The co-creation phase of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) continues until January 2027. Around 2000 teachers, practitioners and partners are involved in this co-creation.
Draft sample materials are being released here so that educators across Scotland have access to materials that can help them understand how the work is progressing.
These are draft materials. The content, format and style are subject to change. It would not be appropriate to change current planning or tracking and monitoring systems in establishments at this stage.
There is no expectation on educators, schools or settings to do anything now with these samples. They are being shared as part of the co-design process and in advance of engagement and feedback time during the 2026/27 session.
The first CIC Explainers for Teachers and Practitioners, released in November 2025 explains the background to this work. The second explainer in the series provides further information about how the curriculum will evolve and the timescales for change.
Further details on the support available for schools and settings are outlined in a recent letter from Education Scotland’s Chief Executive to Directors of Education.
The following materials are now available to explore:
1. An early draft of new curriculum design guidance titled Building Scotland’s Curriculum: a draft resource for discussion and further co-design for initial feedback. The final version of this document will replace the current Building the Curriculum series from August 2028.
2. Draft samples from each curriculum area within the new Know–Do–Understand (KDU) model. Each sample includes an illustrative Big Idea and a KDU progression strand from CfE Early to Fourth Level, co-created with teachers, practitioners and partners. The samples build on the early thinking for mathematics shared in November 2025. The KDU model will replace the Experiences and Outcomes (Es&Os) and Benchmarks as these begin to be phased out from August 2028.
These materials are deliberately being published in draft form.
Their purpose is to give practitioners and stakeholders a clear sense of how the evolved guidance and KDU model differ from the current Es&Os and Benchmarks, rather than to present a complete or finalised framework at this stage. Publishing these materials in draft form also helps us to be transparent about where we are in the process at this moment in time.
You can view these samples here:
- Expressive Arts
- Health and Wellbeing
- Languages
- Literacy and English
- Literacy and Gàidhlig
- Numeracy and Mathematics
- Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies
- Religious Education Roman Catholic
- Science
- Social Studies
- Technologies
Full draft frameworks will be available in each curriculum area from September and feedback will be gathered from September until November 2026.
