The Curriculum Improvement Cycle is a systematic review of the Scottish curriculum to ensure it remains up to date and relevant for children and young people.
Our latest article focusing on literacy and English is from Liz Kerr, an Early Learning and Childcare Area Service Manager with Glasgow City Council, and Lysa Thomson, a teacher within Falkirk Council’s Quality Improvement Team.
Read on to find out about their experiences of participating in the Literacy and English Core Group for the Curriculum Improvement Cycle.
We are participating in the Literacy and English core group involved in the Curriculum Improvement Cycle. The group met online four times and completed pre course reading in preparation for four days in November then another two days in February in person in Glasgow. The group comprises of cross-sector representation from ELC, ASN, primary and secondary. It is led by a team from Education Scotland who guide us through many provocations and facilitate discussions. Several experts in the field of literacy and English have shared research and policy that impacts positively and informs practice across Scotland.
Challenges that become opportunities…
Working in cross sector trios and sector specific groups for tasks across our six days has been highly beneficial but also unearthed those challenges that we all grapple with. However, we both agree that those challenges also create opportunity and excitement.
There are many aspects of CfE that we love and are holding on to, particularly the ethos of the child at the centre. Both the four contexts for learning and the four capacities are essential to our youngest learners. We agree that we definitely don’t want to ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ as we look towards an evolved technical framework. Bringing clarity to the curriculum has been at the forefront of the core group days so practitioners at all levels from ELC to Secondary know what comes next in the development of skills and knowledge. Providing this will enable practitioners to place more time and energy into delivering meaningful experiences and highly effective teaching and learning opportunities that are innovative, engaging and exciting for all learners.
Within ELC we follow the child’s lead and plan for them starting from where they are, placing high value on what they “bring in their virtual backpack” from home. This is always our starting point. The challenge is ensuring that the curriculum and technical framework enable us to continue to use the research-informed pedagogical approaches that we know are best for our youngest learners.
The direction of the core group could be easily influenced by the other elements of the curriculum improvement cycle or changes in policy while the review is being undertaken, for example the release of the Quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sector. The improvement groups running simultaneously or ahead, for example maths, have potential to limit our thinking in terms of structuring the big ideas, and how the technical framework might look. However, the team facilitating this process always remind us that we have the ability to design the curriculum, in literacy and English, in the way we see fit for our children and young people and that this may differ from other curricular areas. Our views from the classroom and local authority teams are highly valued in this process. We are continuously asking ourselves;
How would we enact this in our playroom and classroom?
How user friendly and clear could this be?
As part of the activities, we had the opportunity to take on a very different viewpoint by stepping into the role of a History teacher, PE teacher and a learner and really delve into what literacy and English means to them, placing on very different glasses and widening our views for the task in hand. Looking through a different lens created a wider perspective on the whole system rather than focussing only on our own sector.
Recurring Themes
Literacy and English Principles and practice outline that “literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning, as it unlocks access to the wider curriculum. Being literate increases opportunities for the individual in all aspects of life, lays the foundations for lifelong learning and work, and contributes strongly to the development of all four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.” This resonates strongly with the key messages in our national guidance document Realising the Ambition where we are reminded that the early childhood curriculum is holistic. Listening and talking, reading and writing are so interlinked in young children’s learning, why would we separate them in our teaching?
Reflections
On reflection, being part of the core group has brought significant professional learning experiences for us both. In particular, the range of inspiring experts and facilitation of highly effective collaboration tasks has really challenged and supported our thinking as individuals and as a group. With all the work on different components of the improvement cycle we often find ourselves right in the heart of the ‘messy middle’ and trying really hard to ‘trust the process’. Being able to return to our “day jobs” and chat with colleagues in between these sessions has been beneficial in gathering wider views and a long list of further questions. It helps us to consolidate our own thinking before returning to the tasks in the group.
Moving forward we need to consider how the tangible products of this process can be influenced by the inspiring provocations, colleagues’ views and collaborative activities that we have undertaken. Dedicating the protected time to engage with and be part of something exciting has been a real privilege. We would highly recommend participation from our colleagues, and we hope that this will make a real difference to our children in Scotland as we share their journey towards Realising their ambition while…Being Me.
One final message …
References
THOMSON, P. and HALL, C., 2008. Opportunities missed and/or thwarted?: ‘Funds of knowledge’ meet the English national curriculum Curriculum Journal. 19(2), 87-103
Education Scotland, 2020, Scottish Government. Realising the Ambition: Being Me
National Practice Guidance for Early Years in Scotland
If you are keen to hear and learn more about the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) you might be interested to listen to the latest Education Scotland Learning
Conversations Podcast with Education Scotland Chief Executive, Gillian Hamilton, and Education Scotland Strategic Director, Ollie Bray, on the CIC or read this recent article from TESS Scotland – CfE review: ‘Evolving Curriculum for Excellence, not ripping it up.’ You can also visit the CIC Web Portal/ Glow Blog and from here sign up for the termly CIC News Bulletin and read the latest issue here.
