A Curriculum for Excellence at Langside Primary School

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A Curriculum for Excellenceat Langside Primary
School

• Presentation for Parents
• November 2006

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Design Principles for the Curriculum for
Excellence

• Challenge and enjoyment
• Breadth
• Progression
• Depth
• Personalisation and choice
• Coherence
• Relevance
• Scottish Executive

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Ministerial responseTo achieve a curriculum 3-18
we will

• De-clutter the primary curriculum
• Overhaul the curriculum S1-S3
• Find news ways of recognising achievement S1-S3
• Review relationship between S Grade/new NQs
• Introduce skills-for-work courses for 14-16
  year-olds
• Review curriculum content, starting with science
• Much to be implemented from 2007 or before

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• Why do we need curricular reform?

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• Consider
• The world we live in is changing 4 times
  faster than our schools
• Alvin Toffler
• Children currently in P1 will do jobs that
  dont yet exist, using technologies that are not
  yet invented

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• ..in times of change the learners will
  inherit the earth, while the knowers will find
  themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a
  world which no longer exists.
• Eric Hoffer

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• The world our children will inherit will differ
  dramatically from the world in which we grew up.
• Yesterdays solutions dont solve todays
• problems.

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Learners in the modern world...

• To thrive in the 21st century, it is not
  enough to leave school with a clutch of
  examination certificates. You have to have
  learned how to be tenacious resourceful,
  imaginative logical, self-disciplined self
  aware, collaborative inquisitive.
• Guy Claxton, Building Learning Power

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Curriculum for Excellence

• The curriculum must develop change so that it
  continues to meet the needs of our young people.
  There will be a continuing cycle of evaluation,
  refreshment renewal, taking account of
  developments in technologies for learning and in
  our knowledge and understanding.
• Peter Peacock, Minister for Education young
  People

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De-cluttering the primary curriculum
Ministerial response

• Guidelines to provide right level of detail for
  teachers
• Use purposes principles to develop streamlined
  guidelines from 3-5 curriculum 5-14 guidelines
• Clear focus on purpose outcomes of learning
• Guidelines direct smooth transition in learning
  teaching approaches - pre-school approaches
  e.g.learning through purposeful, well-planned
  play
• Allow more flexibility scope to provide rich
  varied experiences
• Assess only what needs to be assessed to support
  learning
• Update, expand improve the 3-18 science
  curriculum
• Learning teaching approaches and the importance
  of focused CPD

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Moving forward -with a step change?
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HOW schools can achieve the outcomes of A
Curriculum for Excellence
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How do we begin?

• Understand the goals of education
• Understand how learners learn
• Reflect and review
• - what we teach
• - how we teach it
• Open-mindedness (overcome mindsets)
• Ensure continuing professional development of all
  staff

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• Understanding the goals

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Outcomes of A Curriculum for Excellence
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SUCCESSFUL Learners with..

• Enthusiasm motivation for learning
• Determination to reach high standards of
  achievement
• Openness to new thinking
  ideas

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and who are able to

• Use literacy, communication numeracy skills
• Use technology for learning
• Think creatively independently
• Learn independently as part of a group
• Make reasoned evaluations
• Link apply different kinds of learning in new
  situations

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CONFIDENT Individuals with..

• Self respect
• A sense of physical, mental emotional
  well-being
• Secure values beliefs
• Ambition

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..and who are able to

• Relate to others manage themselves
• Pursue a healthy active lifestyle
• Be self aware
• Develop communicate their own beliefs view of
  the world
• Live as independently as they can
• Assess risk take informed decisions
• Achieve success in different areas of activity

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RESPONSIBLE Citizens with..

• Respect for others
• Commitment to participate responsibly in
  political,
• economic cultural life

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..and who are able to

• Develop knowledge understanding of the world
  Scotlands place in it
• Understand different beliefs cultures
• Make informed choices decisions
• Evaluate environmental, scientific
  technological issues

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EFFECTIVE contributors with..

• An enterprising attitude
• Resilience
• Self-reliance

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..and who able to

• Communicate in different ways in different
  settings
• Work in partnership and in teams
• Take the initiative and lead
• Apply critical thinking in new contexts
• Create and develop
• Solve problems

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• How useful is this for real life?

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Consider..Employability skills (Careers Scotland
)

• Getting on with people you dont know
• Expressing yourself well when speaking
• Expressing yourself well when writing
• Being a good timekeeper
• Being able to work with numbers/figures
• Listening to instructions
• Being able to work computers
• Being well organised
• Being able to work with someone standing over you
• Being able to work with others in a team or group
• Not giving up when faced with problems
• Coping with pressure
• Able to stand up for yourself at the right time
• Able to set targets for yourself
• Being confident
• Being polite
• Being methodical neat
• Being good at sorting out difficulties
• Able to show initiative

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• Reflect
• There is no tension between these
  employability skills and the skills our
  youngsters will need for everyday life!

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A Curriculum for Excellence seeks to develop
Active Citizenship in a Modern Scotland...

• and its 4 outcomes require
• Knowledge and understanding
• Skills
• Abilities
• Attributes

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Knowledge Understanding

• HOW to learn
• Use of technology in learning
• Self
• Healthy lifestyles
• The world Scotlands place in it
• Other beliefs cultures
• Environmental issues
• Citizenship

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Skills

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Inter-personal
• Intra-personal
• Communication
• Thinking -creatively
• -independently
• -critically
• Problem solving

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Attitudes..

• Enthusiastic
• Motivated
• Respectful to self ,others and the environment
• Ambitious (aspirations)
• Open-minded
• Confident
• Responsible
• Enterprising

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Abilities

• Team-working
• Lifelong learners
• Reflective
• Active citizens
• Value others
• Achievement attainment
• Resilience
• Self-reliance
• Independent
• Reliable

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• Understanding how learners learn..

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Good Learning We asked our children !
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We also learned from leading research..

• Alistair Smith - accelerated learning
• Tony Buzan - maximising your mind
• David Perkins - thinking skills
• Dylan Wiliam - formative assessment
• Edward de Bono - thinking skill development
• Shirley Clarke - formative assessment
• Howard Gardner - multiple intelligences
• Lev Vygotsky - collaborative learning
• Norma Black - building confidence
• Marty Seligman - positive psychology
• Alistair McLean - motivation

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Principles of Learning Alistair Smith

• Learning
• Is about seeking securing connections
• Evolves through exploration, mimicry and
  rehearsal
• Occurs when we scaffold high cognitive challenge
  negotiate risk
• Requires optimism about real learner goals
• Occurs through the senses
• Is socially constructed with language as its
  medium
• Thrives on immediate performance feedback space
  for reflection
• Benefits from a view that intelligence is neither
  fixed nor inherited, but complex, modifiable and
  multiple

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• 9. Involves the active engagement of different
  memory systems
• 10. Requires rehearsal in a variety of situations
• 11. Learning should involve flexibility of time,
  social interaction, space resource
• 12. There is a high degree of learner choice
  informed by quality information from the
  earliest
• 13. Meta-learning is given status a focus
  throughout all learning experiences
• 14. Learning arises through engagement with
  authentic challenge real issues
• 15. Learning utilises the prevailing technologies
  of the age
• 16. Learning occurs is actively promoted across
  a supportive infrastructure
• 17. Assessment actively engages the learner, is
  at the point of need is capable of being acted
  upon
• ALITE Alistair Smith

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There are 5 Rs for todays learners..

• Responsible
• Resilient
• Resourceful
• capable of Reasoning
• Reflective
• Alistair Smith, ALITE
• www.alite.co.uk

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Key change therefore

• Less direct input from the teacher
• More active involvement of pupils in their own
  learning
• More interactive discussion / analysis by
  children

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• Our action to date..

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HOW we achieve the outcomes of A Curriculum for
Excellence
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Cornerstones of successful practice

• Values for living
• Positive, supportive learning environment and
  culture
• Relevant, meaningful curriculum
• Contextualised, interactive learning teaching
  approaches
• Primacy of formative assessment
• 4 stage learning cycle lesson structure
• Teach learning skills HOW to learn
• Sharing/negotiating the success criteria
• Learning partners
• Continuing professional development and learning
  of staff
• Reflective practice of learners self and peer
  evaluation
• Learning through feedback
• Enterprise
• Developing thinking skills

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Developing Langside as a Community of Learners
Thinkers..our current priority
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Achieving Success..

• If what happens in the classroom is primarily
  a product of the ways people think and interact,
• then methods that improve the quality of
  thinking and interaction can make everything else
  that goes on in the classroom more powerful.
• Peter Senge

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Teachers are aiming to

• plan lessons which explore promote learning
• share learning goals
• negotiate success criteria with pupils
• plan questions which further learning
• use strategies which maximise pupil thinking
  articulation
• model ideas by using real examples
• make evaluation analysis of these part of the
  lesson
• use such assessments as models for pupils
  analysing their own attempts
• focus feedback on success improvement against
  learning objectives
• give pupils HOW TO feedback
• build in time for pupil improvement as a result
  of feedback

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Pupils would experience..

• self peer evaluation
• formative feedback
• talking partners, learning partners
• making decisions choices
• confidence to question, challenge, seek help
  DURING the lesson!
• opportunity to think about articulate ideas
  opinions

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Examples of Classroom strategies being used..

• Wait time
• No hands up
• Punctuate lessons with Talking Partners
• Travelling/carouselling
• De Bonos thinking hats
• Powerful questions to challenge thinking

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Enterprise in Education..

• ..a continuing priority at Langside

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• What is enterprise?
• Industrious effort.
• An undertaking,
• especially of some scope,
• complication and risk.

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Enterprising Schools

• Show imagination, initiative and
• readiness to undertake
• new ventures.
• - Leadership management
• - Learning teaching approaches
• - Learners at all levels

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Successful aspects of enterprise activities..

• Fun
• Real life
• Meaningful
• Relevant
• Interactive (practical, experiential)
• Collaborative learning
• Independent learning
• Contextualised learning
• Responsibility for decisions
• Cedar Research (evaluation of SES Initiative,
  2005)

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What the children at Langside like about
enterprise

• Improves people skills
• Learn importance of everyone in the team taking
  part
• Improves ICT skills
• Makes you aware of your strengths
• Helps your thinking skills
• Have to express your own ideas to solve problems
• Feel confident to offer your own ideas
• Good to share ideas with friends (safer)
• Makes you more creative

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• No right or wrong answer
• Increases self confidence
• Develops perseverance
• Increases confidence speaking to others at all
  levels
• Lets you see how you react under pressure
  (meeting deadlines)
• Helps concentration (because what youre doing is
  fun you want to do it!)
• Improves your writing skills (you realise
  the fun in writing)
• Useful for the future (learning about
  different jobs)

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• Summing up
• current action at Langside Primary..

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Teachers roles are transforming to be

• Reflective, thinking, practitioners
• Leaders of learning
• Models of lifelong learning
• Guides on the Side not Sages on the Stage
• WHO
• Learn from research
• Understand how learners learn, then..
• ..Adopt responsive teaching process
• Teach learning skills
• Work learn collaboratively
• Look outward and embrace change

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Learning teaching approaches being used

• Learn to learn skills
• Positive attitudes aspirations
• ICT
• The 5 Rs and core life skills
• Smartnesses
• Values code of conduct
• Citizenship education
• Enterprise in education
• Transfer application of discretely taught
  skills knowledge
• Learning through play
• Contextualised, relevant learning experiences
• Multi sensory learning teaching
• Formative assessment
• Home-learning
• Thinking skills

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How parents can help..
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• Foster your childs readiness for learning
• Value learning
• Keep an open mind
• Value each child for himself no comparisons!
• Value, support celebrate achievements
• Have high, but realistic, expectations
• Model teach the values for living
• Set maintain boundaries, teach
  accountability
• Get involved at home, in school
• Have fun with your child!