A Curriculum for Excellence at Thornliebank Primary School & Nursery Class

What is A Curriculum for Excellence? Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in education in Scotland by providing a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum from 3 to 18.

The Four Capacities The purpose of the curriculum is summarised in the four capacities - to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner a confident individual a responsible citizen an effective contributor

The Experiences & Outcomes The experiences and outcomes are a set of statements which describe the expectations for learning and progression for each of the eight curriculum areas.

The Experiences & Outcomes The title ‘experiences and outcomes’ recognises the importance of the quality and nature of the learning experience in developing attributes and capabilities and in achieving active engagement, motivation and depth of learning. An outcome represents what is to be achieved.

The 7 Design Principles Challenge and enjoyment Breadth Progression Depth Personalisation and choice Coherence Relevance.

1.Challenge and Enjoyment Children and young people should find their learning challenging, engaging and motivating. The curriculum should encourage high aspirations and ambitions for all.

2.Breadth All children and young people should have opportunities for a broad, suitably weighted range of experiences. The curriculum should be organised so that they will learn and develop through a variety of contexts within both the classroom and other aspects of school life.

3.Depth There should be opportunities for children to develop their full capacity for different types of thinking and learning. As they progress, they should develop and apply increasing intellectual rigour, drawing different strands of learning together, and exploring and achieving more advanced levels of understanding.

4.Progression Children and young people should experience continuous progression in their learning from 3 to 18 within a single curriculum framework. Each stage should build upon earlier knowledge and achievements. Children should be able to progress at a rate which meets their needs and aptitudes, and keep options open so that routes are not closed off too early

5.Personalisation and Choice The curriculum should respond to individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents. It should give each child and young person increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice as they move through their school career

6. Coherence Taken as a whole, children and young people's learning activities should combine to form a coherent experience. There should be clear links between the different aspects of children and young people's learning, including opportunities for extended activities which draw different strands of learning together.

7.Relevance Children and young people should understand the purposes of their activities. They should see the value of what they are learning and its relevance to their lives, present and future

The 8 Curricular Areas Expressive Arts Health and Wellbeing Languages Mathematics Religious and Moral Education Sciences Social Studies Technologies

Do you want to find out more? Look out for upcoming workshops and events which will give you more information about how the new curriculum is being implemented at Thornliebank. Literacy at Early Level (P1) October 2010 Find Out More Session (Whole School) October 2010 Cross Curricular Learning at the Early Level (Nursery) November 2010 Supporting Literacy development at home (P4) November 2010 More events to follow throughout the session….