The CfE and Glow News e-update provides you with updates on Curriculum for Excellence and support for practitioners, along with all the latest developments within Glow.
In this issue...
- Curriculum for Excellence Management Board - Senior phase statement
- New materials available on NAR
- Recently published support materials for practitioners:
- National Qualifications – Draft Higher Course Rationales and Summaries published
- SCQF Partnership launches toolkit for schools
- Interesting practice – new materials on Glow
- Glow Science
- Glow Cookbooks
- Swap competition and Glow Group
Curriculum for Excellence Management Board – Senior phase statement
A statement has been published by the Curriculum for Excellence Management Board outlining the vision, principles and framework for delivery of the senior phase in Curriculum for Excellence and providing clarification on issues that have been raised.
New materials available on NAR
New materials are now available on the National Assessment Resource (NAR). Log in to NAR to explore a wide range of new materials, including exemplars for Gaelic, health and wellbeing, and religious and moral education.
Recently published support materials for practitioners
The STEM Central - Making connections across the curriculum resource is packed with ideas, resources and links to help you create learning experiences that bring STEM subjects to your pupils. Using the focus of engineering, the STEM Central website offers stimulating and challenging experiences for sciences, technologies, engineering and maths based around topical contexts such as electric transport and renewable energy.
An enterprising approach to developing skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work - this collection of case studies examines the importance of developing essential employability and life skills in young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. They highlight the importance of providing the right blend of enterprising learning opportunities for each young person's stage and circumstances.
The Woods for Learning case studies highlight a number of different examples of the way that woodland environments can provide a rich resource and context for learning. The examples span all sectors – nursery, primary and secondary.
Literacy across learning: Strategy into practice in Beeslack Community High School - practitioners at Beeslack Community High School in Penicuik wanted to raise the profile of literacy among their learners and staff, in all curricular areas, by building on work already carried out over the past few years.
The Write at Home project began as a Learning and Teaching Scotland initiative to improve standards in, and engagement with, writing at home and beyond the classroom. Many schools across Scotland took part in the project but this case study focuses on three establishments and the work they have continued to develop since the initial implementation. They are Calderglen Nursery School, Edinburgh, Hillhead Primary School, Wick , and Greenwood Academy, North Ayrshire.New National Qualifications – Draft Higher Course Rationales and Summaries published
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is developing the new Higher qualifications as part of the Scottish Government's Curriculum for Excellence programme. The latest documents, Draft Course Rationales and Summaries for Higher, are now available to view and comment on.
Course Rationales identify the skills and knowledge learners will develop at Higher. Course Summaries detail how Higher Courses will be structured and provide a brief description of each Unit in the Course and what is required to achieve the Course. The Course Rationales and Summaries give a preview of what will come later in the development process and are published as stand-alone documents to allow people to give feedback, before they are then incorporated into the next development stage, the publication of the Draft Course Specifications for Higher.
Highers and Advanced Highers remain the qualifications required for entry into higher education and will continue to provide learners with the necessary skills to progress from their broad education into further education and employment. The new Higher qualifications are benchmarked against the standards of current Highers (SCQF level 6) and will continue to be graded A to C as they are currently.
At each stage of the development process, SQA is publishing draft documents in an open and transparent way to show the thinking at each stage and to provide the opportunity to give feedback. SQA has already published Design Principles, New Qualification Progress Reports and Overview of Qualifications Reports which covered all of the qualifications SQA is developing. SQA’s draft documents webpages describe each stage new National Qualifications go through and give detailed information about each of these documents.
You can leave feedback on all of SQA’s draft documents via the Have Your Say web page. SQA welcomes your feedback on the Higher Course Rationales and Summaries by 31 July 2011.
SCQF Partnership launches toolkit for schools
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership (SCQFP) is launching a Schools Toolkit, for use by those delivering learning in schools and the broader learning community. Created in partnership with Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the toolkit will assist schools and learning communities in understanding how the Framework supports Curriculum for Excellence and the recognition of achievement for young people.
Interesting practice - new materials on Glow
There are new materials, from various education authorities, on the National Assessment Glow Group demonstrating interesting practice on reporting to parents. You will need your Glow password to hand to log in to Glow.
Glow Science – exciting new resources for learners
The Glow Science website is a media-rich teaching online resource with over 500 short films mapped to Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes. Supported by learning materials and ideal for revision purposes, these short films will motivate and engage learners.
Glow Science covers the four science disciplines: biology, chemistry, physics and earth science. The website has just been updated with 130 new short films focusing on chemistry and physics, and covering everything from the periodic table to Newton's laws of motion.
Glow Cookbooks
Read the latest Glow Cookbooks:
Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together
Museums Galleries Scotland works alongside the nation’s museums and galleries to achieve the shared vision of creating a welcoming museums and galleries sector that opens doors and celebrates collections, inspiring creativity, learning and enjoyment for all. It is the lead voice of 340 museum and gallery members, welcoming 25 million visits each year and representing an industry worth up to £800 million to the Scottish economy.
This cookbook came about because Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) were keen to explore how Glow could be used to support collaborative learning projects involving schools and museums.
Swap competition and Glow Group
Scots Words and Place-names (SWAP) is running a competition for all school pupils in Scotland during June. The competition is open to all ages and aims to get people talking about the Scots language in their classrooms, as well as using it outside of them. Everyone on Glow will get a chance to read the best pieces of writing and vote on which one they think deserves to win.
All pupils need to do is to write a story, poem or piece of discursive writing relating to Scots and upload it to the SWAP Glow Group.
This could be about their favourite (or least favourite!) Scots words, about what a Scots place-name means to them, or could even be a whole story written in the Scots language. The possibilities are endless – the only requirement is that the piece of writing should clearly relate to Scots words and/or place-names. The competition is split into four age groups - P1-3, P4-7, S1-S3 and S4-S6.
Click onGlow - Scots Words and Place-names for more details about the competition and how to enter.
Find us on