Tag Archives: Numeracy

Implementation, Literacy, News, Numeracy

Statement from the CfE Management Board

The Curriculum for Excellence Management Board met on Thursday 22nd April to discuss, amongst other things, the Cabinet Secretary’s recommendations in his ten-point plan.

The Management Board’s response was as follows:

At its meeting today, the Curriculum for Excellence Management Board considered a range of evidence on progress of the programme. The Board discussed a range of issues raised by teachers, parents and other stakeholders. The Board believes that some of these have already been addressed through recent developments and is committed to tackling the issues which remain, including the need to continue to build teacher confidence.

Overall, the Board is assured that the existing programme plan remains realistic and achievable.

The Board will continue to monitor the plan closely, taking appropriate action to address any issues which may arise as the programme progresses, including issues affecting the current timetable for the development and delivery of the new National Qualifications.

The Board welcomed the Cabinet Secretary’s proposal to remove the qualifications in Literacy and Numeracy from S3, and will provide advice in due course on an alternative approach.

The Board acknowledged the EIS position that there should be a year’s delay in the implementation of the new National Qualifications. However, the other members were persuaded that there are sufficient safeguards in place to ensure that the qualifications timetable will be met and the concerns of teachers can be addressed.

Some key messages from this:

  • The Curriculum for Excellence timeline continues as planned.
  • The literacy & numeracy qualifications in S3 have been removed.
Assessment, CPD, Health & Wellbeing, Literacy, Numeracy, Support

Emerging Approaches to Assessment now live on LTS

Assessment Exemplars

Over 100 examples of assessment in Numeracy, Literacy and Health & Well-being across learning have now been uploaded to the LTS website:

These emerging examples of assessment can support practitioners in developing their understanding of, and improving practice in, approaches to assessment. The examples do not illustrate standards and expectations.

Following an external Quality Assurance process decisions will be made on whether the materials meet standards and expectations. Those materials considered suitable will be published in the National Assessment Resource when it goes live in September 2010 with more exemplars and resources.

East Lothian Schools have been involved in this process. Click on the links below to jump directly to see their work:

Enterprise, Ideas, Implementation, Numeracy, Outdoor Learning

Humbie PS on the LTS CfE Website

Humbie PS on the LTS CfE website

Humbie Primary School have been very busy learning mathematics using relevant contexts. This has involved five distinct projects:

  • The Humbie cow
  • Using mapwork skills to survive
  • Peer mentoring in time
  • Planning and preparing lunch
  • Stop-motion animation premiere

This practice has been recognised by LTS and has been shared on their CfE website. Find out more by clicking here. Well done to all at Humbie!

Assessment, Literacy, Numeracy

Literacy and Numeracy Qualifications

Design Principles for the National Literacy and Numeracy Qualifications have been agreed by the CfE Management Board and have been shared on the SQA website.

The website provides quite a lot more detail than I’ve seen up to now:

Design

1. There will be two separate qualifications:

  • National Literacy
  • National Numeracy

2. National Literacy and National Numeracy qualifications will be available at SCQF levels 3, 4 or 5 and each qualification will have SCQF credit points. The qualifications will be ungraded.

3. Each qualification will be made up of individual assessable components which are coherent and worthy of recognition in their own right. Each assessable component and will be accorded an SCQF level of 3, 4 or 5 and SCQF credit points.

4. All assessable components must be achieved for the full qualification to be awarded. Where all assessable components are achieved at different SCQF levels within the qualification, the qualification will be awarded at the minimum level of component achieved.

5. The assessable components for National Literacy are:

  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Listening and talking

The assessable components for National Numeracy are:

  • Number processes
  • Money, time and measurement
  • Information handling

6. Each assessable component will be based on a broad definition derived from Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes.

Assessment

7. The National Literacy component Listening and Talking, and the National Numeracy component Information Handling, will be internally assessed and externally moderated.

Evidence for the other components will be gathered in a portfolio. Evidence in the portfolio will be drawn from across the curriculum or from more than one context.

Certification

8. National Literacy and National Numeracy qualifications will be separately recorded on the qualifications certificate.

9. Each assessable component achieved will be recorded on a Literacy/Numeracy profile, whether or not all components required for the full qualification have been achieved. Each assessable component achieved, its SCQF level, and its credit points, will be recorded on the profile.

Assessment, Early years, History, Literacy, News, Numeracy, Parents, Planning, Science, Scottish Culture, Scottish History, Skills, Social Studies, Support, Technology

Additions to the LTS Curriculum for Excellence website

1 Comment

We’ve received an update of all the recent additions to the LTS CfE Website from August to November 2009 in one document. We thought this was worth sharing here. It does not include Management Board minutes and papers that have been added to the site.

Assessment

Assessment for Curriculum for Excellence (September 2009)

Assessment is a key strand of work in implementing Curriculum for Excellence.
At the Scottish Learning Festival on 23 September the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong learning, Fiona Hyslop, announced the publication of the strategic vision and key principles for assessment in Curriculum for Excellence.

Now available on the Curriculum for Excellence website the Assessment for Curriculum for Excellence document sets out the Scottish Government’s strategy on how to build on our existing strong foundations of effective approaches to assessment.

Building the curriculum & Building your curriculum

Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for learning, life and work (November 2009)

Building the Curriculum 4 aims to help all those who are involved in planning and delivering young people’s learning across all sectors and settings. It sets out key messages about how children and young people develop and apply skills as part of Curriculum for Excellence, so as to bring about the transformational changes needed to improve the life chances of young people in Scotland.

Building your curriculum (August 2009)

A new area entitled ‘Building your curriculum’ was added to the Curriculum for Excellence website in August 2009. This section offers materials designed to help schools and other establishments in designing curriculum structures that reflect the features set out in ‘Building the Curriculum 3’ and meet their local contexts and priorities.

Early insights (August 2009)

This section shows the progress some schools have been making in developing their own curriculum structures around transition, the senior phase and a broad general education, and the totality of the curriculum.

Pupil Voice (August 2009)

Three new videos were added to the Curriculum for Excellence website exploring what pupils and students want from their education, including their answers to four questions related to putting ‘Building the Curriculum 3’ into practice.

Building your curriculum – an inter-authority approach (October 2009)

This study outlines how six education authorities worked collaboratively with LTS and the Scottish Government to plan and deliver a joint event which would support schools in developing their thinking on curriculum structures and reflect the framework set out in ‘Building the Curriculum 3’ (BtC3).

Exemplification and case studies

Support for staff – exemplification of Curriculum for Excellence

Exemplification of good practice used in implementing the experiences and outcomes was published on the Curriculum for Excellence website from October onwards. The case studies provide staff with exemplars of how some schools in Scotland have started to implement Curriculum for Excellence.

Early level

Supporting the Early Level resource (October 2009)

Children’s Minister Adam Ingram launched the Curriculum for Excellence ‘Supporting the Early Level’ resource in October 2009. Information about the resource is on Early Years Online. The new DVD resource will help early years practitioners and teachers to develop successful practices in areas such as active learning, self evaluation, additional support needs and the learning environment – including making the best use of outdoor opportunities.

The Early Years Framework – Putting the Vision into Action (October 2009)

Outcomes from the HMIE/LTS Good Practice conference for early years that was held in the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow, on 9 June 2009.

Modern Languages

Working together to develop cultural awareness and multilingualism (October 2009)

Clarifying the learning: Sharing the standard (October 2009)

Using collaborative learning and peer mentoring to improve transition (October 2009)

Partnership working in modern languages using collaborative learning and ICT (October 2009)

Sciences

Properties and uses of materials (October 2009)

Promoting science during primary to secondary transition (October 2009)

Social studies

Planning for the Scottish dimension (October 2009)

Improving engagement by developing literacy and numeracy in social studies (October 2009)

Scotland’s History Online (November 2009)

Technologies

B!te: Big Ideas – Technical Education (October 2009)

Computing for Excellence – HMIE-LTS Good Practice conference for computing and information systems. This joint conference was held in the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline on 3 June 2009 (October 2009)

Healthy Eating project – Dollar Academy (October 2009)

Blast from the Past – Scottish history project (October 2009)

Literacy

Growing up with Loch Leven – exploring literacy across learning (October 2009)

Social studies and literacy at third level (October 2009)

Numeracy

Co-operative learning activities: an active approach to teaching numeracy (October 2009)

Using numbers to count – pathways to numeracy (October 2009)

‘In the Doghouse’, a numeracy across learning project (October 2009)

Interdisciplinary

Planning an interdisciplinary study on China (November 2009)

Planning for a broad general education (November 2009)

16+ Learning Choices in action (November 2009)

More Choices, More Chances – Alva Academy (August 2009)

Other resources

CfE News (September 2009)

CfE News – a newspaper for practitioners – was developed to showcase and signpost practitioners to just some of the support, advice and online resources available on the CfE website. 96,000 copies were issued in September across the entire educational community

Keynote presentations and three workshops (September 2009)

The keynote presentation and the three workshops from the nationwide ‘Turning the experiences and outcomes into action’ events which took place last session were put up on the CfE website to offer support for the next stage of implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. These materials can provide the groundwork for further discussion within educational establishments, for example during in-service days.

Experiences and outcomes by level (November 2009)

The experiences and outcomes can now be downloaded by level as Word and PDF documents. These levels documents have been added to the ‘Getting started’ section of the website.

Parents

Trailer for Parent Toolkit (November 2009)

In January, a Curriculum for Excellence toolkit to support all practitioners as they engage with parents and carers will be launched. As implementation gets underway it will help all those who work with children and young people to deliver key information around Curriculum for Excellence and answer questions parents and carers may have about how it will affect their own child.