http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17452071
Utter imbeciles.
The whole project has been a farce from start to finish.
Ignore the spin (no pun). If you've got kids in first or second year at school in Scotland you should be deeply concerned about their future.
Yeah its not like the Westminster government would ever screw up education policies, only the scotch could do that.
Who are these 'Scotch' you mention?
"Curriculum for Excellence" ?
WHY DO POLITICIANS INVENT MEANINGLESS NAMES FOR THINGS?
Obviously it's a curriculum for excellence - we all know that no politician is going to (at least publicly) approve a curriculum for mediocrity.
So it's JUST MEANINGLESS NOISE!
Add a word that describes what it does. e.g.
"Curriculum for JUST CHANGING STUFF BECAUSE WE CAN"
"Curriculum for TRYING OUT SOME ZANY IDEAS I GOT FROM A BOOK IN THE AIRPORT"
"Curriculum for SAVING SOME MONEY SO I CAN BRIBE A DIFFERENT SET OF VOTERS"
"Curriculum for MAKING SURE THE KIDS IN MY CONSTITUENCY GET EXTRA CASH".
At least then we'd believe what the fracking idiots were saying.
Yeah its not like the Westminster government would ever screw up education policies, only the scotch could do that.
That's totally irrelevant. The fact that Westminster could cock it up equally well has no bearing on the disaster the SNP have produced.
The rush to implement without properly fixing the targets. Typical political spraff.
And to be fair exams, and the education policies, have always been a mess (as they are now). No one wants to spend the time actually doing it properly as it would fall outside the term of their being in government.
If I listen to my wife and her teaching colleagues, there's a very large book could be written on the failures of politicians in relation to managing Education. Chartered Teacher farce is the one that's annoying her most at the moment.
Chartered Teacher farce
That is a good comparison with CfE. Both are good ideas poorly implemented.
Pretty much of all the CfE documentation we have for N4/5 has 'DRAFT' as a watermark...
Pretty much of all the CfE documentation we have for N4/5 has 'DRAFT' as a watermark...
Every subject is at a different stage.
History teachers were told about a month ago not to get too carried away with their planning as all the content would likely be changing.
Lots of schools are planning to start delivering these in May when others are saying they wont be ready 'till 2 years in May!
Will we see another head rolling for this?
I've got a CPD course in Glasgow on 2nd May on "Implementing Computing and Information Science at Nat 4 and 5". Final arrangements are published on the 30th of April. Courses start in the first week of June. We HAVE to be ready to go because it's now realistically too late to delay the courses by a year as it would mean re-doing the whole course-choice process.
Andy (HH), what is the plan in your school?
(Oh, and don't get me started on Chartered Teacher...)
To be fair, the Westminster government have been running a country for years and they can't sort out the English and Welsh exams either.
You do know that they're already running a country (and pretty well imo) and that after any 'yes' vote they wouldn't be in charge for ever and ever?
Why are some areas seemingly well organised for this and others in chaos?
Why are some areas seemingly well organised for this and others in chaos?
Some departments are running pretty much the same courses with minimal change to content. Assessment procedures are changing but it's pretty similar to the assessment model for existing Int 2 courses.
Other departments (like mine) have entirely new courses and the arrangements documents (which lay out the course content) are eye-wateringly vague and still in draft form. It's a ****ing shambles.
We have 2 new courses running in S3 and it's a frantic scramble to gather together new materials which we hope will cover the as-yet-unspecified content. Part of me is quite sanguine about it because it's the nature of my subject that we have to respond rapidly to change and we've been doing that with a fast-evolving S1/2 syllabus for the past 4 years (quite successfully). However, the Nat 4 and 5 courses are certificated so it is crucial that we teach the pupils the right stuff in the appropriate depth and detail.
I'm currently the subject PT so it's on my watch too - losing a few nights sleep over it recently!
after any 'yes' vote they wouldn't be in charge for ever and ever?
Stop it. You're scaring me now.
Not just subject areas but geographical areas from what I have read.
What've you been reading, TJ?
I think it was in the scotsman can't remeber tho. I was hoping for better info from you guys
What've you been reading, TJ?
I guess he's referring to the fact that every local authority has made it's own decisions on implementation timescales and procedures.
Cracks me up when I hear people say 'we wont be ready next year' as we're doing it this year! (maybe)
Where do you work, Spin?
I guess thats it - I just remember some folk saying they would be ready this year no worries and others saying even in two more years it will be tricky.
Is it the implementation thats bollox or the actual idea?
In the highlands stuartie - and you?
The difference in 'preparedness' is even notable between schools in the same area. A lot of the implementation of CfE has been left deliberately vague so plenty of departments are waiting to see what others are doing before reinventing the wheel.
Some folks are enjoying getting to make those decisions, but plenty of people (me included) feel that the top-down management of the whole thing has been lacking.
Is it the implementation thats bollox or the actual idea?
I cannot fault the core principles nor the fact that a major overhaul was needed.
The problem lies in the implementation particularly the level of choice available to individual authorites and schools and also the vast (unbelievably, astronomically vast) amount of paperwork generated to justify and supposedly clarify the courses.
That's probably the worst sentence I've ever written but i don't really know where to start in explaining how messed up it is!
Ta
In the highlands stuartie - and you?
Fife. From the Highlands originally.
TJ - Stevious has the nail on the head. It's the lack of strategic direction from the government that is causing such a variable picture across the country. Some authorities have been decisive and said "all schools will delay implementation for a year" (East Ren. being a notable example). Others are pushing ahead and some seem to be leaving it up to individual schools.
To illustrate why this is a mess, ask this very simple question: what happens if a pupil moves from one authority to another?
Is it safe to mention GLOW..?!
😉
Unfortunately it was ever thus. I suffered, as a pupil, the O to S grade transition, English and Maths for all of Scotland then half way through the course just Maths then the majority of the country pulled out. I am one of very few who appear to have an S grade before they were officially officially (re)launched.
The course we were on last year about the new Higher is out of date, so we signed for this years only to find that it's not on the new new Higher but the old (or only implemented for a single year) new Higher. Joy!!!
Think that's bad I' on my 4th GCSE Chem course in 5 years.