CfE Implementation e-bulletin August 2013
Welcome to the first CfE Implementation ebulletin of the 2013/14 academic year. The
Bulletin is intended to provide you with easy access to the most up to date information on national support for the development of
Curriculum for Excellence.
Curriculum for Excellence continues to develop strongly at every phase, from the Early Phase to the Senior Phase and in all forms of educational establishment and service across
Scotland. In the Senior Phase in particular, however, schools and colleges have reached a milestone as they have embarked on teaching the new suite of National Qualifications. This continues to require close engagement with practitioners, pupils and parents, to ensure a smooth transition for everyone involved.
With a view to helping you plan local development activity, I am pleased to announce that the CfE implementation plan for 2013-14 is now available. This plan sets out the objectives we need to achieve, the activities at local level that will be required to achieve these objectives and the further national support that will be available. I hope you find it useful in taking forward in planning your own work for the year ahead.
Bill Maxwell
Chair of the CfE Implementation Group
CfE Implementation Plan for 2013-14
The CfE Implementation plan for 2013-14 is available for you to download .
It is designed to ensure that further support is provided in the areas which feedback suggests will be of most benefit. Those include areas such as curriculum planning, approaches to assessment and moderation, tracking pupil progress and profiling. In providing support and guidance in all of these areas, the emphasis will be on ensuring that processes are effective but are also manageable and don’t take valuable time away from learning and teaching.

National Qualifications
As the new session commences, the new National 1, National 2, National 3,
National 4 and National 5 qualifications are now available in schools and colleges across Scotland. Over the past three years, SQA has been working with schools, colleges, local authorities, learners, parents, universities, employers and other stakeholders to prepare them for the coming changes.
Finalised documents and assessment support materials are available for every
Course from National 2 to National 5 and you can find out more about these on
SQA’s subject pages . Assessment support materials for the new National 1 Units are also available. Find out more at www.sqa.org.uk/national1
Updated Unit assessment support for National 2 to National 5
Following feedback from teachers and lecturers, some minor updates have been made to all Unit assessment support packs. This is to provide clarification and to ensure consistency and continuity across all Unit assessment support packs; particularly across the ‘Judging Evidence’ tables. SQA would encourage teachers/lecturers to use these latest versions when planning their assessments; however, both versions will be accepted for verification purposes.
The updated Unit assessment support packs are now available and teachers/lecturers can arrange access to them through their SQA Co-ordinator.
New National 1 Units
SQA is developing new National 1 Units in three phases. Unit Support Notes and
Unit assessment support for Phase 1 Units are now available for centres to deliver these Units.
SQA has also published working titles for Units contained in Phases 2 and 3, including the broad aims for each Unit. Units in Phases 2 and 3 will be available for centres to deliver in February 2014 and May 2014 respectively.
To find out more about National 1, visit www.sqa.org.uk/national1
Unit assessment support for New Awards
SQA’s third release of Unit assessment support for new Awards is now available.
Teachers/lecturers can arrange access to these confidential documents through their SQA Co-ordinator.
You can find out more about SQA’s Awards at www.sqa.org.uk/awards
Literacy and Numeracy bridging packs
SQA has published bridging packs for Literacy (National 5), Gàidhlig: Literacy
(National 5) and Numeracy (National 5) and teachers/lecturers can arrange access to these documents through their SQA Co-ordinator.
The Literacy (National 5) and Gàidhlig: Literacy (National 5) bridging packs show how literacy skills can be evidenced within the delivery of the English
(National 5) and Gàidhlig (National 5) Courses, and used to gain certification of the freestanding Unit in Literacy or Gàidhlig: Literacy.
The Numeracy (National 5) bridging pack shows how numeracy skills can be evidenced within the Mathematics (National 5) Course, or by means of bridging assessment, and used to gain certification of the freestanding Unit in Numeracy
(National 5).

Support in National Literacy Units
SQA has released a short animated video that gives an overview of the type of support that is, and is not, allowed in National Literacy Units for learners who have particular difficulties with reading and writing. You can view the animation on SQA’s YouTube channel or on their website .
SQA has produced two annotated Unit assessment support packs to encourage and promote inclusive practice in the assessment of the National Literacy Units, particularly where learners may have reading and writing difficulties. The annotated packs are provided for National 3 and National 4 Literacy Units.
Teachers/lecturers can arrange access to these through their SQA Co-ordinator.
Support for new National Qualifications
“The material will be helpful in supporting practitioners to provide a variety of approaches to learning” Andrew Dingwall, Depute
Headteacher, Montrose Academy
This is the first year that pupils will be starting to study for the new National 4 and National 5 qualifications. A range of support is available for teachers across the full range of National 4 and National 5 on a dedicated area in Glow .
Education Scotland and ADES worked in partnership on development and publication of web-based course materials . These have been developed by teachers for teachers. They are exemplars which teachers may find helpful to adapt to their own circumstances. Teachers can draw on these materials, and existing materials, to develop programmes of learning which are appropriate to the needs of learners within their own context, or are free to develop their own courses.
They are part of a package of support which includes advice and guidance and professional focus papers.
Future support will include support and materials for Nationals 1,2 and 3 and
Higher qualifications.
Assessment
Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching. It helps to provide a picture of a child's or young person's progress and achievements to identify next steps in learning.
Assessment approaches need to promote learner engagement and help learners demonstrate what they can do, whilst providing appropriate support and challenge.
As with all aspects of Curriculum for Excellence, assessment practices should be seen from the perspective of the learner. Wherever possible and manageable learners should be engaged in assessment processes and be afforded an element of personalisation and choice in showing that they have achieved the intended outcomes.
A range of resources is available from Education Scotland to support teachers in their assessment practice:
National Assessment Resource (NAR)

The online National Assessment Resource is designed to support assessment approaches. It includes assessment materials developed by the SQA and provides quality assured exemplars of good assessment practice developed by teachers, schools and local authorities.
Taking a Closer Look at NAR (TACLAN)
This resource uses examples from the National Assessment Resource run by
Education Scotland to reflect on practice and provide a structured look at the
NAR flowchart as a tool to plan effective learning, teaching, assessment and moderation.
Making Good Assessment Decisions
Developed by Education Scotland and SQA, this online resource and accompanying poster outline links between quality assurance and moderation
3-15 and the verification procedures as part of SQA National Qualifications.
Curriculum for Excellence Briefing 2: Assessing progress and achievement in the 3-15 Broad General Education
This briefing paper explores how teachers are developing suitable, joined-up ways of assessing progress and achievement which underpin high-quality learning in the broad general education.
Curriculum for Excellence Briefing 3: Profiling and the S3 profile
This Curriculum for Excellence Briefing takes an in-depth look at profiling. It discusses how to manage the process of profiling, what a profile is, who it is for, what should be in it and the main differences between the S3 profile and a report to parents. It also emphasises the importance of effective quality assurance and moderation procedures as part of the profiling process.
SSLN
Professional learning resources, based on key concepts and skills that challenged pupils involved in recent SSLN surveys, have been developed by
Education Scotland to help practitioners support learners. These materials align with all relevant publications that support the development of literacy and numeracy within Curriculum for Excellence .
Assessing Progress and Achievement Professional Learning Resources
This set of professional learning and reflection resources is currently marked
‘work in progress’. The guidance provides information on significant aspects of learning; an outline of what breadth, challenge and application look like and guidance on assessment in each curriculum area.
Monitoring and tracking progress and achievement in the broad general education
This resource, marked ‘work in progress’, considers the purpose of monitoring and tracking , outlines features of effective approaches and informs discussion.
Education Scotland Corporate Plan 2013-2016
Education Scotland will publish its first corporate plan in September. Extensive consultation has taken place in developing this plan with our partners in education. The plan sets out how we aim to make changes to education in

Scotland to improve outcomes for all learners. The plan will be launched at this year’s Scottish Learning Festival with a detailed round-table discussion session open for delegates to attend. This corporate plan extends until 2016 and will cover a significant time in the embedding of curriculum for excellence in schools across Scotland.
CfE Briefing 14 - Curriculum for Excellence: Political Literacy
This briefing provides advice for practitioners and can also be used to inform partners, learners and their parents or carers of developments in Curriculum for
Excellence. Approaches to the curriculum, learning, teaching, assessment, awards and qualifications are all changing. Education Scotland is supporting change by evaluating evolving practice and sharing it nationally to inform discussion and promote innovation.
This briefing explores the place of political literacy within Curriculum for
Excellence.
It relates to all settings where children and young people experience aspects of political literacy, either in an educational establishment such as a college or school, or more broadly in a wide range of community settings and forums.
The full range of CfE briefings can be found on the Education Scotland website including briefings 12 and 13 on Planning for Learning which have recently been published.
Could you help shape the next generation of National Qualifications?
SQA is recruiting experienced teaching professionals for a wide variety of appointee roles across a range of subjects at National 5, Higher and Advanced
Higher.
Further information on these exciting opportunities is available at www.sqa.org.uk/cfevacancies
SQA Co-ordinator events
SQA’s conferences for school SQA Co-ordinators concluded at the end of June.
660 delegates attended across six events and feedback has shown that all events were very well received. The PowerPoint presentations from each workshop are available to view and download from SQA's website and videos of each presentation are also available on their YouTube channel .
An event for college SQA Co-ordinators will take place on Thursday 19
September 2013.
New Higher subject implementation events
SQA will be running a programme of subject implementation events to support the introduction of the new National Courses at Higher, in session 2014-15.
These events will run from November 2013 to March 2014.
The events will provide updates on Course delivery and assessment, with the opportunity for delegates to engage in workshop sessions and discussions.
They are targeted at principal teachers, faculty heads and course/subject leaders. Local authorities are welcome to reserve places for professional support staff.

For more information and to book a place, visit SQA’s Subject Implementation
Events web page .