Curriculum for Excellence is Scotland’s national curriculum. It provides a coherent and inclusive curriculum from 3-18 years wherever learning is taking place, including early learning childhood centres, schools, colleges and community learning. It places children and young people at the heart of Scottish Education.
The purpose of Curriculum for Excellence is encapsulated in the four capacities – to enable each child or young person to be
- a successful learner,
- a confident individual,
- a responsible citizen and
- an effective contributor.
These four capacities govern the entire curriculum from age 3 to 18 and aim to raise the standards of achievement for all learners. Curriculum for Excellence is underpinned by the values inscribed on the mace of the Scottish Parliament – wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity.
Throughout Curriculum for Excellence there is a strong focus on Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing across all aspects of learning and every teacher will support learners with the development of these, including digital literacy skills.
Curriculum for Excellence is defined as:
The totality of all that is planned for children and young people throughout their education’.
The opportunities for learning and teaching are governed by the Four Contexts for Learning, which ensure that the education your child receives is informative, interesting, relevant and fun.
These contexts are:
- Ethos and life of the school as a community
- Curriculum areas and subjects
- Interdisciplinary learning
- Opportunities for personal achievement.
What are the Curriculum for Excellence levels?
There are five levels and these are flexible depending on pupils’ needs and abilities (some children and young people may achieve these levels earlier or later dependent on ability):
- Early level pre-school to P1
- First level to the end of P4
- Second level to the end of P7
- Third and fourth levels S1 to S3
- Senior phase S4 to S6 and other forms of study
What is the Broad General Education?
The Broad General Education (BGE) is the first phase of two closely connected phases of education. The BGE phase stretches from age 3 until the end of S3 after which learners move into the Senior Phase which starts in S4.
Curriculum Areas and subjects
The BGE is delivered via 8 curricular areas which, in secondary school cover years S1 to S3, and may be subdivided further into individual subjects.
The 8 curricular areas are:
- Expressive Arts
- Languages and Literacy
- Health and Wellbeing
- Mathematics and Numeracy
- Religious and Moral Education
- Sciences
- Social Studies
- Technologies
The Senior Phase
The senior phase curriculum, from S4 to S6, follows a young person’s broad general education, building firmly on the experiences and outcomes they will have experienced and achieved by the end of S3. It enables them to extend and deepen their learning and continue to develop skills for learning, life and work, through qualifications and also through a range of opportunities for personal development such as awards and wider achievements. It is designed to support young people in moving on to positive sustained destinations, whether that is college, university, training or employment. In the Senior Phase, schools and their partners ( such as colleges, employers or community learning and development providers) now have flexibility to offer a range of pathways that meet the needs and raise the attainment levels of all learners – including pupils who might previously have become disengaged from education. Schools are taking a range of approaches to the senior phase and are able to offer greater personalisation and choice for young people in a variety of ways, for example by:
- designing the senior phase as a three-year experience rather than planning each year separately
- delivering qualifications over different timescales in response to young people’s needs and prior achievements developing pathways for able learners, which bypass qualifications at lower levels to allow more time to be spent on more challenging learning at higher levels providing specific and appropriate programmes that maximise achievement and attainment for young people planning to leave after S4.
Personal Support/Career Planning
From 3-18 years, learners are supported to achieve their full potential and, as they progress through broad general education into senior phase, to plan and prepare for further learning, training or employment. All schools and nurseries in North Lanarkshire are working hard to raise standards so that children and young people will develop all of the skills necessary to continue to be successful when leaving school and entering the world of higher education, training or work. As part of developing skills for learning, life and work, young people will be offered careers information advice and guidance to ensure they leave school and enter a positive post-school destination of higher education, further education, pre-employment training, employment (including modern apprenticeships), activity agreement or volunteering.
Assessment and Reporting
Assessment is an important part of Curriculum for Excellence and, at all levels, pupils’ progress is closely monitored by teachers and staff. In turn, teachers and staff work with pupils to reflect on their results, looking at their strengths and learning needs, agreeing next steps and action based on these. As they progress, pupils become more involved in this process, as they develop the skills to make effective judgments on their own learning, developing personal expertise that will be important to them throughout life. Assessment also helps teachers plan learning experiences which are motivating and challenging. Children who may have additional support needs will be assessed using methods best suited to their individual requirements.
Children are very involved in assessing their own learning in Kildrum. They are taught how to self and peer assess from Primary 1 onwards. Teachers provide high quality feedback to the children related to the success criteria of the lesson. Children are assessed on what they say, make, write and do and teachers plan carefully for these opportunities. Children are also assessed in a more formal, summative way through assessments at the end of specific units of work. Children are encouraged to set their own targets in Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing and to evidence how a target has been attained.
Written reports are issued annually, in March/April and Parents’ Evenings are held in November and June each year.
