The Journey to Excellence - How it all fits with Curriculum for Excellence

The Journey to Excellence is one of the most significant and extensive projects to be undertaken by HMIE in recent years.  The five-part series takes early years centres and schools on a journey from ‘good’ to ‘great’.

It shows how by using the strategies described in one or more of 10 dimensions of excellence schools and early years centres can enable all young people to achieve successful outcomes – the outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence.  

The 10 dimensions, and the resource itself, are about ‘what works’ in improving outcomes for children and young people.  They tell the stories of schools which have made significant changes to their practice and transformed the learning and achievements of young people. 

In producing the resource, HMIE worked with a range of partners.  Through the movie clips on the innovative online resource, Part 5 of The Journey to Excellence, schools are able to go on a virtual journey into the classrooms and staff rooms of schools and pre-school centres across Scotland. 

The resource also includes a wealth of practical tools and resources, for example, movie clips, learning trails, transformational grids, clips of respected academies and summaries of research.

The aim of this workshop is to demonstrate how The Journey to Excellence relates to the outcomes of the Curriculum for Excellence, Assessment is for Learning and a range of other national initiatives, all of them focused on improving the learning experiences of children and young people in our schools.

Frank started his education career as a science teacher in St Mungo’s Academy and St Andrew’s Secondary in the East End of Glasgow, coincidentally the part of Glasgow where he was born and went to school.

Frank had a period of secondment to Glasgow City Council in science education, a post funded through additional money for deprived areas.

He was appointed to the Inspectorate in 1985 from a senior management post in Holy Cross High School, North Lanarkshire. In 1992, Frank joined the new Audit Unit within the Inspectorate and headed up the team that produced the first national Standards and Quality Report for Scottish Schools (the forerunner of Improving Scottish Education) and another team which rationalised performance indicators into the first How good is our school?

Frank became Chief Inspector as head of the Audit Unit at the time of the introduction of the setting-targets initiative.

Frank has taken on a range of remits within the Inspectorate, including involvement in international projects, and is currently responsible for secondary inspections, special school inspections, quality systems developments, educational futures and The Journey to Excellence project. (He likes driving fast cars, motorbikes and ride-on lawnmowers.)