Curriculum for Excellence at Athelstaneford
Today we worked together to improve our school. Our Vision Statement
‘To provide experiences of the highest quality for all pupils which will meet their educational, personal and emotional needs. Developing skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work, every child will be supported and challenged to become full and active participants of society both now and in the future.’
Athelstaneford Primary School www.edubuzz.org/blogs/athelstaneford
Flying the Flag for Success At the heart of Curriculum for Excellence and Scottish Education lie the values of Wisdom, Justice, Compassion and Integrity. A new and exciting curriculum based upon these values aims to raise standards in education, equipping our children with the knowledge, skills and attributes capable of thriving in the future. We are preparing our children for a world we can only imagine within an ever-changing society and for jobs that don’t yet exist. Building on current good practice, Curriculum for Excellence is about transformational change and provides us with an opportunity to shape the future. At Athelstaneford we are developing a forward-looking, coherent curriculum that will inspire our pupils to achieve at the highest levels. In 2004 the Scottish Executive stated that the purposes of curriculum for Excellence are to enable all young people to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. Athelstaneford pupils from nursery – P7 are aware of how they are developing and demonstrating these 4 capacities as part of their learning.
The Curriculum The curriculum is no longer simply the subjects that were traditionally taught at school as we all have memories of. The curriculum now includes all of the experiences that we plan for our children both in and out of school. This session at Athelstaneford we have started to plan for opportunities for children to learn through all of these aspects: The ethos and life of the school as a community Curriculum Areas and Subjects Interdisciplinary Studies Opportunities for Personal Achievement
Outdoor Learning as Part of an Interdisciplinary Study All of our children have taken part in many interdisciplinary studies this session where different areas of the curriculum have been joined up to enable our pupils to make connections in their learning and to apply knowledge or skills they have gained in another area. In the photo below following joint planning with the team at Outdoor Education, P6/7 learned about buoyancy and raft building while developing skills in teamwork as part of their Titanic Study.
What does Curriculum for Excellence Mean for my Child?
Bringing learning to Life Curriculum for Excellence requires us to bring real life into the classroom and take learning beyond the classroom. When planning for our pupils we aim to provide learning experiences that are relevant to their lives, challenging and enjoyable. We are fortunate to have great outdoor space where the pupils in the picture below are learning how to tend a vegetable garden. They harvested their vegetables and then brought them inside to prepare them for making soup developing their numeracy skills as they count and weigh their produce. From nursery when our children discover and experiment with how water changes to ice and count the number of birds they begin to see in our garden to P3/4/5 using the outdoors for spelling to our P6/7 pupils developing and leading the rest of the school on a John Muir inspired nature trail tailored to meet the needs of the different classes, our pupils benefit greatly from use of the outdoor classroom to motivate and challenge them.
Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing •
The development of literacy and numeracy skills play an important role in all learning. As life skills they permeate and support all areas of learning and enable access to the wider curriculum.
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Planned from experiences in our nursery onwards, literacy and numeracy skills are revisited and developed throughout school, establishing the foundations for lifelong learning.
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In a similar way, maintaining a strong focus when planning for health and wellbeing we provide our pupils with opportunities to make informed decisions and opportunities to reflect on the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle, establishing patterns that will be sustained into adult life.
Your child will always be at the centre of their curriculum.
Assessment and Reporting Your children will be assessed through a wide range of tasks and activities. Teachers will continue to gather evidence form a variety of sources which may come from things your children say, write, make and do in response to their learning. Reports will change as we move away from 5-14 levels where the focus was on achieving the level. To show progress in the new levels children will need to show breadth in learning, that they have experienced challenging activities demonstrating depth of learning and that they can then apply this learning in new situations. We will continue to share your child’s progress and achievements with you through parental consultations and new style reports. The key message is that what matters is how MUCH and how WELL your child has learned, not how QUICKLY they have achieved a level.
Community Involvement At Athelstaneford we are very proud of the fact that our school lies at the heart of such a historic village and just as proud of the fact that the school is able to act as a focal point for much of the community. Parents and carers are vitally important partners in the learning process and we welcome the rewards that true partnership working can bring. Most importantly of all we wish to achieve a real sense of enjoyment in the learning process for our pupils. Their interests and their passions are important to us and we want all the richness of their own lives outside of school to be valued in school. We value the important input and impact that parents and carers have on their children and invite you to share in developing your children’s learning by supporting the school in as many ways as you feel able, both at home with your own children or in school. Athelstaneford sees its parents and carers as partners in the privilege of educating children. Working together we can ensure that we are providing opportunities for our children to achieve and to reach their full potential. Together, we hope to make your children’s educational experience an extremely positive one through embracing the philosophies of a “Curriculum for Excellence”.