Jargon Buster
You're not alone!!
Most of us get confused about terms used in education, so here's a list that should help you understand what we're on about. It'll probably come in handy when speaking to teachers, too! A special thanks to Connect, who released a leaflet to help us clear the fog!
Jargon Buster -a list of terms used in Scottish education 2018 (courtesy of Connect)
Active Learning
This is when children and young people are fully engaged in their learning by doing things and thinking about what they are doing, and when different teaching and learning approaches are used to achieve that full engagement.
Advanced Higher
Advanced Highers are SQA National Qualifications consisting of units and a course assessment. They include a question paper (exam) or coursework (eg, assignments and/or practical tasks) or both. They are graded A to D or no award.
Additional Support Needs and Additional Support for Learning
A child or young person has additional support needs if they need more – or different – support than what is usually provided in schools or early learning and childcare centres to children of the same age. This support is usually refered to as additional support for learning.
Assessment
Assessment means bringing together formal and informal evidence or information to describe how well a child is doing – to see what they know, understand and are able to do.
Assessment is important to track progress, plan the next steps, report and involve parents, children and young people in learning.
Attainment
This is where a child/young person achieves a goal such as a skill or educational achievement.
Attainment gap
This refers to any significant and persistent difference in performance or educational attainment between different groups of pupils, for example, between white Scottish and ethnic/cultural minorities groups or pupils from higher-income and lower-income households.
Broad General Education
This is the learning which is done from the age of 3 to 15 – up to the end of S3. The aim is to make sure children have a wide range of learning experiences until S4 when they will start to specialise in different subjects.
Catchment area
A catchment area is set by local authorities and defines at which school your child will be given a priority place. (See Placing Request)
Carer
A family member or paid helper who regularly looks after a child. This could be a nanny, childminder, Grandparent, Aunt or Uncle, etc. A carer can be a member of the Parent Council.
Co-opted Member
A member of the community who puts themselves forward or is invited to join the Parent Council. Co-opted Members must be voted in, every year, by current members.
Curricular Area
There are eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence. They are: Expressive Arts, Languages (including English and literacy), Health and Wellbeing, Mathematics (including numeracy), Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social Studies (eg History, Modern Studies, Technologies (eg Computing, Graphic Communication).
Curricular Level
In the Broad General Education (early years to S3), there are five curricular levels – Early, First, Second, Third and Fourth. Learners progress through the Curricular Levels at their own pace through the year groups.
Curriculum
This refers to the lessons and academic content taught in a school and the knowledge and skills pupils are expected to gather.
Curriculum for Excellence
Also known as CfE, this is the way schools and early learning and childcare centres organise learning and teaching for 3 to 18 year olds. It was introduced with the aim of making sure education is relevant to the changing world. It aims for:
a more interactive approach to teaching and learning
a slimmed-down curriculum
more cross-subject work
a focus on literacy, numeracy and health & wellbeing
a modernised qualification system.
Deprivation
The lack of material belongings considered to be basic necessities in society, without which families are considered to be living in poverty or with severe financial difficulties.
Digital learning
Any type of learning that makes use of computer technology.
Digital literacy
The ability to use computer technology and communication tools to locate, evaluate, use and create information.
Early Learning & Childcare Centres
Babies and young children learn all the time from their experiences. Early years and childcare centres are all those places which offer education and childcare for children up to school age. These include family centres, nursery schools, nursery classes attached to schools, playgroups and childminders.
Eco Schools
An international initiative to encourage whole school action for the environment. Schools work to achieve the Green Flag Award by forming an Eco-Committee which completes an Environmental Review and creates an Action Plan with projects on litter and two other topics.
Emotional intelligence and emotional literacy
The ability to recognise, understand and manage our own emotions and behaviour and to recognise, understand and influence the emotions and behaviours of others.
In schools, children and young people work on skills such as active listening, self-awareness, empathy, relationships and emotional control.
Equality
Equality is about making sure every person has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents.
It is also the belief that no-one should have poorer life chances because of where they are from, what they believe, or whether they have a disability or other difference.
Equity
A key term in current Scottish education policy, ‘achieving equity’ means ensuring every child has the same opportunity to succeed.
Ethos
The culture and values in a school.
Evaluation
An evaluation will explore whether a project or programme has made a difference to pupils’ learning (or will explore if a teaching approach has been effective.)
Experiences & Outcomes
Schools deliver a range of learning experiences in the different Curricular Areas. The progress that children make in their learning are the ‘outcomes’. When schools share information about children’s learning with parents eg in reports, this is likely to refer to Experiences & Outcomes and the Curricular Levels that children are working at.
Expressive Arts
A curricular area which includes art and design, dance, drama and music.
Learners will:
find out about and express their feelings and emotions and those of others
discover and develop their personal, social and cultural identity
learn to recognise and value their local, national and global culture.
Extra-curricular activities
Something extracurricular takes place in addition to regular school provision. This might be organised in the community or by a family or through the school. It includes such things as school clubs, local sports clubs or Scouts/Girl Guides.
Family Learning
Family Learning encourages family members to learn together with a focus on intergenerational learning. Family learning activities can be designed to help parents support their child’s learning.
Free School Meals
Every child in Scotland at a local authority school can get free school lunches in Primary 1, 2 and 3. This is for all children and the family’s financial circumstance don’t matter.
After P3 up until a child is 16, they can get free school lunches if the family is receiving certain benefits.
Families should contact the local authority or the school’s Headteacher if they are unsure whether they qualify.
Gaelic Medium Education
Where pupils are mainly taught in Gaelic with English being taught as a second language.
Growth Mindset
This is used in many Scottish schools as a way to encourage children and others to not be afraid to learn from mistakes and view them as an opportunity to improve learning and skills.
A fixed mindset is where someone believes their basic qualities like their intelligence or talents are simply fixed traits. This may lead to avoiding challenges or giving up if something doesn’t work.
In a growth mindset, people believe their most basic abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. This creates a love of learning and a willingness to persevere when things don’t work out.
Health & Wellbeing
Health & Wellbeing is factored in to all learning and is also a Curricular Area which includes Home & Food Technology and Physical Education. It teaches children and young people about:
mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing
planning for choices and changes
physical education, activity and sport
food and health
substance misuse and risk-taking behaviours
sexual health and relationships
Learning about health and wellbeing should help children and young people to cope with uncertainties in life, to have confidence to try new and different things and to make the most of opportunities.
Literacy
Literacy is factored into all learning and is the responsibility of all teachers. It is also part of the Languages Curricular Area. Literacy means the ability to communicate by reading, writing, listening and talking.
Reading – understanding and interpreting ideas, opinions and information from texts.
Writing – creating texts which communicate ideas, opinions and information.
Listening – understanding and interpreting spoken ideas, opinions and information, drawing on body language and facial expressions when appropriate.
Talking – communicating orally ideas, opinions and information.
National Standardised Assessments
The Scottish Government expects pupils in P1, P4, P7 and S3 to complete these online assessments in literacy and numeracy. There is no pass or fail, revision is not required and information from the NSAs can be used by teachers but also gives a national picture of children’s progress. Parents can ask that their children do not sit these.
Numeracy
Numeracy is factored into all learning and is the responsibility of all teachers. It is also part of the Mathematics Curricular Area. It means the ability to use numbers to solve real-life problems by counting, doing calculations, measuring, understanding graphs, charts and results.
It includes:
Number processes – eg addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; using whole numbers, fractions, decimal fractions and percentages; making decisions based on the results; understanding these results
Money, time and measurement
Information handling – the ability to interpret information in tables, charts and other graphs.
Outcomes
Outcomes are the skills and knowledge that pupils achieve from their learning Experiences within the five Curricular Levels in the eight areas of the curriculum. Teachers assess what pupils know, understand and are able to do.
Parent Council
Parent Councils arrived as part of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. Offering parents flexibility about creating a Parent Council to suit their needs, Parent Councils are statutory bodies which have rights and responsibilities. They are the body which represents the Parent Forum.
Parent Forum
All parents and carers of children at a school are automatically members of the Parent Forum. The Parent Forum has powers under the Parental Involvement Act in relation to the Parent Council, which is the representative body of the Parent Forum.
Parental engagement/ involvement
The engagement of parents and families can help to improve children’s learning and help to ensure every child has an equal chance of success.
It refers to parental and family engagement in children’s learning at an early learning and childcare centre or at school, in the home or the wider community.
Parental involvement tends to mean involvement of parents and carers in the life and work of the early learning and childcare centre or school eg the Parent Council or PTA, volunteering with social and fundraising activities, helping in class, etc.
Pastoral care
Teachers and other members of staff with the responsibility to take care of the health, wellbeing and education of children and young people.
Placing request
Usually, children attend the school in the catchment area where they live. However, some parents may wish to make a request to place their child in another school – this is known as a placing request. The request must be made to the local authority.
Positive destination
A young person leaving secondary school is said to have a positive destination if they go into further education, higher education, training, voluntary work, employment or activity agreements. (Activity agreements are plans to help a young person into the other destinations and provide a programme of tailored learning and activity based on their skills.)
Restorative justice
Restorative justice is used to deal with harm caused by misconduct, bullying, or breaking school rules. It replaces punishment and is based on finding solutions through discussion.
Restorative justice is more likely to be effective if it introduced as a whole school approach and not just an add on scheme.
Rights Respecting Schools
The Rights Respecting School Award is an initiative run by UNICEF UK and encourages schools to place the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of its ethos and curriculum.
There are three stages to the award and is not just about what children do but also what adults do.
School Exclusion
Exclusion means a child or young person has been removed from school usually because of their behaviour, and is not allowed to attend for a certain number of days. Schools must keep a record of exclusions and must follow a set of procedures when they exclude a pupil. Schools cannot exclude pupils if it has a detrimental impact on the pupil.
School Improvement Plan
This document should show improvement targets for a school. The Parent Council and Parent Forum should help draft this.
Scottish Qualifications (SQA) Awards
These awards are practice-based and reflect a wide range of skills and achievements eg Volunteering Skills, Leadership, Internet Safety, Forest Kindergarten.
Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) National Qualifications
National qualifications are courses taken by young people in secondary schools and colleges. These qualifications include National 1 to National 5, Highers and Advanced Highers.
Special school
A presumption of mainstreaming children and young people with additional support needs into local schools is now built into Scottish education. However, when the needs of children, often when those needs are complex, cannot be met in a mainstream school setting, there are local authority-run and nationally grant-aided school places in special schools and national centres.
Special unit
A special unit tends to be based in a school and will usually be targeted to specific needs, for example, an autism or language unit.
Transition
In education, transition refers to making changes from one stage to another with the aim of making learning continuous for the child or young person eg from nursery to primary school, primary school to secondary school and from secondary school to further learning, work or an apprenticeship. It may also refer to changes from one curricular level to another, from one class to another, or from one year to another.
This information used courtesy of Connect
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August 2018
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