Curriculum for Excellence: Delivering More Choices and More Chances for Scotland’s Young People Suzanne Rennie Scottish Government

More Choices More Chances: What does it mean?  More Choices, More Chances is about ensuring all children and young people can participate in learning whatever their circumstances.  This means removing any barriers to learning and offering the right support.  Support is targeted at young people who are not in education, employment or training, or are at risk of falling into this category.

Building the Curriculum 3 – A Framework for Learning and Teaching “Curriculum for Excellence will offer better educational outcomes for all young people and will provide more choices and more chances for those young people who need them.” This means…

A coherent and inclusive curriculum from 3-18 wherever learning is taking place, whether in schools, colleges, or other settings A focus on outcomes A broad general education Time to take qualifications in ways best suited to the young person More opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work for all young people at every stage A focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing at every stage Appropriate pace and challenge for every child Ensuring connections between all aspects of learning and support for learning

Entitlements for all children and young people A curriculum which is coherent from 3-18 A broad general education A senior phase of education after S3 which provides the opportunity to obtain qualifications as well as continue to develop the four capacities Opportunities for developing skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work with a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing Personal support to enable them to gain as much as possible from the opportunities which CfE can provide Support in moving into positive and sustained destinations

What does this mean for the young person? Motivating and challenging opportunities tailored to their individuals needs The right support to gain as much as possible from the opportunities CfE offers Choices about where they learn in their senior phase The opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in a range of different contexts and build up a portfolio of qualifications appropriate to them An appropriate, relevant and attractive offer of learning in advance of their school leaving age

Supporting implementation 16+ Learning Choices Network MCMC Development officers in LTS and SQA Case studies and exemplification National and regional events

Further information

Building the Curriculum 4 Skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work Julie Anderson Qualifications, Assessment and Skills Division

Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy Building the Curriculum 3, A Framework for Learning and Teaching “Every child and young person is entitled to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work, with a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and heath and well-being” Young people will be supported in developing the skills they will use throughout their life and work, including pre-vocational, enterprising and employability skills, personal skills high levels of cognitive skills and the opportunity to put learning into context Skills embedded across all curriculum areas For all pupils at all stages

What do we mean by skills for learning, life and work? Moved away from use of term “vocational” to focus on the skills that young people will need for learning, life and work rather than the route by which they will acquire those skills, although vocational or practical learning will be one way of delivering these skills Broad range of skills including literacy, numeracy, skills for health and well- being, working with others, leadership, personal learning planning skills, career management skills and enterprise and employability skills Not looking to produce a specific check list of skills that would limit future thinking, but showing how opportunities to develop these skills exist across the curriculum, and are embedded in the Experiences & Outcomes

Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for learning, life and work Aims To clearly position skills within Curriculum for Excellence framework To make it more explicit where and how skills are being developed To give young people a clearer sense of the skills they are building and the transferability of those skills To show relevance to all pupils at all stages, across all curriculum areas, as part of a coherent whole and not a bolt on To make link between classroom and world of work To emphasise the importance of partnership working

Building the Curriculum 4: Some key messages Skills are relevant from the early years right through to the senior phase of learning and beyond and should be developed across all curriculum areas, in interdisciplinary studies and in all the contexts and settings where young people are learning It is important that children and young people are aware of and understand the value of the skills that they are developing All establishments should work with partners and share a common understanding and language around skills development and application. Every child and young person is entitled to support to enable them to gain as much as possible from opportunities to develop their skills.

What does this mean for young people in need of more choices and more chances? This document is for all partners involved, in whatever setting, in promoting effective learning for children and young people…. Working in partnership to plan and deliver learning is a central theme throughout It reiterates the clear focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing It emphasises the importance of taking a range of creative, more relevant approaches to developing skills ”according to the needs of the learner” Sets out clearly that some young people may need additional support, particularly in the senior phase to help them towards positive and sustained destinations

Building the Curriculum 4: reflective questions Document is intended to stimulate reflection & discussion and contains a number of reflective questions, including: Which partners are you already working with effectively? Are there other partners with whom you could establish working relationships to support young people’s skills development? How can you design activities to help children and young people to evaluate the quality and learning of their own work? How do you currently develop literacy skills in classrooms or other settings? What new opportunities might you provide?

Next steps Further support and exemplification on CFE website: um/guidance/btc4/index.asp um/guidance/btc4/index.asp

Discussion How do these messages resonate? How we can further support the document – what support would you find helpful? Other feedback?

Julie Anderson