How to use these guidelines

The advice in these guidelines is based on the substantial amount of work that has been done over the last two decades in Scotland in the area of personal and social development. A wide range of significant national reports, advice emanating from education authorities, and existing good practice in schools in the design, planning and implementation of policies and programmes relating to personal and social development, have all contributed to the thinking behind these guidelines.

Throughout this document the term "personal and social development" is used to take account of both the process of development through which children grow and mature as individuals in society and the contribution to this process which schools can make through specific programmes (often referred to as "personal and social education").

The guidelines will help headteachers, promoted staff and teachers in all schools in planning to ensure that all pupils, regardless of age, aptitude or physical or social circumstances, benefit from the provision that is made to assist their personal and social development. In reviewing their current provision in this area, all schools should adjust and develop their approaches to personal and social development along the lines suggested.

The starting point for such a review will be the school's own policies, taking account of local circumstances, priorities and resources, and Education Authority guidelines and advice. These should now be considered in the light of the Rationale (Section 1) which identifies aims and suggests approaches to planning.

Any review and adjustment of policy on personal and social development will mean that the intended outcomes, methods and contexts for achieving these outcomes will also have to be carefully reviewed. To help with this process, Section 2 of the guidelines - Outcomes, Statements, Examples of Pupil's Potential Development and Learning Contexts - offers further advice. This includes reference to the need to recognise that progression in this area is not linear, but offers statements of expectations, examples of development which may occur and recommendations about contexts for apposite learning and teaching approaches.

Section 3 contains advice about appropriate approaches to Assessment, Recording and Reporting and includes relevant recommendations extracted from the national guidelines on Reporting 5-14. The advice given in Section 4, Catering for the Needs of Individual Pupils, refers specifically to pupils with special educational needs. Section 5, Specific Issues, includes references to resources, outdoor education and support for personal and social development. The appendix provides an overview of the examples of development which are intended to help schools in their planning.