About The Journey to Excellence

The Journey to Excellence is a professional development resource in five parts. It describes how early years centres, schools and services for children and young people can enable all learners to learn and achieve.

The first four parts are print publications: Aiming for Excellence, Exploring Excellence, How good is our school?/The Child at the Centre and Planning for Excellence.

This website is part 5 of The Journey to Excellence. It presents videos of excellent practice from across Scotland and a range of other resources for use in reflection, discussion and planning for transformational change.

Five areas of excellence

HMIE has identified five broad areas of excellence which relate to key processes within school and centres:

• Learning and teaching
• Vision and leadership
• Partnership
• People
• Culture and ethos

By taking action in the five areas schools and centres can help young people make the most of their skills and abilities.

This will enable their learners to develop the capacities, attitudes, capabilities and skills which are the outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence.

Although the areas are presented one by one, there are strong relationships between them. They can help you to make sense of what may look like complex expectations. It is up to you to decide which ones you focus on and in what order.