CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE
Is Curriculum for Excellence in our schools now?
Yes, Curriculum for Excellence is now being put into practice and bringing learning to life by changing the way education is delivered for all 3-18 year olds. It is designed to give young people the skills, knowledge and understanding they need for the modern world and jobs of the future, and will help our young people and Scotland flourish in the ever-changing global economy.
The main aim is to develop young people to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors, both to their own learning and wider society. This is being done by making lessons more engaging and more relevant to real life. Making connections across subjects helps young people make sense of the world and see how they can apply their skills and knowledge. If our pupils are confident in areas such as problem solving, creative thinking, communicating and team working, this helps to back up the knowledge they learn in school and gives them the skills they need for learning, life and work.
So what is different?
Under Curriculum for Excellence, pupils will experience a broad, deep, general education to the end of S3, with options in the senior phase (S4-S6) to specialise, go on to further study, improve skills and get work experience in addition to further developing the four capacities listed above. Lessons will be more engaging, inspiring and relevant to every day life and teachers will make connections between subjects - for example pupils may be designing their own games in computing, writing the script in English, recording a theme tune in music and designing a cover in art, then marketing the products in Business Education. Basically children will learn how to learn and to use and apply their learning, not just memorise information to pass tests.
What about the new qualifications?
New qualifications, National 4 and 5, and refreshed qualifications at Access, Higher and Advanced Higher levels are being put in place. The Scottish Qualifications Authority is on schedule with the plan to deliver these in schools, colleges and other centres from 2013/14 onwards. See www.sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence for the latest on developments with the new qualifications, including their new pages for parents/carers.
Where can I find out more information?
There are a number of Fact Files and examples of Curriculum for Excellence in action on the Scottish Government website, and on the CfE Communications Toolkit. Information for:
Information on the work of the CfE Excellence Groups, including final reports published on 11 March 2011 and membership details, can be accessed at www.scotland.gov.uk/excellencegroups.
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SCHOOL ESTATE
What progress has been made on improving the school estate?
In the four years of the last Parliament 330 school building projects were completed, more than in the previous eight years, in which 328 were completed. That has helped increase the number of pupils in good condition schools from 426,000 in April 2007 (61% of all pupils) to 548,000 in April 2010 (82%).
How many school buildings have been commissioned by the Scottish Government since May 2007?
Local authorities commission new schools, not central Government. What we are doing is providing financial support towards these projects. Between May 2007 and March 2011, the Government signed off funding for 11 major local authority school building projects with a combined capital value of more than £1 billion, involving 58 schools. In addition, the total capital expenditure on school buildings by local authorities during the first three years of the last Parliament was £1.3 billion. Since June 2009, the Government has announced funding support for 37 school rebuilding projects, at least one in every local authority area in Scotland, through the £1.25 billion Scotland's Schools for the Future programme.
How much is capital is being invested in improving Scotland's schools estate?
Total capital expenditure on school buildings by local authorities during the first three years of this Parliament was £1.3 billion. Schools also benefitted from additional investment of £54m in 2009-10 as councils prioritised schools buildings for investing the accelerated capital funds provided by the Scottish Government.
In total, the Scottish Government will support average investment of around £700m a year on school buildings during the lifetime of this Parliament, compared to £531m a year during the previous eight years. This is supporting building at an average rate of 1.58 schools per week compared to 0.79 schools prior to spring 2007.
What is happening with the Scotland's Schools for the Future programme?
The Government has so far announced support for 37 school projects (16 secondary; 20 primary & one special) from the new £1.25 billion school building programme, Scotland's Schools for the Future, which will lift a further 35,000 pupils out of poor condition schools. The sod-cutting ceremony for the second school to be started under this programme, the new Antonshill Primary School in Falkirk, was held on 10 May 2011. Construction will be completed on the first school, Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School in October 2011, and construction will be completed on the first secondary school projects in summer 2013.
The 2011-12 budget made clear that no school building project in Scotland will be cancelled and the Government will continue to deliver the programme, as planned, over a number of years. Given the 36 per cent reduction in the capital budget over the next four years, we will now deliver some schools in the programme through a non profit distribution revenue model, which caps the profits to the private sector and ensures value for money for the public sector. We have also allocated £20m of capital funding in 2011-12 to the programme, which will help continue to deliver new schools for communities across Scotland.
The Scottish Futures Trust is working alongside councils to deliver the new schools and is exploring more efficient ways of managing, procuring and funding this programme to achieve value for money. The SFT is aiming to deliver efficiencies of three per cent during the lifetime of the programme - the equivalent to one new secondary or six primaries.
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TEACHERS
What is the Scottish Government doing to tackle teacher unemployment?
The Scottish Government is committed to reducing teacher unemployment. Evidence shows we are beginning to turn the corner - the statistics show the decline in teaching posts has slowed and the number of Scots teachers claiming job seekers is now falling year on year.
We want to build on that and make sure even more of our qualified teachers are in our classrooms. That's why our budget agreement with COSLA gives a commitment to enough posts for every 2011 probationer, posts for every post-probationer and others to apply for and a real reduction in teacher unemployment.
We also acted decisively to reduce student teacher intakes for autumn 2010 - down to 2,100 from 3,650 in 2009 - to address teacher unemployment and reduce competition for jobs among newly qualified teachers. This is already having an impact, and we have advised the Scottish Funding Council that student intakes should be held at that baseline level in 2011.
We are addressing this problem. Policy commitments, pupil number projections and the demographics of the profession mean that in the years ahead there will be a renewed demand for more new teachers.
We will continue to keep intakes under review as part of our teacher workforce planning to try and strike the right balance between teacher demand and supply. We are working with CoSLA and Local Authorities to achieve greater reconciliation between local workforce decision making and the national workforce planning process.
These measures will help ensure we can meet future demand for teachers and help as many as possible of our currently qualified teachers into posts in our classrooms.
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CLASS SIZES
Is the Scottish Government still committed to reducing class sizes?
Evidence and common sense tell us that more quality time with teachers pays dividends, particularly for our most vulnerable children. We are working closely with our partners in local government and are fully committed to making real progress on class sizes.
The latest statistics show almost 22 per cent of P1 to P3 pupils are now in classes of 18 or fewer (or the equivalent). This exceeds the agreement reached with CoSLA in December 2009 when we set a target of 20 per cent, including classes of up to 36 pupils where two teachers work simultaneously.
Our budget agreement with COSLA also contains a commitment to maintain pupil teacher ratios in P1 P3 and we are in discussion with CoSLA and local authorities about how this will be monitored. Regulations to legally limit P1 class sizes to 25 are now in force and will assist local authorities in resisting placing requests that would otherwise reverse the progress they have made in doing away with large classes. Class sizes in primary education in Scotland are now at a record low.
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SPENDING ON EDUCATION
How much is the Scottish Government spending on school education?
The Scottish Government has provided local government in Scotland with £35 billion over the period covered by the period 2008-11, including a funding package of over £11.5 billion in 2011-2012.
We have secured a good deal for local government, in the face of unprecedented cuts to the Scottish Budget imposed by the UK Government. We are protecting frontline services by minimising the impact on Local Government funding - with council's share of total Scottish spending being protected.
This money is allowing Councils to prioritise education. Gross revenue expenditure on school education increased by 9.7% between 2006-07 and 2009-10 and figures for 2010-11 show education budgets have risen again from £4.8 billion in 2009-10 to £4.9 billion in 2010-11 - an increase of 2.2 per cent.
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COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
How much is the Scottish Government investing in universities and colleges and what it is doing to tackle demand for student places?
The 2010-11 Scottish Budget provided universities with an extra £42.9 million for learning, teaching and research compared with 2009-10. This represented a record £1.076 billion for universities. Colleges, meanwhile, received a total cash increase of £44.8 million this year compared with last.
However, the £1.3 billion cut by Westminster from next year's Scottish Budget represents the toughest settlement since devolution. Despite the depth of this cut, our Budget for 2011-2012 includes investment of £926.2m in higher education - with a further £0.5 billion in tuition fees and student support. Further education gets £544.7m. We have agreed with both the further and higher education sectors that, through continued collaborative and efficient working, they will manage this reduction in such a way as to preserve the number of core student places.
What are you considering in relation to the future funding of universities in Scotland, given the ongoing debates down south?
To find a "uniquely Scottish" solution the Cabinet Secretary initiated a debate involving government, universities and students about how higher education should be paid for in future. No decisions were made until all those who had an interest offered their views.
We published a Green Paper on December 16 2010 which sets out a range of options for the future of Scotland's universities, including funding solutions which maintain the tradition of the state being the primary provider by maximising income to higher education.
A short life technical working group involving Universities Scotland reported to a reconvened cross party summit in February. It concluded that a funding gap with England would open up once higher fees are introduced, set out a range of scenarios as to how large that gap might become and ways in which it could be filled.
During a statement to Parliament on March 16, in response to the Green Paper, the Cabinet Secretary for Education outlined a package of measures to protect the principles of excellence, inclusiveness, collaboration and investment in higher education. These included a commitment from the State to close any funding gap, fee increases for students from the rest of the UK and exploring the possibilities for generating additional income from EU students. He confirmed that efficiency savings within the university sector would be sought and that greater private sector investment and philanthropy would be encouraged. Mr Russell also set out his intention to work with the NUS towards a minimum income entitlement of £7,000 starting with the poorest students and that he would legislate on wider sector reform.
What is the Scottish Government doing to improve support for students?
Overall support for students has increased by £10 million, again despite the severe funding pressures.
Difficult decisions did have to be taken and although £20m has been cut from travel expenses, an additional £30m of support is now available in loans. Overall, the Budget has:
- Put more money in the poorest students pockets
- Meant an increase of £10m in the student support budget or over three per cent
- Ensured that the poorest students will now be entitled to support of over £6,200 getting us ever closer to the NUS figure of £7,000 and there are no tuition fees to be paid
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MODERN APPRENTICESHIPS AND TRAINING PLACES
What is the Scottish Government doing to improve training and apprenticeship places?
The 2010/11 budget will create a record 46,500 training places. It will see us:
- Invest a further £11.5 million to create 25,000 modern apprenticeship places - a record high for Scotland
- Provide 7,000 flexible training opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) - 2,000 more than originally planned in the draft Budget
- Protect the total number of core university places and invest £8 million for an extra 1,200 college places
- Invest an additional £15 million across 2010-11 and 2011-12 in funding for college bursaries
- Maintain the educational grants for pupils and college students most in need (Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs)) which were cut south of the border
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