Welcome to Balwearie Pathways

At Balwearie High School, learners will have choices at key transition points as they start to focus on the pathways they want to pursue through school and beyond into the world of study, training and careers.

Taking full advantage of the pathways available requires time and careful consideration. We hope the guidelines below will help learners and parents to make well-informed decisions.

Guiding Principles

There are a number of criteria we recommend learners consider when making their choices:

Appropriate progress – a good starting point is using the SCQF framework (see below) to compare the difficulty of courses and help progression. A curriculum that is too challenging or too easy can create problems for learners that impact on their progress.

Future opportunity – many university and college courses and jobs specify subjects and grades as part of their entry requirements, research into these requirements is strongly recommended.

Enjoyment – matching subject choice to a learner’s interests and enjoyment can help keep motivation levels high at school, so learners should consult with current teachers about the content and delivery of intended choices so that they have a clear idea of what lies ahead.

Balance – some learners will want to keep their options open in terms of the future, and so picking a range of distinct subjects that develop a variety of skills may be a wise option.

Key transition points:

In S3, in the final year of the Broad General Education, learners will study 7 subjects (encompassing all of the 8 curricular areas included in the Broad General Education). In S4, the first year of the Senior Phase (S4-S6), learners will continue study in 7 subjects, and from this point on will be working towards qualifications.

In S5, learners will study 5 subjects. In S6, learners will study 4 or 5 subjects.

When looking at the wide range of courses available, please be aware that occasionally courses can be oversubscribed or will not run due to insufficient numbers. We work hard to give the greatest number of learners their first choice of courses, while asking them to also make a back-up choice in case of this situation.

Know your skills

To be fully prepared for a changeable career market, it is important than our learners develop, and are able to talk confidently about, their skills. At Balwearie we use the framework developed by the national careers service Skills Development Scotland.

For more information about this framework and the skills included please follow the link below

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/what-we-do/skills-planning/skills4-0/

Progression and pathways

The table below shows how pupils can progress at school and beyond. Each SCQF (Scottish Qualifications Framework) number indicates a certain level of difficulty. There are twelve points on the scale and below are illustrated the levels most relevant to high school. 

The framework allows comparison across different institutions (schools, colleges, and universities) and can help a learner plan an education or career pathway. Increasingly learners are seeing different routes and education exit points; one example of this is the rise of the number of learners heading to university via college, where their HND may well open the door to 2nd or even 3rd year at university.

You can learn more about how the SCQF Framework works here - SCQF

Advice and Support

As well as all the information contained in this website, learners will discuss their choices with their guidance teachers and can also speak to our two in-school Skills Development Scotland careers advisers.

Skills Development Scotland have developed resources and tools on their website to help learners and parents match school subjects to future careers. You can learn more about this here 

Courses and choices

The Pathways Map shows the range of courses we offer and how a learner can progress up the SCQF level. 

For more information on the courses offered and how they can be part of a careers pathway, look at our Curricular Areas.