Curriculum for Excellence: Essential Features of Effective Support for all Children and Young People

Supporting children and young people in their learning, wherever it is taking place, involves a range of people. It is important that everyone recognises their role in this and works in partnership to put in place support for ALL learners. Curriculum for Excellence is a curriculum for all children and young people and support is essential to remove barriers to learning. Learning will be enhanced through a collaborative approach involving regular professional dialogue across partnerships, sharing knowledge, information, ideas and expertise.

Building the Curriculum 3 states that “All children and young people should have frequent and regular opportunities to discuss their learning with an adult who knows them well and can act as a mentor, helping them to set appropriate goals for the next stages in learning.”

In this session we will discuss and exemplify:

• How practitioners recognise and develop their role in supporting children and young people in their learning

• The benefits and successes of a partnership approach to effectively support ALL learners

• How supporting children and young people to actively participate in planning their learning provides opportunities to develop their confidence and achieve success.

Ruth Thomson has worked in Scottish Government for 9 years. Initially part of the Land Reform Bill Team within the Environment and Rural Affairs Department she moved to Enterprise and Lifelong Learning where she led the successful Education for Work and Enterprise project (predecessor of Determined to Succeed). Since joining the then Education Department in 2002, she has managed a programme of primary to secondary transition projects and the early work on recognising achievement.

Ruth currently manages the Health Promotion and Personal Support Branch within Support for Learning Division and has policy responsibility for a wide range of support topics including personal support within Curriculum for Excellence; health promotion and mental health; clothing grants; pupil progress records; equality in education and Allied Health Profession/Education partnership working.

Fiona White is currently on secondment , as a Professional Adviser (Support for Learning Division) , to the Scottish Government from the Royal High School in Edinburgh where her substantive post is as Principal Teacher –Support for Pupils. Fiona is taking forward the review of the Pupil Progress Record as well as working with other Professional Advisers within Schools Group and LTS to progress how personal support sits within Curriculum for Excellence.

Last year Fiona was working with the Assessment team and part of her continuing role is to act as a facilitator at Curriculum for Excellence events around Scotland. From 2003 -2005 Fiona was on secondment with the Determined to Succeed team as a Senior Adviser and worked with Authorities across Scotland to develop and implement their plans for Enterprise in Education.