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Section 3

Planning for Environmental Studies

The central principles of the 5-14 curriculum are breadth, balance, coherence, continuity and progression. Programmes of study for environmental studies must therefore be planned in ways that provide:

  • broad and balanced learning opportunities within and across components
  • coherent links and connections
  • continuous pathways for learning
  • progressive development of understanding, skills and informed attitudes.

    The Structure and Balance of the Curriculum: 5-14 National Guidelines provides greater detail on developing these principles in primary and secondary schools.


    3.1 Planning programmes of study

    A sound planning process helps teachers and managers ensure focus and clarity of expectations.

    Schools and clusters have an obligation to plan for overall provision in a collaborative way to take account of their pupils' needs and of the advice provided in national guidelines. This type of cluster and long-term planning ensures that all the components of environmental studies receive appropriate attention over time. It also ensures that there is agreement on curricular continuity and progression, especially from P7 to S1. The Structure and Balance of the Curriculum: 5-14 National Guidelines offers further advice for this type of planning.

    Equally, teachers have an obligation to plan for teaching and learning in a way that establishes clear goals for work in the classroom.

    The revised guidelines provide an effective basis for planning. The framework of strands and targets allows a streamlined approach, which should make the planning process much simpler and more manageable than before. In many cases schools and teachers will find that a modest review of existing programmes is all that is required.

    In planning programmes of study teachers will use the national guidelines as their reference point. The strands of each attainment outcome indicate the key ideas of skills and knowledge and understanding that should be the focus for teaching, learning and assessment. The attainment targets will help teachers identify pupil achievement. Opportunities for pupils to develop informed attitudes should also be identified at the planning stage. The intention should be to devise programmes that allow a broad overview of attainment to be maintained and do not become over-specific in matters of detail. The planning process should be simple and manageable. Planning that is too complex or repetitive wastes time and energy that should be spent on teaching.

    Effective learning builds upon the previous attainments and experiences of pupils. It is important when planning programmes in the early years to take account of the learning of pre-school children and their developing knowledge and understanding about the world. The Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5 (Scottish CCC, 1999) provides a helpful summary of the knowledge and understanding that young children will be developing about the world. For example they will have opportunities to:
  • ask questions, experiment, design and make, and solve problems
  • sort and categorise things into groups
  • be aware of change and its effects on them, for example their own growth, changes in weather, trees,          flowers.

    Just as important is the need to look forward to the scientific, social and technological studies that pupils may choose in the 14-18 curriculum. In planning for progression to the S3/S4 stage the focus should be on the extent to which pupils have developed competence in skills and understanding of the key ideas represented by the strands of each attainment outcome. These are likely to provide a firm basis for studies beyond S2. The level of attainment achieved by the end of S2 will help determine appropriate starting points in S3 courses.

    Throughout the years of schooling, it is vital to plan for continuity and progression of learning between previous stages and future programmes so that pupils' experience is meaningful and appropriate to their needs.

    • While all strands within a component or outcome should be covered over time, individual topics or studies may not cover every strand nor address every bulleted point within attainment targets. Careful planning should allow teachers to build up over the course of a term, a session or, in some cases, over a longer period, a comprehensive learning profile for each pupil.

    The descriptions for each attainment target subsume the learning achieved at previous levels, so that teachers can devise appropriate programmes for a range of class situations, whether single stage or composite, and where there is a broad range of attainment within a single teaching group. In determining levels of attainment, differentiation will generally be seen in the range of pupil responses to a similar task. However, where it is appropriate and manageable, teachers might also provide different or modified tasks for different groups or individuals, on occasion.

    Prime consideration must be given to providing good quality programmes that avoid superficial coverage and which promote progression in pupils' skills and understanding.

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    © The 5-14 Curriculum (Scotland) Guidelines were produced by the Scottish Executive and Learning and Teaching Scotland and are reproduced with permission from the Queen's Printer for Scotland.