Senior phase – Learner journeys

Parents know that children’s skills, abilities and interests vary widely and they progress at their own pace.  Curriculum for Excellence is designed to cope with all these different needs and help young people develop skills and knowledge that will help them, whatever their course in later life.

What happens from S4 onwards under Curriculum for Excellence?

All young people will get a broad general education to S3 and the chance to specialise and take qualifications from S4 – The Senior Phase.

Each school will design a senior phase that best meets learners’ needs, whether that’s continuing in school, learning full or part time in college, community learning or work-based learning or a combination of these. For example, it may be possible to pick up specialist subjects and work placements that can help young people get real experience of the industry or sector that interests them.

Each young person will, in practice, have discussions with teachers and parents and carers to discuss and decide the subject choices that best suit them for the Senior Phase. 

In this section we share a few case studies to illustrate some of the options.  They don’t cover all the possibilities but give a sense of just how varied learner journeys can be.  They give a flavour of how skills, knowledge, experience and confidence can be improved by getting involved in school events – concerts, fundraising, enterprise projects, volunteering, buddying schemes and clubs.

The examples are for illustrative purposes only and do not cover all the possibilities of how a Senior Phase might look in a school.  The examples here reflect ongoing thinking in those schools and are very much work in progress.