UCAS - Curriculum for Excellence

Curriculum for Excellence

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is the new 3-18 curriculum which has been adopted by all schools in Scotland. It aims to make learning more relevant to the modern world and gives young people the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to succeed in learning, life and work. It is transforming education by providing a coherent, flexible and enriched curriculum for all young people aged 3 to 18 and includes a review of other aspects of Scotland's education system, including qualifications, assessment and learning and teaching approaches. This will help prepare young people to take their place in a modern society and economy.

SQA is a partner organisation involved in developing the Curriculum for Excellence programme. The other partners are the Scottish Government, Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe). Maximising the opportunities that CfE provides requires a joined up approach across a range of sectors and bodies, and there has been much partnership working with the HE sector, along with the teaching unions, associations and employers.

Universities have been, and continue to be, key partners in the development of CfE. As CfE is implemented, it is crucial that universities reflect on the implications and benefits for their own activities and practices. This includes both learning and teaching strategies and admission and recruitment policies. The aim is to ensure young people can experience a smooth transition from schools and colleges to universities, building on prior learning and preparing for future learning.

More specifically, learners will be applying to universities with enhanced skills for learning and new qualifications from 2014 onwards. Flexibility in the way in which young people obtain qualifications is a key part of the personalisation and choice agenda within CfE and as a result young people may have a much greater range of pathways to obtaining qualifications than is currently the case, eg Highers achieved over two years (five terms) or, for the most able, bypassing lower level qualifications and studying Highers from S4 onwards.

CfE represents a different approach to learning in schools. This will help learners to develop skills and knowledge in more depth which they can use across different subjects and gain abilities which they can apply to life outside the classroom. This fresh approach to learning requires new assessment methods and qualifications. SQA's principal role is to design and develop the new qualifications and assessment.

The new qualifications will have equal status and credibility to those currently available and will support the new curriculum.

About the new qualifications

There will be new national qualifications called National 4 and National 5.

National 4 and National 5 will replace the current national qualifications - Standard Grade General and Credit, and Intermediate 1 and 2. Foundation level Standard Grades will be replaced by Access 3.

Revisions will also be made to the current Access 1, Access 2, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications to reflect the values, purposes and principles of CfE.

The new National 4 and National 5 qualifications will be introduced in 2013/14 as will the new Access qualifications, followed by the new Higher qualifications in 2014/15 and the new Advanced Higher qualifications in 2015/16.

The Scottish Baccalaureates in Sciences and Languages were also introduced in August 2009 with the aim of encouraging more pupils to study sciences and languages in upper secondary school and assist young people in their transition to tertiary education and employment. They are especially aimed at high-achieving pupils and provide learners with a value added dimension to S6 study, through an interdisciplinary project at the same level as Advanced Higher.

About literacy and numeracy

Development of literacy and numeracy skills is the responsibility of all teachers and other practitioners who support young people's learning, regardless of where the young person is learning or the subject being taught. Literacy and Numeracy Units will be developed at SCQF levels 3, 4 and 5.

These units will be available for all learners to use in any relevant context.

The Literacy Unit is part of the English and G�idhlig Courses at Access 3 and National 4. Work in English (National 5) and other Courses, may be used to contribute to the Literacy Unit at National 5. The Numeracy Unit is part of the Mathematics Course at Access 3 and National 4. Work in Mathematics (National 5) and other Courses, may be used to contribute to the Numeracy Unit at National 5. The Numeracy Unit is part of the new Lifeskills Mathematics Courses at National 4 and National 5. The Literacy and Numeracy Units will also be available to adult learners.

Developing the new qualifications

The process of designing and developing new qualifications is a huge task involving teams from across SQA and representatives from the teaching profession and wider groups such as Further and Higher Education, unions and professional organisations. We are developing hundreds of qualifications at many levels and across many subjects.

To ensure that each qualification is of the highest quality, the process has been designed to be transparent, allowing for extensive consultation, while maintaining standards. This work is being undertaken to ensure that the qualifications support the development of the required skills in Scotland's learners.

We are constantly in touch with the profession, partners and stakeholders, keeping them updated and seeking their views.

Work on the new qualifications started in 2006. Since then there has been engagement with partners, stakeholders and the teaching profession on the policy, design and development of the new qualifications.

Over a three-year period, SQA hosted meetings, seminars and workshops with stakeholders to discuss issues such as assessment, curriculum planning, quality assurance and continuing professional development.

SQA has specific groups set up to take forward the development of the new and revised qualifications.

Curriculum Area Review Groups (CARGs) provide advice and guidance in each curriculum area. Each group is made up of nominated representatives from partner organisations, stakeholders, teaching associations and parent groups.

Qualifications Design Teams (QDTs) work on the design of qualifications within individual subjects such as physics, history, English, music etc. They are made up of nominated subject experts.

Subject Working Groups (SWGs) carry out specific pieces of work as designated by the QDTs. Teachers and practitioners can nominate themselves to join these groups.

The HEI sector has representation across the CARGs, QDTs and SWGs.

There are a number of internal governance groups which oversee and sign-off the work of all our groups. All work produced by the Subject Working Groups is reviewed by the QDTs and CARGs before sign-off.

To help us develop new qualifications we also have a number of policies.The policies will provide guidance or guiding principles for us to follow when we are developing new qualifications.

Following these policies means that we make sure the qualifications we design are fit for purpose and of a high standard. It also means we can make sure that all stages of the development process are quality assured, robust and consistent.

We develop our policies within the wider educational landscape and our teams are in regular contact with key stakeholders, other awarding bodies, higher education institutions and educational policy makers across the UK and internationally.

Draft documents

As part of the development process, each qualification goes through a number of different stages.

At each stage, we are publishing draft documents on our website which outline our proposals and plans. This keeps stakeholders informed about what we are doing and offers the opportunity to review and comment on all of the draft documents. Visitors to our website can give feedback on all of the documents by clicking Have Your Say.

To date, we have published:

design principles which are the blueprint for developing the new qualifications. These outline what the new qualifications will look like, what they will achieve and the specifications they will adhere to
progress reports which give recommendations on the scope, skills and issues within each curriculum area.
Overview of qualifications reports which outline the subjects that fall within each curriculum area and the subjects, levels and types of qualifications which will be developed
course rationales and summaries for National 4 and National 5 which outline the proposed content for the new qualifications and their aims and purposes
course specifications for National 4 and National 5 which define the mandatory requirements for a Course.

The further draft documents which will be published for each qualification are:

unit specifications which define the mandatory requirements for a Unit.
course assessment specifications which define the mandatory assessment requirements for National Courses
course support notes which provide advice and guidance on delivering Courses.
unit support notes which provide advice and guidance on delivering Units
exemplification - materials which provide examples of approaches to Course and Unit assessment.

Refer to our CfE project timeline for details of all of these developments. SQA has quality assurance and validation processes to ensure that the next generation of National Qualifications are fit for purpose.

Delivering the new qualifications

As we approach implementation, our delivery teams will be looking at the logistics of how certification will work and how assessments will be delivered.

SQA will ensure that the necessary processes, procedures and systems are in place and that centres are fully supported.

Whilst the new qualifications are being implemented, there will be a two-year transition period in 2013/14 and 2014/15 while the current qualifications are phased out. This is to allow the final year group studying Intermediate 1 and / or Intermediate 2 to progress to the current Higher and Advanced Higher without disruption to their learning.

The last year for Standard Grade presentation will be 2012/13 with final certification in August 2013.

The new National Qualifications (National 4 and National 5) and Access 3 will be implemented in centres in time for those who started S1 in August 2010. SQA will support centres in the build-up to and during this period.

More information

All of the information about what we do is available on our website at: www.sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence.

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