MORAY PARENT FORUM MEETING

Elgin Town Hall15th January 2013

Laurence FindlayHead of Schools and Curriculum

Development

AGENDA To provide an update on the senior

phase of Curriculum for Excellence in Moray schools

To provide information on new qualifications

To discuss future MPF meetings

BACKGROUND TO CFE The National Debate on education in

2003 informed us that we wanted….1. A more flexible curriculum2. Less time spent on exams and reduced

assessment3. A system more responsive to learner

needs4. Increased skills for learning, life and

work

WHAT DO WE WANT TO SEE? “So people want to see change… they

want a school system in Scotland that is well resourced and flexible enough to meet the needs of the individual child…a system that adapts to the child, not the child to the system. This will require radical new thinking about the way we design, build and manage our schools, about the way teachers teach, about the curriculum and about the interaction between pupils, parents, community and school.”

CHALLENGES To reduce the achievement gap that

opens up about P5 and continues to widen throughout the junior secondary years

The gap associated with poverty and deprivation

The numbers of young people leaving school with minimal (and in some cases no) qualifications

THE WORLD IS CHANGING Today’s learners are no longer the

people our educational system was designed to teach

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn

The world our kids are going to live in is changing four times faster than our schools

Future jobs; Mechatronical engineer, Avatar design-security consultant, Traceability manager, Bioinformationist, Geomicrobiologist, Ethical Hacker….

FUTURE ATTRIBUTES Innovative and Creative Able to cross boundaries Adaptable and flexible Analytical and critical Problem solving Self-management Technologically literate

SENIOR PHASE ENTITLEMENTS A curriculum which is coherent from 3 to 18 A senior phase of education after S3 which provides

the opportunity to obtain qualifications as well as to continue to develop the four capacities

Opportunities to continue to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work (Including career planning skills) and a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing

Personal support to enable them to gain as much as possible from the opportunities that the curriculum can provide

Support in moving into positive and sustained destinations beyond school

NEW QUALIFICATIONS The senior phase in schools should now

be seen as a three year experience from S4 to S6

New “National” qualifications will replace Standard Grade and Intermediate qualifications. National 4 will be internally assessed, with external moderation and National 5 will involve a mixture of continuous internal assessment and a final externally marked examination

Highers and Advanced Highers will be revised in light of new qualifications

NEW QUALIFICATIONS (CONT..) Each course requires a notional 160

hours of study, so only five or six courses can be taken per year as S3 is part of the Broad General Education and is not an examination preparation year

MAIN POINTS TO REMEMBER Young people will have a broad, general

experience until the end of S3 Young people may well be in groupings

across S4 to S6 depending on their subject choice

There is a greater focus on skills development as opposed to the retention of knowledge and facts

There will be increased flexibility in our education system to meet the needs of the 21st century and a rapidly changing world

SUMMARY OF NEW QUALIFICATIONSCURRENT QUALIFICATIONS NEW QUALFICATIONSAccess 1/2/3/Standard Grade Foundation

National 1/2/3

Standard Grade General/Intermediate 1

National 4

Standard Grade Credit/Intermediate 2

National 5

Higher HigherAdvanced Higher Advanced Higher

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S SERVICES COMMITTEE Committee meetings take place every

eight weeks on Wednesday mornings from 9.30am and are set for the next four years. There is currently a parental vacancy and it is important that Moray Parent Forum chooses a parent to represent them at Committee.

FUTURE MEETINGS Future meetings of Moray Parent Forum

will take place on; Wednesday 6th March Wednesday 8th May Tuesday 11th June

Topics…..