Education Scotland, and its predecessor organisation, Learning and Teaching Scotland, have licensed online content from Twig World since 2009.

This online content has been made available to all local authority schools through Glow and has supported learning and teaching in the curriculum areas of sciences, social studies and mathematics.

In March 2016, Education Scotland informed local authorities that the existing contract with Twig World was to be extended for one final year until 31 July 2017. We would now like to remind school and centres of the end date of this national contract with Twig World.

Local authorities wishing to access Twig, Tigtag or Tigtag Junior resources beyond 31 July 2017 have been advised, in a letter sent to Directors of Education sent at the end of February, to contact Twig World directly to discuss local purchasing options. Schools and centres also have the option of purchasing Twig World products directly, where appropriate. Education Scotland has worked positively with Twig World to plan for the end of the contract and Twig World has confirmed that they will be offering preferential rates to Scottish authorities, schools and centres that wish to continue to access their services.

This approach will allow teachers to utilise the flexibility and autonomy offered by the curriculum to make use of a diverse range of online resources to support learning and teaching.

Following the end of Education Scotland’s contract with Twig World Ltd, users will still be able to access the following Twig World products which are freely available:

• Reach-Out Reporter – a topical science resource for primary science (freely available to all teachers through the Reach-Out Reporter website)
• Reach-Out CPD – an online professional learning resource for primary science (available through Glow authentication).

Users wishing to access the following Twig World services beyond 31 July 2017 will need to make alternative provisions as the existing national contract for these services will have expired:

• Twig
• Tigtag
• Tigtag Junior

Local authorities and schools wishing to discuss local purchasing options should contact Twig as early as possible to ensure continuity of service. From 1 August 2017, user data will be deleted from Twig World servers as this marks the end of the contract between Education Scotland and Twig World. It is vital, therefore, that local authorities contact TWIG prior to this date if they want this data to be retained. All enquiries relating to purchasing should be directed to: support@twig-world.com

Scottish Government and Education Scotland remain committed to supporting improvement in sciences, mathematics, social studies and STEM and the following resources will continue to be available:

• Content shared through online collaboration and networks, including the Glow sciences community
• The resources and videos made available through the Numeracy and Mathematics Hub on Glow
• The range of curriculum resources which have been updated and migrated across to Education Scotland’s National Improvement Hub.

In addition, Scottish Government is supporting the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) with a grant of £855K (2016-17). This has provided practitioners and technicians with access to a range of high-quality professional learning opportunities in science and technology from early level to the senior phase of learning.

Education Scotland is also working in partnership with The Wood Foundation and SSERC to support the Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAISE) Programme. This represents an investment of £1million in primary science over a 33 month pilot. This will involve ten local authorities initially and following an external evaluation, may be extended to the remaining local authorities over a total of an eight-year period.