Curriculum for Excellence

"Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in education in Scotland by providing a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum from 3 to 18.

The curriculum includes the totality of experiences which are planned for children and young people through their education, wherever they are being educated."

Taken from  Education Scotland website:

What is Curriculum for Excellence?

The Four Capacities

Developing skills and attributes

It aims to develop four capacities, helping children to become:

• Successful learners
• Confident individuals
• Responsible citizens
• Effective contributors

For more information on the four capacities click  here

Broad General Education

'Every child and young person is entitled to experience a broad general education.'

All children and young people in Scotland have an entitlement to a curriculum which will support them in developing their values and beliefs and enable them to:

achieve the highest possible levels of literacy and numeracy and cognitive skills

• develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work

• develop knowledge and understanding of society, the world and Scotland's place in it

• experience challenge and success so that they can develop well-informed views and act responsibly.

They should be encouraged to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle and be equipped with the skills needed for planning their future lives and careers.

The period of education from pre-school to the end of S3 has the particular purpose of providing each young person in Scotland with this broad general education.

For more information click here.

Curricular Areas

The curriculum areas are the organisers for ensuring that learning takes place across a broad range of contexts, and offer a way of grouping experiences and outcomes under recognisable headings.

The eight curriculum areas are:

• Expressive arts

• Health and wellbeing

• Languages

• Mathematics

• Religious and moral education

• Sciences

• Social studies

• Technologies

"The curriculum should include space for learning beyond subject boundaries, so that children and young people can make connections between different areas of learning."

For more information on the curricular areas click here

Curriculum Levels

"Curriculum for Excellence defines five levels of learning.
The first four levels are described in the experiences and outcomes, with progression to qualifications described under a fifth level, the senior phase."

Level	Stage
Early	Pre-school, Primary 1, or later for some.
First	To the end of P4, but earlier for some or later for some.
Second	To the end of P7, but earlier for some or later for some.
Third  & Fourth	S1-S3, but earlier for some. The Forth level broadly equates to Scottish Credit.
Senior Phase	S4 to S6, and college or other means of study.

For more information on Curriculum Levels click here.

Current National Qualifications Framework

National Qualifications (NQs) are for students in secondary schools and are also offered in colleges of further education.

Standard Grades	National Courses/Units
	Advanced Higher
	Higher 1
Standard Grade - Credit	Intermediate 2
Standard Grade - General	Intermediate 1
Standard Grade - Foundation	Access 3
	Access 2
	Access 1

What is changing?

• National 4 and 5 qualifications – to replace Standard Grade and Intermediate qualifications in the current system from 2013/14

• Formal recognition of Literacy and Numeracy through the new qualifications system – as Units within English and Mathematics courses and as a stand-alone option.

The current qualifications at Access, Higher and Advanced Higher level will remain but they will be reviewed to ensure that they reflect the ideas behind Curriculum for Excellence.

When will these changes happen?

The National 4 & 5 qualifications and Literacy and Numeracy Units will be introduced in 2013/2014.

This means that children who were in Primary 7 in the 2009/10 school year will be the first ones to take the new national qualifications.

For more information click here.
Also SQA information here.

Timeline

2009/10 and 2010/11 - new curriculum introduced

2012 - publication of new qualifications at levels 4 & 5 (National 4 &National 5) and revised qualifications at levels 1-3 and 6 (Access and Higher)

2012/13 - last Standard Grades and publication of revised qualifications level 7 (Advanced Higher)

2013/14 - first new and revised qualifications at levels 1 to 5 (Access and National 4 and 5); 'dual run' with existing National Courses for Access, Intermediates

2014/15 - first revised qualifications at level 6 (Higher); 'dual run' with existing National Courses for Access, Intermediates and Highers

2015/16 - first revised qualifications at level 7 (Advanced Higher)

For more information click here.