Curriculum for Excellence update October 2009
Welcome to the October 2009 Curriculum for Excellence e-update
Welcome to our regular email bulletin which brings you up to date with the latest resources available on the Curriculum for Excellence website, which is designed to support practitioners as they begin to work with the new curriculum guidance.
You may also be interested to view the latest Curriculum for Excellence Management Board papers with new discussion papers now available on the 'Senior Phase' and 'Towards a professional development strategy for Curriculum for Excellence'.
In addition, the Curriculum for Excellence Management Board minutes and the updated Provisional Framework, which outlines the timetable for national planning and implementation of Curriculum for Excellence from January 2009 to August 2016, are now available to view.
1. Support for staff - exemplification of Curriculum for Excellence
New support is now available online.
Exemplification of innovative practice used in implementing the experiences and outcomes is now available on the Support for Staff area of the Curriculum for Excellence website in the following curriculum areas: Literacy and English, Modern Languages, Numeracy, Social Studies, Sciences and Technologies.
The case studies provide staff with exemplars of how some schools in Scotland have started to implement Curriculum for Excellence.
Further support for practitioners is now available in the following areas:
- Planning for the Scottish dimension - advice for planning
This advice is now published and offers a suggested method of planning.
- Building your Curriculum - an inter-authority approach
An inter-authority insight paper was published to support Building your Curriculum.
2. Publication of Building the Curriculum 4 paper, skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work
The new Building the Curriculum 4 policy guidance is now available online.
This publication is part of a series of Building the Curriculum papers and is intended to further support planning, design and delivery of the curriculum in pre-school centres, schools and colleges. It sets out skills for learning, life and work in Curriculum for Excellence and shows how they are embedded in the experiences and outcomes and the senior phase.
3. Assessment for Curriculum for Excellence
Assessment is a key strand of work in implementing Curriculum for Excellence.
At the Scottish Learning Festival on 23 September 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop, announced the publication of the strategic vision and key principles for assessment in Curriculum for Excellence.
Now available on the Curriculum for Excellence website, the Assessment for Curriculum for Excellence document sets out the Scottish Government's strategy on how to build on our existing strong foundations of effective approaches to assessment.
4. Online Survey - help us improve the service that we provide to you
Learning and Teaching Scotland would like to learn more about your information needs and use of our websites. We would be grateful if you could take 5-10 minutes to answer the questions in this survey to help us improve the service that we provide to you.
5. New Early Level resource
A new early level resource available in a DVD, booklet, and CD-ROM format was launched in September by Adam Ingram, Minister for Children and Early Years. This exciting new resource has been distributed to all early years establishments, primary schools and further and higher education establishments.
With an early level focus, the new DVD and CD will support all practitioners as they implement Curriculum for Excellence. It shares practical ideas from a variety of pre-school and primary settings.
The full resource will be available online soon.
6. HMIE/LTS Good Practice Conference Events
LTS and HMIE have a number of Good Practice conferences planned prior to the Christmas and New Year holidays, each designed to consider the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence across a variety of subjects.
The forthcoming conferences will highlight some of the excellent work taking place in Scottish schools:
| Expressive arts | 3 and 4 November | Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow |
| RME | 12 November | Apex Hotel, Dundee |
| Autism | 20 November | Stirling Management Centre |
| Religious education in Roman Catholic schools | 1 December | Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow |
For further information on any of the conferences and to secure your place, go to the HMIE Good practice events calendar or call Veronica on 07739022910.
7. CfE News
CfE News - a newsletter for practitioners - was developed to showcase and signpost practitioners to just some of the support, advice and online resources available on the Curriculum for Excellence website.
This newsletter was planned as a one-off publication to address the current demand for information, but we would welcome feedback if there is interest for another edition at the start of next term and would be particularly interested to hear your suggestions for topics you would like to hear more about.
You can provide feedback using the online feedback form.
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Previous email updates
The September 2009 email update contains links to a new online tool called 'My experiences and outcomes'; Glow Thursdays and further support for Building the Curriculum 3.
The March 2009 email update contains coverage of the first HMIE Good Practice conferences, case studies supporting 'Building the Curriculum 3' and information about the National Glow Groups for curriculum areas.
The January 2009 email update contains links to a host of new sharing practice examples, a 'Building the Curriculum 3' video and an invitation to tell your Glow story.