Curriculum for Excellence

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is the Scottish National Curriculum which applies to all children and young people aged 3-18, wherever they are learning.  It aims to raise achievement for all, enabling children and young people to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to succeed in learning, life and work. The Four Capacities – the curriculum aims for all children to become:

• Successful Learners
• Confident Individuals
• Responsible Citizens
• Effective Contributors

The Eight Curriculum areas are:

• Expressive Arts – including art and design, dance, drama and music
• Health and Wellbeing – mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing; PE; food and health; substance misuse; and relationships, sexual health and parenthood
• Languages – listening and talking, reading and writing in English and modern languages, plus classical languages and literacy, and Gaidhlig/Gaelic learners (where available)
• Mathematics – including analysing information, solving problems and assessing risk
• Religious and Moral Education (denominational and non-denominational) – learning about Christianity, other world religions, and developing values and beliefs
• Sciences – understanding important scientific concepts across planet Earth, forces, electricity and waves, biological systems, materials and topical science
• Social Studies – understanding people, place and society in the past and present including history, geography, modern studies and business education
• Technologies – including computing science, food, textiles, craft, design, engineering, graphics and applied technologies

Additional important themes across the curriculum are creativity, enterprise and global citizenship, which include sustainable development, international education and citizenship.

Learning Opportunities

Your child will learn in a variety of different contexts and groups including ability, co-operative and social.

Curriculum Levels

There are national levels to describe different stages of learning and progress.  For most children the expectation is:

• Early Level – early learning and childcare to the end of P1
• First Level – to the end of P4
• Second Level – to the end of P7
• Third and Fourth Levels – S1 to S3, with the fourth level broadly equivalent to SCQF level 4
• Senior Phase – S4-S6, and equivalents in other settings, where pupils/students can continue to develop the four capacities and achieve qualifications

Skills for Learning, Life and Work

The development of the skills for learning, life and work are the responsibility of all practitioners and include literacy, numeracy and associated thinking skills; health and wellbeing, including personal learning planning, career management skills, working with others, leadership and physical co-ordination and movement skills; and skills for enterprise and employability. Through Curriculum for Excellence children and young people are entitled to a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.  These skills are essential if children and young people are to gain access to continuous learning, to succeed in life and to pursue a healthy and active lifestyle.  The use of ICT underpins these overlapping and mutually supportive skills sets; ICT skills will continue to be developed in a variety of contexts and settings throughout the learner’s journey. All children and young people are entitled to opportunities for developing skills for learning, life and work.  These skills are relevant from the early years right through to the senior phase of learning and beyond.

The Pupils’ and Parents’ Voice

Personalisation and choice is one of the seven principles of curriculum design and children and young people throughout their education will have the opportunity to discuss with their teacher the context in which they learn and how they will approach the learning.  Staff will discuss new learning with the children at the beginning of a new topic and plan together the areas of specific focus, e.g. World War 2 – The Battle of Britain.  This will be shared with parents/carers through the homework diary and parents/carers will be invited to support the learning by sharing resources from home, e.g. a ration book, or by visiting the school to deliver a talk. Parents/carers will be invited to share comment regarding the planned work for their child at various points throughout the year and are encouraged to feedback comment at any time through their child’s homework diary.

The Curriculum at School, Local and National Level

Curricular information can be found at: School edublog and newsletter Information about how the curriculum is structured and curriculum planning – https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/scottish-education-system/broad-general-education/ Information about the outcomes a learner can expect to experience and achieve across Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing – https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/curriculum-for-excellence-benchmarks Advice, practice and resources to support the experiences and outcomes on Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing – https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5/experiences-and-outcomes

Religious and Moral Education

The programme for Religious Education in our school aims to help pupils learn about Christianity and other major world religions and to recognise religion as an important part of human experience.  Pupils will also be encouraged to learn from religions and helped to develop their own beliefs, attitudes, moral values and practices through a process of personal search, discovery and critical evaluation. Please note that parents/carers have the right to withdraw from religious observance / education. If a parent /carer wishes to withdraw their child from Religious and Moral Education classes or attendance at school assembly or church services they should contact the school and discuss their concerns with the Head Teacher.