Esnewsautumn2015 by Education Scotland

Education Scotland AUTUMN 2015

NEWS

New standard for Career Education & Work Placements – Back Page Now available to download

FOCUS ON DEVELOPING THE YOUNG WORKFORCE

THINKING

SENIOR PHASE

LITERACY CREATIVITY EARLY YEARS

Scottish Attainment Challenge – Page 12 An interview with Dr Bill Maxwell

SECONDARY

ENTERPRISE How good is our school? (4th EDITION) – Page 9 New copy being distributed to all schools

EMPLOYABILITY

PRIMARY YEARS

NUMERACY www.facebook.com/pages/Education-Scotland www.twitter.com/educationscot www.youtube.com/user/educationscotland

06 13

CONTENTS: A Word from Bill Maxwell

Developing the Young Workforce – One Year On

Developing the Young Workforce – News in Brief 05

Career Education – a journey from 3-18 and beyond

Learning in the Workplace

The Future of Inspection and Review

How Good is Our School?

Preparing children and young people (3-18) for the world of work

Scottish Attainment Challenge

National Improvement Framework

http://bit.ly/1i2Vspu

Families, Inclusion and Local Authorities

School Years

Lifelong Learning

t: www.twitter.com/educationscot y: www.youtube.com/user/educationscotland

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02 Education Scotland NEWS

A Word from Bill Maxwell

WELCOME Welcome to the third edition of Education Scotland News. In this issue we’ll focus on the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) agenda, which has grown at pace since the publication of the Wood Commission report in June 2014.

Bill Maxwell Chief Executive of Education Scotland Dr Bill Maxwell, as Chief Executive, is responsible to Scottish Ministers for the management, performance and future development of Education Scotland. Bill chairs an internal management board which comprises non-executive directors and the executive team of Education Scotland. The executive team supports Bill in providing leadership and direction.

In response to that report, the Scottish Government published its Youth Employment Strategy with implementation plans covering a seven-year period. Education Scotland has a strong role to play in delivering those plans working alongside a range of other key partners. Important strands of this work will focus on improving work experience, career advice and education in schools and colleges as well as a review of Modern Apprenticeships, all with the aim of reducing youth unemployment by 40% by 2021. Significant progress is already being made. For me, the actions we are taking forward through the DYW programme are certainly a very natural progression of the development of Curriculum for Excellence and, in particular, the guidance on skills contained in ‘Building the Curriculum 4’. DYW places a strong focus on the development of employability skills to build upon the foundations laid by CfE. This has naturally followed through to the DYW team working closely with the CfE Implementation Group to make sure our plans for DYW are fully integrated with coherent pathways and choices for children and young people throughout Broad General Education and the senior phase. One area ripe for improvement is getting more meaningful and productive school/employer partnerships in place consistently across Scotland. To support this, overarching guidance on school/employer partnerships has been developed by the Scottish Government with input from ourselves and a wide range of other partners. This is underpinned by comprehensive standards for career education and work placements, which we also recently published. Both sets of standards have been co-created with a range of partners from inception, and children and young people have been at the very centre of development. Over 300 young people have been involved in producing these documents, shaping their design and testing the language and rationale. We are running a series of learning events to support those with a key role in the implementation of the programme. These events are designed to give them the opportunity to share and shape our collective thinking; evaluate and build on existing activity to identify new learning opportunities and to agree approaches and methods for development. Of course, the work of DYW plays into a broader commitment to improving social equity within Scottish society in general, and Scottish education in particular, an issue we highlighted as a core priority in our own Corporate Plan. Against that background I was delighted that the Scottish Government has launched the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC), with major commitment of resources and sustained effort over a four-year period to drive up attainment amongst young learners from our most disadvantaged communities. Education Scotland will be playing an integral part in the delivery of the Attainment Challenge, working closely with policy colleagues in the Scottish Government’s Learning Directorate and, of course, with local authorities and schools. We have started the process of recruiting new Attainment Advisors to work across all Scotland’s local authorities, and are already in detailed discussion with the local authorities receiving funding in the first phase about their plans for action. In this edition you’ll find out more about how we plan to support the implementation of both DYW and the Scottish Attainment Challenge. If we can work collectively across Scottish education to make a major impact through these two flagship programmes, we will go a long way towards addressing some of the most persistent and intractable issues in our system and making it possible for every young Scot to achieve their full potential, whatever their background or ambitions

Bill Maxwell Chief Executive of Education Scotland Education Scotland NEWS

DEVELOPING THE YOUNG WORKFORCE – ONE YEAR ON One year on from the publication of the report from the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce is a good time to pause and reflect on how far we have travelled together to achieve the ambitions set out in the report for young people in Scotland. And to consider the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Joan Mackay Joan Mackay, DYW Implementation Lead (Schools) Education Scotland

There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the report and the moral imperative it sets out from the wide range of partners and stakeholders who work with children and young people. Across Scotland we are seeing a real desire to find new and creative solutions. Education Scotland’s role in supporting implementation has been shaped by the feedback from extensive engagement activities with a wide range of partners and stakeholders. Young people asked for improvements in work experience. We made the development of the new work placements standard a priority and involved young people in its production. The standard will be ready for use in September 2015. Parent organisations are working with us to support new developments and to use their networks to communicate with parents in their communities. Practitioners asked us to build on what was already in place, to support partnership working and to share learning across the country to help them develop local solutions to this national challenge. We have worked closely with groups such as Scottish Councils’ Enterprise in Education Network (SCEEN) and the World of Work network to develop the standards. Working with a range of national partners we are faciltating a series of learning events bringing together the enablers and leaders across college regions who will make change happen locally.

Early years and primary practitioners asked that their involvement in the development of Scotland’s young workforce be more explicit. The career education standard sets out clearly what children will learn about the world of work from the early years onwards. We built stronger working relationships with national partners such as Skills Development Scotland to support joint delivery of the changes needed. We have asked employers to be part of an Education Scotland external reference group. The work we have done so far points us to the need to make real progress with developing a senior phase offer that meets the needs of all our young people. In session 2015/16 we will be intensifying our efforts to work with schools, colleges and their partners to support the development of the range of high quality pathways that young people want and need. We will share the learning from the most recent and relevant school/college partnership approaches that enable young people to begin a vocational pathway as an integral part of their senior phase curriculum. We will learn what works best from newly emerging provision such as the pathfinders for foundation and advanced apprenticeships being developed by Skills Development Scotland. We will work closely with local authorities and schools as they develop the work placement offer for young people and the links between this, career education and senior phase profiling. The challenge requires cultural change and structural change. It asks us to recognise what could be, and to put our efforts into working out how to get there.

04 Education Scotland NEWS

Developing the Young Workforce –

NEWS IN BRIEF Over the coming months our Lifelong Learning team will continue to focus on DYW to ensure that all young people, up to age 24, have opportunities to engage in purposeful and work-related learning across education and training. In doing so we will be linking directly with a range of partners and colleagues as the work progresses and have created a number of formal groups, to help take forward the activity. Our successful External Employers’ Reference Group has met twice and, at the next meeting, will be discussing how employers should engage in inspection and review, as well as what they would like to see included in evaluative activities.

EXTERNAL REVIEW OF MODERN APPRENTICESHIP (MA) OFF-THE-JOB TRAINING The initial review of MAs, known as Pathfinder, was in the engineering industry sector. The visits to nine colleges and independent training providers (ITP) are now completed and the review has been published at http://ow.ly/RkFaC. The report uses evidence from the fieldwork visits to generate grades and recommendations. The next review will encompass Hairdressing MAs and will commence in October. After the pilot year, Education Scotland will undertake three or four reviews each year to cover the different industry MA frameworks. DYW IN COLLEGE EXTERNAL REVIEWS Education Scotland and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have significantly increased the focus on DYW and Employability Skills in all college evaluative activities. This has been written explicitly into the SLA between our two organisations, and it is monitored closely by HMI on all visits to college. CLD ASPECT REPORT In early autumn, Education Scotland published an aspect report on the CLD Sector’s contribution to Curriculum for Excellence in the senior phase. The report and makes direct links to actions taken by partners in schools, CLD, colleges and employers to address Recommendation 13 of the report “Education Working for All” http://ow.ly/RkFaC.

BUILDING THE CURRICULUM 4 Skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work are embedded in the experiences and outcomes and the senior phase. They can be developed and applied across learning and in different contexts. Building the Curriculum 4 (BTC4) is part of the suite of Curriculum for Excellence documents and it underpins learning and teaching through early years onto lifelong learning. The Career Education (3-18) Standard and the Work Placements Standard have evolved from the key messages within BTC 4 together with the work and the evidence underpinning the findings of the Commission for Developing the Young Workforce. All work being taken forward to develop the young workforce is key to the full expression of a Curriculum for Excellence. http://bit.ly/1NeCDNJ

Education Scotland NEWS

CAREER EDUCATION –

A JOURNEY FROM 3-18 AND BEYOND As children and young people experience the curriculum they develop skills that prepare them for the world of work. What could such a journey look like?

“I am 3 and all I know about myself and the world came from my family and the place I live. In nursery I play lots. I can be a gardener and a nurse and a dragon. Mr Kerr works in the nursery. So do other people. They get money. They need money to buy food. We go to the shop and talk to the people there. A lady came today and helped us to set up our own shop. We will be selling pictures and cakes today. My friends’ mums and dads and other grown-ups come into nursery and tell us about their jobs. We got to talk to a police officer last week. I know what my parents’ jobs are – my mum works on a computer and goes to meetings and my dad counts people’s money.

“Next year I will go to secondary school. I know what kind of jobs interest me right now – I’ve kind of got a top ten list. Some are actual jobs I know about and some are just ideas for now but I know that it’s okay to change my mind. I know what I’m good at and what I need to do to get better. I think some of what I want to do will be there in secondary school but I may have to ask or find out where to do other things. I’ve had lots of conversations about different types of work with people in my school and at home and the place where I live. We’ve had lots of people in to talk to us about the jobs they do. I’ve been online to check things out. I’ll take my profile summarising all my information with me to secondary. It’s pretty cool looking back to see everything I have learned and looking ahead to where I might go next.”

When I grow up I want to be a ballet teacher or zoo keeper because I love dancing and animals.”

“Our children have a natural curiosity about the world around them. Through a variety of play contexts they understand the different jobs people do within the world of work. They engage in projects that develops a depth of learning and to scaffold this we connect to and work with local businesses and professions. We value the uniqueness of each child within an environment where they develop their skills to make choices, know the decisions they make during their play are valued and can understand what success feels like as their achievements are celebrated.”

Judith Thomas Head of Centre, Ferguslie Pre-five Centre 06 Education Scotland NEWS

“I’ve been learning even more about industries, businesses and employers in secondary school. My teachers and the people we work with are really good at bringing it all to life. They help me see the links between what I learn in school and the work that’s out there now and how it might be in the future. Next year I will be making choices about courses and what sort of qualifications I want to take from S4. I am pretty confident that I and other people in my life have a good understanding of who I am and what my strengths and skills are. There has been lots of chat about what is on offer and I know what I need to choose for some of the things I’m interested in. Some of my S3 friends have started Skills for Work courses alongside their other subjects. They are really enjoying the chance to develop their skills in a real life work area. I want to find out more about this and other possibilities and I still need to update my profile.”

“I am really happy with the qualifications I got last year in S4. I am enjoying most of the courses I’ve chosen for this year and think I’ve got a pretty good balance. I like having responsibility for my own timetable – most of the time. I’m doing a college course now and I feel like a real student managing my own travel to and from the college. I’m still thinking about my options but I know there’s folk there to support me with this. I’ve done one work placement already and it helped me decide what I don’t want to do. Next term I start another one, maybe that will be for me. I like the idea that I have the chance to get a qualification as part of the placement. I’ve signed up for another coaching about careers session next term. Looking back I can see how all my learning about jobs and the world of work all the way through school has really helped me. It means that when I choose to leave school that is just like stepping out into something familiar.”

“We strive to break down barriers to employment for young people. Through our range of flexible, structured youth training and employment programmes we motivate young people in their senior phase with pathways of learning and valuable work experience. By equipping young people with skills and confidence, we aim to open up rewarding employment opportunities.”

Eileen Cummings, Executive Director – Education and Youth Training, Kibble Education and Care Centre

Education Scotland NEWS

LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE AN INSIGHT INTO THE ACADEMY – BAUER MEDIA GROUP’S TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME The mention of ‘work experience’ can trigger sighs. For some, it has become a bit of a chore. It is a tired term, often equalling ‘little work’ and ‘poor experience’ for individuals with few benefits for employers.

Young people in our Academy not only develop skills. Our personalised approach enables them to confidently learn inside the workplace and shape their own learning journey. They feel valued because they are valued; our investment in them is real.

Bauer Media set out to revitalise, arguably redefine, its work experience provision when it launched its Academy three years ago. With a clear commitment to more meaningful partnerships between education and industry, the Academy delivers opportunities to young people that are genuine stepping stones to employment. The results have been remarkable.

Through the Academy, Bauer Media is shaping the workforce of tomorrow, developing the skills and attributes our business needs, whilst positioning the company as a destination employer. What’s more, providing excellent learning opportunities within the business has supported the development of staff.

Our talent development programme provides new ways to identify talent with innovative approaches to develop individuals. We replaced work experience with personalised learning placements, including industry mentors. It works well; we gave 10 people personalised placements last year at Radio Clyde in Glasgow. All of them went on to secure paid work in the radio station – four are already on air. That’s why we welcome Education Scotland’s new career education and work placement standards. It is a significant step towards changing the culture of work experience which could help other employers benefit, as Bauer has, by exploiting the multiple opportunities work placements can bring to any business.

Learning inside the workplace needs to be employer led, made flexible enough to align with changing business needs, and designed to ensure young people gain the skills necessary for employment. Whilst our approach might not work for others, Bauer Media has shown that companies can create successful new strategies to provide extensive and inspirational learning for young people. The new career education and work placement standards can help other employers achieve this.

08 Education Scotland NEWS

THE FUTURE OF INSPECTION AND REVIEW

Alastair Delaney

Chief Operating Officer and Director of Inspection

Education Scotland has been reviewing its approaches to inspection and review across all sectors in wide consultation with a broad range of stakeholders. At this stage of the review, in response to stakeholder views, we are planning to try out two new approaches in November 2015. These “try-outs” will be carried out alongside inspections using the current model and will consist of: 1. Shorter school inspection visits to a small sample of primary, secondary and special schools. Just under half of the schools will be given two working days of notice and the remainder will be given two weeks of notice. We want to evaluate the impact of the different notice periods. Our shorter school inspection visits will involve a small team of HMIs visiting a school for two and a half days. The visits will have a specific focus on raising attainment and achievement and how a school is addressing the need to close the equity gap; and teaching, learning and assessment.

As we have done throughout this ongoing consultation, we will keep all stakeholders informed as the work progresses and continue to update our website.

2. A localised cross-sector thematic review relating to the senior phase and involving secondary schools, community learning and development and further education. We will focus on one local authority to carry out a week-long review and aim to evaluate how well senior phase pathways are supporting young people to achieve appropriate positive destinations. We will seek stakeholder views on how well the “try-outs” have gone.

If you have any particular questions or comments about these “try-outs” please get in touch with us using the dedicated email address inspectionreview@ educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk

HOW GOOD IS OUR SCHOOL?

By the end of September every school in Scotland will receive a copy of the new edition of the quality indicator framework How good is our school? (4th EDITION) This new toolkit builds on the success of previous editions and is intended to support effective self-evaluation and improvement planning in all schools across Scotland. The revised structure of How good is our school? brings a new set of 15 quality indicators together aimed at answering three high level questions about school effectiveness.

(4TH EDITION) Leadership and management: How good is our leadership and approach to improvement? What is our capacity for continuous improvement? Successes and achievements: How good are we at ensuring the best possible outcomes for all our learners?

Education Scotland NEWS

Learning provision: How good is the quality of care and education we offer?

Education Scotland are publishing How good is our school? (4th EDITION) in September 2015. You can keep abreast of developments via http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/ about/principles/futureapproaches/index.asp

For each of the quality indicators, this new edition of How good is our school? includes illustrations of very good practice, features of highly effective practice and a set of reflective questions. These aspects of the toolkit will help schools to identify the sorts of evidence which support effective self-evalaution and consider how they might plan their journey of continual improvement. Over the course of the autumn term all local authorities will receive invitations to a How good is our school? professional learning event. These events will provide further support for introducing class teachers and school leaders to the new toolkit. A professional learning resource pack will also be available to download from our website. Further information about How good is our school? can be found at http://bit.ly/1Mg5lh0 and any specific comments or questions can be emailed to us at hgios4@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk

10 Education Scotland NEWS

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INTERVIEW WITH DR BILL MAXWELL Can you explain to us what the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) is about?

What will Education Scotland’s role be in the Scottish Attainment Challenge?

The Challenge tackles an issue that’s been around for some time in Scottish education, that is the large and persistent ‘gap’ that exists between the attainment of young people from the most advantaged social backgrounds compared to the attainment of young people living in more disadvantaged circumstances. We know this gap is evident even as children enter school and it’s clearly present at every stage in the learner journey from then on. There is a systematic pattern of underachievement amongst learners from some sections of our community, which is resulting in restricted opportunities and loss of individual potential. The Challenge is making available a substantial new resource of around £100 million over a four-year period, with a view to making a decisive impact on closing this gap and ensuring all children can succeed in their learning, regardless of background.

As Scotland’s national education improvement agency we have a key role, working alongside our Government policy colleagues, in providing professional expertise and leadership for the coordination and development of support for Local Authorities (LAs) and schools as they rise to the challenge and begin to implement their projects on the ground. As a first step a new team of Attainment Advisors are developing networks, advice and resources to support practitioners involved in the Challenge. As the Challenge develops in the years ahead we will have a key role in drawing out learning from across Scotland about ‘what works’ and actively cross-fertilising successful practice so others can benefit from it.

Has the Scottish Attainment Challenge been influenced by other countries?

Initially the Challenge will be focusing on attainment in literacy and numeracy of young people from more disadvantaged communities as key indicators of success, especially in the primary school years. We will know we are succeeding when we see substantial rises in scores for these young people, bringing them in line with the rest of the population. We will also be looking to develop measures of health and wellbeing so we can focus similar attention on those core aspects of learning development, where we know a similar ‘equity gap’ exists and needs to be closed.

We are certainly not alone in having this problem. It exists to varying degrees in almost all countries. That being the case, I think it’s important that we learn from the experiences of other countries who’ve tackled this issue head on. It’s very clear that there isn’t one easy solution that we can pick up and borrow from others but understanding their experiences can help influence our own approach, which itself needs to be carefully customised to our own unique situation in Scotland.

How will we measure the success of SAC?

continued overleaf >

12 Education Scotland NEWS

NATIONAL IMPROVEMENT FRAMEWORK

Graeme Logan

Strategic Director, Attainment and Improvement

On 1 September the Draft National Improvement Framework for Scottish education was published as part of the First Minister’s Programme for Government. The National Improvement Framework will help ensure that the Scottish education system is continually improving and preparing children and young people with the skills they need to thrive in today’s world. It will help focus the collective efforts on closing the attainment gap between the most and least advantaged children in Scotland’s communities. The first phase will focus on improving approaches to assessing children’s progress and achievement with standardised assessment of children in Primary 1, 4 and 7, and at S3, being introduced in reading, writing and numeracy. This provides another rich source of information and there will be support for teachers in using this data and a range of other evidence to underpin their judgements about children’s progress. This should ensure that parents have clearer and more consistent information on their child’s progress.

strong practice that we are seeing as schools implement fully Curriculum for Excellence and will bring together all the data and information we need to support further improvement. The curriculum is now broader and richer than ever before and we want to ensure that this continues whilst clarifying the data and information needed to support further improvement.

There remains a commitment to tackling bureaucracy at all levels and this Framework will bring real clarity to the range of assessment needed in primary and early secondary. This will help to reduce the burden of assessment on teachers and children, by introducing a more streamlined and consistent approach across Local Authorities.

We are developing a new National Improvement Hub which will provide teachers with a rich range of tools and resources to help them raise attainment and improve performance. I know from my experience as both a teacher and head teacher how important meaningful information is in informing learning and teaching. We will increase support to ensure clearer, consistent information is available on each child’s progress, and we will provide rapid intervention to help schools improve where weaknesses are identified.

Earlier this summer Graeme Logan was appointed to the new role of Strategic Director Attainment and Improvement at Education Scotland. Here he explains in more detail Education Scotland’s key role in supporting progress on the National Improvement Framework

We know that children’s learning experiences have been transformed as a result of Curriculum for Excellence, and we now need better and more consistent information about the outcomes they are achieving in primary and early secondary school.”

“In our role as Scotland’s national improvement agency for education it’s really important that we work together to provide the best possible support at a national and local level. The Framework provides an opportunity to build upon the

More information on the Programme for Government and draft National Improvement Framework can be found at

What methods will be used to measure this success?

What will practitioners learn about the Scottish Attainment Challenge at SLF?

At local level there will be a whole variety of different ways of measuring outcomes as schools and local authorities develop their own projects, but I am clear we also need a few measures which are consistently available nationally so we can compare and contrast and draw out learning about ‘what works’ from across Scotland. With that in mind, we are also working with the Scottish Government and other key partners on the development of a new National Improvement Framework which is being designed to provide an agreed framework of assessment data which can meet the specific needs of the Challenge as well as serving the wider needs of local and national improvement work.

Education Scotland NEWS

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/ NationalImprovementFramework

I would encourage everyone attending the Learning festival to use the opportunity to learn more about the Challenge. Whilst it has a strong element of targeting resources where the challenge is greatest, young people from less advantaged backgrounds, who could achieve more with the right support, exist in every corner of Scotland. Every school should be thinking about how they can engage with the Scottish Attainment Challenge and how they can play their part in ensuring its success. Find out more: http://bit.ly/1JGEzuf

FAMILIES, INCLUSION AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES DIRECTOR’S UPDATE The Families, Inclusion and Local Authorities teams have been extremely busy in recent months supporting a wide range of work across the sectors. Our teams are ‘cross-cutting’ and support many different areas including Developing the Young Workforce, which gives us a unique insight in to the work of all Education Scotland teams and also your work in schools and settings across Scotland. Supporting children, young people and their families is a key focus of our work. As we prepare our young people for their future and the world of work we need to ensure that this support is as effective as possible. This is particularly the case for young people with additional support needs and you will read more about our work to support staff in schools and centres and also our work to support local authorities in these pages Lesley Brown, Strategic Director for Families, Inclusion and Local Authorities

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS As part of our commitment to supporting children’s rights-based knowledge, understanding and practice, we have been working with local authority partners in engaging with Recognising and Realising Children’s Rights. Through local engagement and national professional learning events, we hope to ensure that all our stakeholders are well supported in their position as duty bearers. Further learning events are planned for the coming months. We have been working with YouthLink Scotland and our CLD colleagues to revise the children’s rights professional learning resource for the CLD and youth work sector. This is being developed in collaboration with practitioners from across the country and, following a period of piloting, it will be freely available to download early in 2016. AMBASSADORS FOR INCLUSION In the spring Education Scotland held two events which featured young people. We had the first Deaf Learners event with over 60 young deaf people from all over Scotland coming together to discuss their achievements, challenges and support. On the same day, we held a Peer Learners event about Diversity and Equality with 120 young people engaged in promoting diversity and equality in their school and community. Our next venture with young people is setting up 32 Ambassadors for Inclusion across Scotland to hear from young people on what makes the difference to the success of their education. INCLUSION Professional Learning and Stakeholder Engagement Across the Inclusion Team, we are committed to supporting the professional learning and engagement of stakeholders across settings and sectors. Our networks of local authority representatives ensure that we can discuss issues about emerging legislation, policy and practice. Through these discussions, we have responded to Local Authority needs and requests by continuing to organise national professional learning events on such themes as ‘Recognising and Realising Children’s Rights’, ‘Restorative Approaches’ or ‘Inclusive Education, Scotland 2015.’

14 Education Scotland NEWS

Nurturing Approaches in the Secondary School Education Scotland has developed a professional learning resource to support nurture at the secondary level. This exciting, substantial resource is designed to be delivered at an authority or cluster level to support whole school and targeted nurture initiatives. This will enhance existing work in schools and local authorities, as well as national programmes such as the Scottish Attainment Challenge, School Improvement Partnership and Raising Attainment for All. Professional learning events will be on offer across Scotland in the autumn. Look out for our events calendar! AREA LEAD OFFICERS Education Scotland’s Area Lead Officers are involved in an agreed programme of support and challenge with each local authority. Area Lead Officers regularly attend local authority events and provide valuable inputs on the national perspective of education. In many cases this includes working with council officers to consider how local stakeholders can work together to improve young people’s employment prospects. Ken McAra, Area Lead Officer for Perth and Kinross Council recently attended a council event focusing on Developing the Young Workforce. The conference considered how local stakeholders can work together to improve young people’s employment prospects. It included presentations from Education Scotland, Scottish Government, Perth and Kinross Council, local employers, Skills Development Scotland and Perth College UHI. Perth and Kinross Council also launched its schools’ strategy on Enterprise and Employability. LOCAL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS Area Lead Officers are working closely with local authorities to identify and plan ways for Education Scotland’s Developing the Young Workforce team to support local authorities in taking forward the DYW agenda as part of our local partnership agreements. This has included attending and contributing to local authority strategic groups; sharing practice across local authorities; and providing professional learning sessions for staff. Local authorities are invited to discuss any support for DYW with Area Lead Officers who will coordinate this with Education Scotland’s DYW team.

Education Scotland NEWS

PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT IN LEARNING We are working closely with a number of national parent bodies including SPTC and NPFS to consider the best ways to get information about employability and skills to parents. The Parentzone Scotland website is regularly updated and includes links on transitions from school to a range of destinations. Colleagues from across Education Scotland are working closely with the children and families team to develop guidance and materials for use by parents and to keep them informed. We will continue to work with colleagues from across Scottish Government and external agencies to enable parents to access and increase their understanding of performance data in relation to achievement and attainment.

Creativity: The Creativity team held a joint event with the National Creative Learning Network, Creative Scotland, Skills Development Scotland and Edinburgh City Council in June which focused on the links between creativity, employability and attainment. It brought together senior staff from across the sectors and had a range of speakers from across the UK. There is a strong commitment in Education Scotland to roll out the recommendations from the Creativity Across Learning 3-18 Curriculum Impact Report and to embed creative approaches to learning in all of our activities. Much of the work of the team has a focus on skills and employability and we are developing online tools for practitioners and managers to extend the understanding of creativity. Early Learning and Childcare: Building on the training sessions with practitioners in all 32 local authorities last autumn and spring, we are publishing materials on the Education Scotland website to support engagement with “Building the Ambition”. We are working closely with Scottish Government, and partners including the Care Inspectorate and SCEL, to respond to the recent review of the early learning and childcare, and out of school care workforces in Scotland.

SCHOOL YEARS DIRECTOR’S UPDATE

The new session is in full swing and as ever you will be actively engaged in working with your pupils on the detail of their learning, now and over the coming months. My colleagues in Education Scotland maintained momentum in developing a range of support over the summer that you can draw on as the session progresses. Check out the new Numeracy and Mathematics hub and our route maps for Advanced Higher – and let us know how helpful you find them. Of course the OECD report on its review of the Broad General Education will publish around Christmas and we’ll reflect on that in looking ahead. With experiences of the new NQs over two years now, I’m also aware that many schools are looking again, naturally, at their Broad General Education arrangements. So we will be working with schools to prepare guidance later in the session. With the ongoing development of Glow, numbers of users continue to rise. You’ll want to make use of some new services such as Yammer (a collaborative social media style learning space), Delve (a new way to find relevant content and connections) and O365 Video (a YouTube style video storage service). I look forward to working with you in these areas, employability initiatives and other activities that we have planned for the year ahead. Alan Armstrong, Strategic Director for School Years

INSPECTION ADVICE NOTE 2015-16 Education Scotland has published the Inspection Advice Note for session 2015-16 which supports colleagues in local authorities, schools and early learning and childcare (ELCC) settings with information on how inspections, carried out from August 2015 onwards, will take account of national expectations of progress in implementing Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). It sets out an adjustment in expectations for HM Inspectors’ evaluations of Quality Indicator (QI) 5.1 (The Curriculum) and QI 5.9 (Improvement through self-evaluation). http://ow.ly/R2k6b The Inspection Advice Note 2015-16 takes full account of the Curriculum for Excellence Implementation Plan 2015-16 and its key priorities which are focused on raising attainment for all, and on using the curriculum to close the gap in attainment between the most and least advantaged children and young people. The Advice Note also highlights expectations that schools will be tackling bureaucracy by ensuring that their approaches to planning, assessment, tracking and monitoring are manageable. It also makes clear the expectations around Developing the Young Workforce – employability and skills. NEW NUMERACY AND MATHEMATICS HUB A new virtual learning environment for education practitioners is now available to help improve numeracy and mathematics across Scotland. The National Numeracy and Mathematics hub will provide an innovative resource for practitioners from early learning and childcare settings through to the senior phase, where they can develop their professional learning and share good practice online.

NEWS IN BRIEF

National Digital Learning Week 2016 (DigiLearnScot) The first DigiLearnScot Week 2015 was a great success with schools and learning establishments the length and breadth of Scotland joining in to showcase how digital technologies can support learning and teaching. We want

16 Education Scotland NEWS

relation to the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence and its impact on improving outcomes for learners. A summary of the key messages can be found on our website http://ow.ly/R2kjT

CHECK IT OUT Following consultation with practitioners the National Assessment Resource (NAR) has been redesigned, to help improve user experience when accessing quality assessment resources. If you haven’t been on NAR for quite a while, why not have another look and see the range of support and resources available to you. www.narscotland.org.uk/ It has been developed with practitioners in mind to make it an accessible and user-friendly resource where they can share their work with colleagues from across Scotland, as well as develop their own learning and teaching practice. http://bit.ly/numeracyhub PRIMARY The Evaluating and Improving the Curriculum-Primary resource (ow.ly/L8apc) has been updated and includes a video of a primary specific keynote presentation for session 2015-16 setting out the big messages for the primary sector. You will hear about a variety of areas, including How good is our school? (4th EDITION), the Scottish Attainment Challenge, Developing the Young Workforce. Professional learning activities have also been published in the resource and are designed to support the evaluation and development of different aspects of the primary curriculum. They are linked to the GTCS standards and support the content of How good is our school? (4th EDITION). SECONDARY Fieldwork Visits Education Scotland undertook 47 visits to secondary schools across the country between August 2014 and January 2015. The visits focused on important aspects of a school’s work in to build on this success and create even more opportunities to get involved. Further information about DigiLearnScot Week in May 2016 is available on the Digital Learning Community blog on https:// digilearnscot.wordpress.com/, please visit and start planning now how you can get involved.

Education Scotland NEWS

1+2 Factor On the 18th November we are inviting individual classes, schools or clusters to demonstrate how they have used digital tools to help in the implementation of 1+2. This is an ideal opportunity to not only develop the language provision in your school but also to

Building your curriculum – flexible pathways from BGE to the Senior Phase Education Scotland is working in partnership with a group of secondary Head Teachers to support schools to reflect on and develop their thinking around flexible pathways from BGE to the senior phase. Education Scotland will disseminate the findings of their engagement activities and advice through a range of media by April 2016. Route maps through learning, teaching and assessment for Advanced Higher courses Education Scotland has published route maps through learning, teaching and assessment for Advanced Higher courses. These route maps are designed to support teachers and other staff who provide learning, teaching and support as learners work towards qualifications at Advanced Higher level. Route maps are a sequential list of the key guidelines, advice and support for qualifications and are available for qualifications from National 5 – Advanced Higher. They include important information about assessment, learning and teaching. Route maps for all levels can be found here http://ow.ly/R2jSm

CHECK IT OUT Advice on Gaelic Education Provides important information on the national context, and describes best practice to support practitioners and local authorities in devising a vision, evaluating and planning for improvement in Gaelic Education. http://ow.ly/RCQSo

improve your school’s use of digital technology in languages and other curriculum areas. Find out more log in to Glow http://tinyurl.com/1plus2Factor. The National Digital Learning Forum (NDLF) Invites you to join the digital learning community at

www.digilearn.scot. Get involved in discussions relating to digital learning and teaching in TALKING POINTS. Use the SHARING ZONE to contribute ideas and resources that will support Scottish learners and teachers make best use of digital technology.

LIFELONG LEARNING DIRECTOR’S UPDATE

The Lifelong Learning teams have had another busy few months working with a range of colleagues and partners on a wide variety of activities. You will have seen earlier in this issue some of the work our teams are doing to support the work of Developing the Young Workforce and we will keep you updated on further developments in this area as we move forward. In addition, the teams have been working on a range of other projects. Take a look at what we’ve been doing and find out what’s to come. I look forward to a busy and exciting time ahead, working with practitioners and partners to strengthen lifelong learning. Juliet McAlpine Interim Strategic Director for Lifelong Learning

CHECK IT OUT International literacy day conference Presentations from our recent international literacy day conference are available online. Delegates enjoyed keynotes from Dr Allan and Heather Reid as well as workshops focusing on literacy and science. (http://ow.ly/R5jX8)

TEACHER EDUCATION In May we hosted a conference looking at what has been achieved since the publication of Teaching Scotland’s Future http://ow.ly/ OVPyn (TSF). The day brought together key partners to share and learn about practice that’s happening across Scotland. Delegates recognised that we have policies and guidelines in place and we are developing the practices that support teachers and leaders to engage in career long professional learning. The Professional Learning area of the Education Scotland website is a one-stop shop for resources and guidelines http://ow.ly/OVM94 For more information about the conference and to watch the keynotes visit http://ow.ly/OVMfh COMMUNITY LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT The new How Good is Our Third Sector Organisation? (HGIOTS) resource uses a bespoke framework. It has been designed to be easy to use and accessible to help organisations understand what they do well but also where they can do better and improve the positive impact they have. This new resource to help third sector organisations evaluate performance and improve services is now available on the Education Scotland website http://ow.ly/OVVSS Launch of Adult Achievement Awards As part of taking forward a key strand of the implementation of the Statement of Ambition for Adult Learning, Education Scotland is supporting a consortium led by Newbattle Abbey College who are piloting Adult Achievement Awards. These new awards are designed to widen access to accredited learning and promote progression to further options. The Awards are credit-rated by Napier University at SCQF levels 3, 4 and 6 and are accessible to adults of all ages in a range of contexts. http://bit.ly/1KON2O8 ESOL Strategy Implementation Phase In April this year we launched Welcoming Our Learners – Scotland’s ESOL Strategy 2015-2020 http://ow.ly/OVQ2y To support delivery of the strategy we are now working with stakeholders to develop an implementation plan.

18 Education Scotland NEWS

CLD Aspect Reports In early autumn, Education Scotland will publish two aspect reports. The first report is on the CLD Sector’s contribution to Curriculum for Excellence in the senior phase. The second report in September will be a review of the work of the Achievement Awards Network and the role that wider achievement awards, such as the Youth Achievement Award and the Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award, play in Curriculum in Excellence and their impacts on young people PRIVATE COLLEGES AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE SCHOOLS Since 2012 we’ve undertaken Educational Oversight Inspections of private colleges and English language schools. To be able to offer and deliver courses, establishments must be inspected and be subject to annual engagement for four years. From September to November we will be conducting one inspection and 11 annual engagements. For more information about our work visit http://ow.ly/OVZDV COLLEGE EXTERNAL REVIEWS In 2014-15 we conducted five external reviews and 19 Annual Engagement Visits. As part of the external review process each college receives an overarching judgement in relation to effectiveness.

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which will include observations of engagements between Skills Development Scotland (SDS) staff and customers. The review teams will include an HMI from the secondary school sector, as well as Associate Assessors from SDS. Copies of our review reports are available at http://ow.ly/OW3mt ASPECT TASK ON MY WORLD OF WORK In September, Education Scotland published a report on the use of My World of Work (MyWoW) http://ow.ly/R30FV webservice by SDS staff, partners and customers to support effective career planning. The report is set in the context of supporting the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce. The report seeks to provide direction and support to all organisations and staff who are involved in delivering CfE and implementation of the recommendations of DYW.

CHECK IT OUT College aspect reports On behalf of the Scottish Funding Council we’ve published aspect reports on the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in colleges, Research into Partial Success, and Engineering in Scotland’s Colleges. The reports are available at http://ow.ly/RkFaC

Aspect review of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Look out for the publication of our aspect review on the partnerships between universities and education authorities.

There are eight external reviews planned for 2015-16 and 16 Annual Engagement Visits. In addition three colleges are continuing with their involvement in the Scottish Funding Council’s Action Learning Pilots. Copies of the reviews are published online at http://ow.ly/R31Te POST-16 Our latest review of Career Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) in Shetland has been published. Between September 2015 and February 2016 will undertake a further five reviews

Education Scotland NEWS

Building the Curriculum 4 makes explicit reference to young people developing career management skills (CMS). The report comments on the arrangements made by partners to develop CMS and the use of MyWoW to support the development of these skills. The report takes account of the national Career Education Standard (3-18) and Work Placements Standard which will affect how schools and national bodies support young people to develop CMS. The recommendations reflect the range of partners who will be directly involved in taking forward DYW. These include SDS, schools, colleges and Education Scotland. We are working together internally and with our external partners to take forward the recommendations.

NOW AVAILABLE... Co-created by young people and a range of partners, new standards for Career Education (3-18) and Work Placements are available to download now. Meaningful and productive school employer partnerships are key to Developing the Young Workforce. To support this, overarching guidance on school employer partnerships has been developed and is available to download. This is underpinned by the detailed standards and support materials on areas of work related learning where employers have a role to play.

Career Education 3-18

Work Placements

A new standard which recognises the journeys children and young people make as they learn about the world of work from the early years to the senior phase.

A new standard which recognises the rich learning that a young person can experience when they use and develop their skills in a work environment.

I believe I can do

any job

I can talk about my strengths, interests and skills and show evidence of my progress It should be fulfilling and a memory everyone wants forever

Placements should be practical, hands on and linked to career aspirations e skills I I can recognise th r work have and need fo

I can apply my skills to get more information about jobs/careers

Guidance for school/employer partnerships Highlights the benefits of partnerships in developing employability skills, and suggests approaches for employers, schools, local authorities and DYW regional groups.

Download your copy: www.educationscotland.gov.uk A Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA T +44 (0)141 282 5000 E enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk W educationscotland.gov.uk