Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland)

1 Where it came from

Curriculum for Excellence was developed in the 2000s and introduced in Scottish schools from 2010, replacing the earlier 5–14 guidelines. It is set by the Scottish Government with Education Scotland, and councils and schools plan the detail. It covers a Broad General Education from the early years to the end of S3, then a senior phase from S4 to S6 when young people work towards qualifications such as National 5s and Highers.

2 The big ideas

• Levels, not years. Five levels span the Broad General Education: Early (pre-school and P1), First (P2 to P4), Second (P5 to P7), and Third and Fourth (S1 to S3). Education Scotland says learners progress at their own pace, some earlier and some later.
• Experiences and outcomes. Each curriculum area is written as experiences and outcomes for each level, in "I can" statements, with benchmarks that show what achieving a level looks like.
• Four capacities. The stated aim is for every child to become a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor.
• Literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing across learning. Every teacher shares responsibility for these three, not only the English and maths teachers.

3 What a lesson looks like

A P3 class, as an illustration. The day might begin with a short phonics or spelling session from the school's chosen programme, then a numeracy lesson on adding two-digit numbers with place-value counters, with some children working on First level outcomes and a few on Early level ones. After break, the class works on an interdisciplinary topic, say the Romans in Scotland, which brings together reading, writing, a little history and some art. The teacher notes who can now explain their method, which is one of the First level benchmarks.

4 Reading and math

Literacy and English and numeracy and mathematics run through every level. Schools choose their own programmes, so one P1 might use a synthetic phonics scheme and another a different structured approach; it is worth asking which yours uses. In numeracy, the levels move from counting and number sense at Early level, through the four operations, fractions and measure at First and Second, to algebra and more abstract work at Third and Fourth. Because a level spans three years, a child working "within First level" in P3 is on track.

5 The adult's job

Teachers plan learning from the experiences and outcomes and judge, using the benchmarks, when a child has achieved a level. A parent's role is to know roughly where their child is in a level and to back it up at home: daily reading together, talk about numbers in everyday life, and interest in the school's topics. Parents can ask the school which level their child is working at in literacy and numeracy.

6 How progress is checked

Teachers judge whether each child has achieved the expected level in P1, P4, P7 and S3, in reading, writing, listening and talking, and numeracy, and the Scottish Government publishes the figures each year. Schools also use national standardised assessments to inform those judgements. In the senior phase, S4 to S6, young people take national qualifications.

7 Strengths and criticisms

8 What the research says

This page describes a system rather than testing it. The structure is from Education Scotland's parent pages: five levels, Early to Fourth, across the Broad General Education from the early years to the end of S3, with learners progressing at their own pace. The Scottish Government's statistics on Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels report, each year, the share of pupils in P1, P4, P7 and S3 who have achieved the expected level in literacy and numeracy, based on teachers' professional judgement. The research behind this page did not compare Scotland's results with other systems.

9 How to try it

1. Find the level. Ask the school which level your child is working within in literacy and numeracy, and read that level's benchmarks.
2. Line up the years. P1 is the year a child turns 5 or so; our curriculum finder puts P1 to P7 beside England's years and US grades.
3. Read together every day. At Early and First level, ten minutes of reading aloud and listening to your child read does the most good.
4. Make numeracy everyday. Shopping, recipes, bus times and board games all cover First and Second level outcomes.

10 Using Peabody with it

• Everything to learnEvery subject by age band, with nothing locked, which suits a curriculum where a level spans three years.
• Numbers on PeabodyEight doors from counting to algebra; a child can work anywhere within a level.
• Reading level finderA short read-aloud check of words per minute and accuracy, a quick way to see where a child reads.
• Curriculum finderP1 to P7 and S1 to S3 beside England's years and US grades, and how to set Scotland's school years on Peabody.

Peabody is free and has no ads. Pages on peabody.kids are for children; pages here are for the adults teaching them.

11 Programs that follow it

Programs and materials often named with this approach: Curriculum for Excellence (Education Scotland), Benchmarks for literacy and numeracy, National 5 and Higher qualifications.