CfE Implementation e-bulletin
March 2014
Welcome to the March edition of the CfE
Implementation e-bulletin.
As I visit schools and other centres of learning
across Scotland I am regularly reminded of the
scale and scope of transformation which CfE
has introduced, with continuous work going on
to enhance its impact in every sector, from the
Early Years, through primary and secondary
education to Post-16 settings.
In every part of the education system
practitioners are working hard to ensure that
the benefits of CfE are realised in full for their
learners. Of course, we are now very close to
reaching a very notable milestone in the
secondary education sector as the first cohort
of young people who have grown up with CfE
complete the first year of the new Senior
Phase.
As we enter the last few weeks in the lead up to the examinations, staff in
secondary schools are putting in a huge amount of work to ensure their pupils
achieve the results and awards they deserve.
This Bulletin highlights a range of support available from a variety of partners to
support staff and pupils at this important stage. In the primary sector,
innovation and development also continues apace. It is encouraging to see that
Education Scotland’s school inspections are showing that schools across the
country are well underway with the implementation and embedding of CfE and
that inspection results are increasingly showing positive impact.
The extent to which young people are motivated and engaged through high
quality learning experiences is increasingly featuring as a key strength in school
inspections across Scotland. As we head towards the Easter holidays it is worth
reflecting that a great deal of hard work and commitment has been
demonstrated by everyone to get us to this point.
On behalf of the CfE Implementation Group, I would certainly like to take this
opportunity to express our appreciation of the professionalism and commitment
that has entailed across all sectors.
Bill Maxwell
Chair of the CfE Implementation Board
Revision in a Nutshell – subject guides for learners
In partnership with Education Scotland, SQA, ADES and Scottish Government,
The National Parent Forum of Scotland has prepared a series of revision support
materials for learners who are about to sit the new National 5 Qualifications.
The Revision in a Nutshell subject guides are designed to complement learning
and revision in the classroom by:
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sharing the revision material that is available so that young people can
easily access key documents and interesting websites
helping parents to support their children identifying revision materials in
different formats e.g. SCHOLAR, BBC Bitesize, YouTube videos by
teachers, PowerPoint presentations on school websites
collaborating with education partners to deliver learner-centred
resources.
The Revision in a Nutshell 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
activitiesrevision materials on BBC Bitesize,YouTube and to teacher
blogs
Available on the Parent Forum Scotland website. Click on the Learner tab.
Route Maps now available
Education Scotland, in partnership with the SQA, has prepared a sequenced list
of main messages and links for N4 and N5. The first batch of course specific
'route-maps' through assessment for teachers are published.
These resources are being produced in response to teacher requests for more
streamlined and simplified guidance on delivering the new qualifications. They
aim to consolidate current approaches and help practitioners reflect on their
processes this year and prepare for next year. They cover subject specific
material to over-arching information on assessment and verification.The first of
the route maps are now available on the Education Scotland website
Support for new National Qualifications – National 3 and Higher
Education Scotland has been developing web-based course support materials
for every Higher and National 3 course.
These materials outline suggested approaches to learning and teaching, in line
with Curriculum for Excellence Briefing 7, and the application of this advice to
identified areas of each course, for example, where there are areas of
significant change.Publication of the course support materials is almost
complete, ahead of the end of April deadline. The materials are available now
on Glow (username and password required).
New Materials for Higher Sciences
Education Scotland would like to extend a sincere thank you to the practitioners
who attended the Higher Sciences Cross Authority Writing Workshop at Stirling
Management Centre on 19 /20 March.
Those who attended felt it to be a productive and valuable experience as we are
acutely aware of the pressures that everyone is under at this time of year. We
were delighted too with the openness everyone showed to sharing existing
resources and working with others to co-develop new materials to address gaps
that were identified. Over 170+ documents were uploaded to the Sciences Glow
365 site from this first Higher workshop with more to follow in session 2 and 3.
Practitioners found that many of the existing resources on our NQ Higher
Sciences website were extremely useful and covered many of the content
needs. The next event will be held at SSERC in Dunfermline on Thursday 24
April for one day only. If your local authority has not yet confirmed, please
email Grant McAllister at Education Scotland.
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. These documents have been developed to
support teachers and lecturers, and to help prepare learners for the Higher
Course assessment.
They have been published in two parts: General assessment information and
Coursework assessment tasks. Find out more on the SQA website.
Past paper guidance for National 5 Courses
SQA has produced an additional resource to help teachers and lecturers identify
which Standard Grade (Credit) and Intermediate 2 past paper questions can be
used to help learners revise for the ‘live’ National 5 exams that commence at
the end of April. Find out more on the SQA website.
Specimen question papers for new Higher Courses
SQA has published specimen question papers for all new Higher Courses that
will include a question paper (exam) as part of the Course assessment. These
are for teachers and they illustrate the standard, structure and requirements of
the ‘live’ question papers that candidates will sit from session 2014/15. They
also show how SQA would mark the question paper.
Specimen question papers can be downloaded from the subject pages of SQA’s
website.
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 on the SQA website.
Parentzone – support for parents and carers
Watch out for new pages on Parentzone that will be helpful for parents with
children sitting exams in the coming weeks. This will include information about
the new qualifications and a guide to preparing your child for exams, which has
useful links to sample exam papers and revision aids. We will also be tweeting
and providing regular updates throughout the exam period.
You may have noticed a new series of materials to support numeracy at home
has recently been added to Parentzone. These new materials provide ideas for
building numeracy into everyday activities, applicable to Curriculum for
Excellence early level through to fourth level. The materials consist of
illustrations which can be downloaded from the website and handed out to
parents and carers.
We are also planning other changes to Parentzone in the coming months. Find
out more in our news item.
If you would like to be involved or have any suggestions for improvements to
the Parentzone website please contact us.
Better Eating, Better Learning – A New Context for School Food
Launched on 6 March by the Scottish Government, this guidance, developed by
an expert working group which included head teachers, ADES and COSLA,
builds on Scotland’s significant progress and investment in school food and food
education over the last ten years. It places school food at the forefront of a
revolution in Scotland’s food culture, and shows how, through partnership
working, school food and food education can be used to rise to Scotland’s
health, environment and educational challenges.
It asks everyone to reflect on the value of school food and food education and
provides ideas and inspiration to encourage further improvements. Children and
and young people’s views were taken on board through research by Children in
Scotland ‘Ask the children what they want’ which gathered their opinions of
school meals and school food experiences:
Scottish Government guidance
Children in Scotland guidance
Children in Scotland report
Young people’s views on education are being gathered and shared through a
project between Scottish Government, Children in Scotland, the Scottish Youth
Parliament, the Children’s Parliament and Young Scot.
The Leaders in Learning report and the revamped BeXcellent Curriculum for
Excellent website were launched at a Summit in Edinburgh on 27 March and
follows consultation with children and young people across Scotland.
The key message from the project is that children and young people very much
value their education and understand how it benefits them throughout their
lives, especially in preparing for adult life. They also recognise the importance
of the teachers and support staff that work with them and help them achieve
their potential.