Curriculum Overview

All children and young people aged 3-18 in Scotland experience Curriculum for Excellence – a forward looking, coherent, flexible and enriched curriculum that provides young people with the knowledge, skills and attributes they will need to flourish in life, learning and work, now and in the future.

THE FOUR CONTEXTS OF LEARNING

The curriculum includes all of the experiences that are planned for children and young people to support the development of their skills, and includes not only those experiences in the classroom to include:

• Curriculum areas and subjects

• Interdisciplinary learning

• Ethos and life of the school

• Opportunities for personal achievement

The curriculum has two stages: the broad general education (from the early years to the end of S3) and the senior phase (S4 to S6). The broad general education has five levels (early, first, second, third and fourth). The senior phase is designed to build on the experiences and outcomes of the broad general education, and to allow young people to take qualifications and courses that suit their abilities and interests.

CURRICULUM AREAS

The curriculum areas are as follows:

• Expressive arts

• Languages and literacy

• Health and wellbeing

• Mathematics and numeracy

• Religious and moral education

• Science

• Social studies

• Technologies

Our learning and teaching activities are based on the outcomes and experiences within these curriculum areas and all learners are entitled to experience these in all eight curriculum areas up to and including the third level – as far as this is consistent with their learning needs and prior attainment.

Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing are recognised as being particularly important – these are seen as being the ‘responsibility of all’ staff. Developing skills for learning, life and work is central to all learning experiences.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Our curriculum has been developed in line with the seven broad principles that schools take into consideration when planning children’s learning:

• Challenge and enjoyment

• Breadth

• Progression

• Depth

• Personalisation and choice

• Coherence

• Relevance