In effect, the big thing happening in Secondary education in Scotland is that Curriculum for Excellence is being continued or extended, from its current scope covering Early Years/nursery, the whole of Primary, and through to the end of S3.
What’s termed the Senior Phase (S4-6) experience, and how we award formal qualifications, is now becoming more aligned with the (CfE) principles, assessment methods and structures that have been in place for younger pupils for more than twenty years now.
The revamped SQA, whatever that becomes (perhaps ‘Qualifications Scotland’) will deliver final attainment to Scottish senior pupils in a new way. With more CfE will likely come less subject boundaries, and definitely more pupil choice and personalisation.
Primary schools and CfE were always a better match and indeed CfE was implemented there first, before secondaries tried to follow suit a few years later. In its seeking to blur subject boundaries, for example, CfE was a more organic and natural fit for primary schools, where rigid subject boundaries don’t really exist as a formal structure.
Whereas, at secondary, rigid subject boundaries – twenty years on – is still how we organise pupils’ day via their timetables. In two decades, two types of Scottish secondary school have emerged: authentic CfE schools; and CfE-wannabes, or CfE-sceptics, who pretend (not very convincingly) to embrace and adopt the pupil-centred, rights-based curriculum that CfE is.
