School Curriculum

The Curriculum for Excellence

The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is the Scottish curriculum for children and young people from 3 to 18 years. All Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools have been given CfE guidelines that detail national expectations of learning and progression from the early to fourth curriculum level, i.e. from Nursery to the end of S3.  The CfE aims to enable children to become successful learners; confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. Schools need to incorporate enterprising learning and teaching in all curricular areas with children developing thinking skills and taking responsibility for their own learning as much as possible. 

CfE is about teaching children a wide range of skills in order to prepare them for a fast changing world. Learners need to be able to collaborate, investigate and analyse. We encourage and motivate our learners by bringing learning to life through working in groups, across ages, outside the classroom, incorporating different areas of the curriculum in one topic, and working with other schools and groups. The whole thrust of CfE is to focus on learners’ needs, including offering personalisation and choice. We ensure learning is active, i.e. children learn by doing and finding out, rather than being fed information. Learners are encouraged to think, question, research and work together. 

We implement Highland Council’s Learning and Teaching Policy.  The core components of this are that children need to know what they are going to learn, how they are going to learn and how they will know they have succeeded.  Assessment is continuous and includes teachers and peer and self-assessment by the pupils.  Feedback is constructive with time taken for discussion and to set realistic targets for pupils’ next steps. There are eight curriculum areas: Health and Wellbeing, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Expressive Arts, Technologies, and Religious and Moral Education.

The Curriculum for Excellence has four underlying values: wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity.  

When planning the curriculum activities and experiences teachers are expected to consider seven principles of curriculum design: challenge and enjoyment, breadth, progression, depth, personalisation and choice, coherence and relevance.

Curriculum Areas

Health and Wellbeing – Health Promoting School

Learning in health and wellbeing ensures that children and young people develop the knowledge and understanding, skills, capabilities and attributes which they need for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing now and in the future. Learning through health and wellbeing enables children and young people to: 

make informed decisions in order to improve their mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing experience challenge and enjoyment experience positive aspects of healthy living and activity for themselves apply their mental, emotional, social and physical skills to pursue a healthy lifestyle  make a successful move to the next stage of education or work  establish a pattern of health and wellbeing which will be sustained into adult life, and which will help to promote the health and wellbeing of the next generation of Scottish children.

Literacy and Languages

Literacy is the set of skills which allow us to participate fully in society and in learning.  Literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning as it unlocks access to the wider curriculum. Being literate increases opportunities for the individual in all aspects of life, lays the foundations for lifelong learning and work, and contributes strongly to the development of all four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.  Literacy is the responsibility of all practitioners, not just English and language teachers.

CfE Literacy and English framework promotes the development of critical and creative thinking as well as competence in listening and talking, reading, writing and the personal, interpersonal and team-working skills which are so important in life and in the world of work. The CfE provides broad descriptions of the range of learning opportunities which will contribute to the development of literacy, including critical literacy, creativity, and knowledge and appreciation of literature and culture.

Numeracy and Mathematics

Mathematics should help the children understand the world about them and prepare them to act effectively in work, play and in their role as citizens.
The children’s experiences are designed to cover:

• Number, money and measure
• Estimation and rounding
• Number and number processes
• Multiples, factors and primes 
• Powers and roots
• Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages
• Money 
• Time 
• Measurement
• Mathematics – its impact on the world, past, present and future 
• Patterns and relationships 
• Expressions and equations.
• Shape, position and movement 
• Properties of 2D shapes and 3D objects 
• Angle, symmetry and transformation. 
• Information handling 
• Data and analysis 
• Ideas of chance and uncertainty.

Good mental arithmetic skills and knowledge of times tables underpin children’s progress and we work on these at all stages of attainment.
Children are provided with opportunities to tackle practical aspects of the work using concrete materials in order to help them understand mathematical concepts.
Teaching programmes are structured to enable pupils to learn skills that help them to tackle problems that require maths or mathematical thinking to solve. The programmes help children to learn concepts, facts and techniques that will enable them to use and apply mathematics.

Sciences

Through science children develop their interest in and understanding of the living, material and physical world. They collaborate on investigations and experiments and begin to develop skills that will help them to become creative, inventive and enterprising adults in a world where the skills and knowledge of the sciences are needed across all sectors of the economy. The curriculum includes Planet Earth; forces, electricity and waves; biological systems, materials and topical science. 
 

Social Studies

In Social Subjects in the CfE pupils will learn about people, past events and societies; place and environment; and people in society, economy and business. These areas are covered through planned topics, involving the children in research, practical work and investigations.
 

Expressive Arts

Expressive arts include art and design, dance, drama and music. Learning about and through expressive arts enables children and young people to:

• be creative and express themselves in different ways.
• experience enjoyment and contribute to other people’s enjoyment through creative and expressive performance and presentation.
• develop important skills, both those specific to the expressive arts and those which are transferable.
• develop an appreciation of aesthetic and cultural values, identities and ideas. 

Technologies

The CfE experiences and outcomes in technology are relevant to business, computing science, food, textiles, craft, design, engineering and graphics. They involve creative and practical activities that can be related to the world of work. These experiences and outcomes offer a rich context for the development of the four capacities and for developing the life skills that are recognised as being important for success in the world of work. They also introduce learners to the idea of technology-related careers. 
 

Religious and Moral Education

Scotland is a nation whose people hold a wide range of beliefs including Christianity and the world’s other major religions as well as beliefs which lie outside religious traditions. The CfE states that such diversity enriches the Scottish nation and serves as an inspiring and thought-provoking background for our children and young people to develop their own beliefs and values. Religious and moral education encourages responsible attitudes to other people. This awareness and appreciation promotes tolerance and counteracts prejudice. Religious and moral education is a process whereby children and young people engage in a search for meaning, value and purpose in life. This involves the exploration of beliefs and values and the study of how such beliefs and values are expressed. Children will understand that beliefs and values are fundamental to families and to the fabric of society in communities, both local and global. Investigating and discussing these issues will enhance children’s skills of reflection and critical thinking.

Parents have the right to withdraw their child from religious instruction and religious observance.  School assemblies are often secular e.g. celebrating success, sharing news, presentations by the Pupil Council.

Creativity, and employability Skills/ Developing the young Workforce (DYW)

While it might seem very early to be thinking about the world of work in primary school, it is becoming increasingly important that all young people begin to think about what they might be interested in when they leave school. So in our classrooms we think about jobs and local people who we might know who have interesting jobs.  We focus on developing our skills for life through (e.g) our skills Club on Friday mornings (also known as EPIC Friday) and we focus on our Digital Literacy through the Chromebooks which every P6 and 7 pupil has (as well as a number of other machines for use in lower classes)  

Extra-curricular Activities

Young Leaders from the high school provide after school clubs, such as dance and football. Teachers offer a variety of after school clubs on a short termly block. Children are able to participate in a wide variety of after school activities including shinty, football and Youth Club. These are held at the nearby Ardnamurchan High School, which has excellent facilities.