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Section 1 Rationale for the 5-14 Curriculum 1.1 Nature and purpose of the curriculum 5-14 Schools, parents and society care that young people succeed in terms of attaining the knowledge, skills and, in time, the qualifications required for a personally rewarding life, productive employment and active citizenship. Equally, they care that young people develop into healthy, fair-minded, considerate and responsible human beings. The school experience should play a major role in this development. If schools are to succeed in this, they must pay close attention to the nature and structure of the curriculum and how it is put into practice. Children entering primary school at around five years of age have already become successful learners with a remarkable potential for learning. Their experiences of family, friendships, pre-school groups and the local community have begun to shape and guide to a considerable extent their intellectual and social development. The pre-school curriculum has already offered them a wide range of learning experiences. Entry into primary school, with its variety of more formal curriculum structures and arrangements, presents new and rich opportunities for learning, which should acknowledge and build on what children have already learned about themselves and their world. A curriculum that offers a breadth of experience and a balance of opportunity for learning is the entitlement of every pupil. From the outset, the 5-14 curriculum should provide clear pathways across the range of areas of learning. These provide a basis for personal growth and for further learning in the different structures of primary, secondary and special schools. The curriculum should build on pupils' experience and learning and be responsive to their needs. It should relate to events and facets of their everyday lives. It should help them develop intellectually, aesthetically, socially, emotionally, spiritually, imaginatively and physically. It should prepare them to face the challenges of life in a rapidly changing society. It should help guide them through the transition from childhood to adulthood. Pupils thrive on activities that stimulate them, experiences that engage them and in relationships that affirm and nurture them. Through this they become well-rounded people and effective learners. They develop personally and socially. Their individual and collective sense of who they are and of their role in the world around them grows and takes shape. The curriculum should be inclusive and promote equality of opportunity for all. It should help develop in children the knowledge, skills, capabilities and dispositions that they will require in order to gain the best from school and from life. It needs therefore to build progressively on what they learn, offering challenge, rewarding success and celebrating achievement. It recognises the need for specific responses to individual needs. It affirms and supports children through the challenge of learning. At its best, the curriculum offers as many invitations to learn as it holds expectations of attainment. This curriculum will best serve pupils within a positive school ethos that values the contribution of parents to their children's learning and recognises and encourages the creativity and commitment of teachers. Such an ethos is fed by strong and positive relationships, promotes collaboration and benefits from a range of partnerships. Good communication and high standards of teaching, planning and assessment can ensure that children develop a positive sense of themselves as learners. This helps to raise levels of attainment and supports pupils in their further learning and their role as active, concerned citizens, in time preparing them for the world of work. Where the education system is effective and serves children and young people well, it will help them to be: confident, motivated and well-rounded literate and numerate fully understanding and able to play their part as citizens of a modern democratic society able to seize opportunities open to them, regardless of their background equipped with the skills and aptitudes to work flexibly and to embrace change throughout their lives. The 5-14 curriculum plays a vital part in ensuring all young people can develop these capabilities and qualities to enable them to develop personally and treat others and the world around them with care and respect. [RETURN TO 5-14 ONLINE] [BACK] [INDEX] [NEXT] © 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.