams we asked some young people how they
are preparing for them and some parents how they are supporting their children
through them. We shared their thoughts via the Learning Blog.
Read parent’s perspective (1), parent’s perspective (2), learner’s perspective
(1), learner’s perspective (2) and learner’s perspective (3).