Two more project event reports published

Two new GGiS/SFF project publications have been published online. The report of the seminar on The Views of Parents can be downloaded here: http://www.ggis.org.uk/events_page.php?a=8 and the report of the higher education roundtable can be found here: http://www.ggis.org.uk/AutoIndex-2.2.4/publications/GGiS%20SFF%20higher%20education%20round%20table%202012%20report.pdf

Role of Teachers report

The GGiS/SFF project report of the seminar on The Role of Teachers in 2025 learning can be found here, along with presentation slides of the main speakers: http://www.ggis.org.uk/events_page.php?a=7

International report

Please see the latest GGiS project report, from an international perspective, now available through the link below: http://www.ggis.org.uk/AutoIndex-2.2.4/publications/GGiS%20SFF%20international%20seminar%202012%20report.pdf

Young Scot Competition

As part of our ongoing project looking at learning in Scotland in 2025, GGiS have teamed up with Young Scot to collect the views of young people on the future of learning. By answering three short questions, young people will be entered into a competition to win an Amazon Kindle. Prizes will be awarded for the most creative, thought provoking and interesting answer to each question – meaning that there are three Kindles up for grabs! You can find out more on the Young Scot website at: http://www.youngscotsayswho.org/consultation/Life-Learning-in-2025

Parents' perspective on a Scottish learning society

'By 2025, Scotland will be regarded as a world-leading learning nation'. The penultimate project workshop session was held last night in Scottish Parliament. This time with parents. Superb session with lots of critical and creative thinking. The workshop report will follow in the coming weeks. We now look forward to the next part of the project – building the scenarios and articulating world-views for 2025, based on all we have learned during the project!

Education Scotland Audit: Most schools ready for Nationals 4 & 5

Education Scotland’s ‘deep audit’ of readiness for the new national exams has found that almost all schools and local authorities are ready for the implementation of Nationals 4 and 5. With the exception of East Renfrewshire, not a single school, department or local authority has requested a delay in introducing the new exams. Of the 367 secondary schools in Scotland, Education Scotland found just 21 departments which were making only limited progress and would require additional support. The audit has been criticised by teaching unions who claim there was a lack of consultation with teachers. Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell MSP, said today: “We will continue to work with teachers and all other partners to keep implementation under review and ensure we stay on track in every subject and in every school and get on with the task of implementing Curriculum for Excellence, as parents and school committees clearly want to see happen.” More details can be found at: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6241769

1 + 2 Languages

The Scottish Government’s Languages Working Group has released a report calling for all pupils in Scotland to start learning a second language in primary 1 and to pick up a third language by primary 5. The group argues that Scotland cannot afford to not invest in language learning and suggests that an “inability to engage with foreign business in its own language… can be measured as a cost equivalent to over £500 million to the Scottish economy” (TES Magazine). The report has called for primary 1 trials to start as early as 2012/13 with the aim of policy being rolled out by 2013/14. Alasdair Allan MSP, Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s languages said: “Introducing two additional languages is an ambitious goal, but these recommendations give us an excellent platform to deliver it.” You can read more in TESS by clicking on the link below: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6232918

National exam update

This has been an eventful week for the Scottish education sector. Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell MSP, unveiled a new £3.5m support package to help ensure that teachers and schools are better prepared for the new national exams. However, plans to allow schools to delay implementation by a year were also unveiled this week. While this delay has been welcomed by some, including opposition parties, parents’ groups have called on schools to press ahead with the new curriculum because of fears that uncertainty could undermine children’s learning. You can read Mr Russell’s thoughts on curriculum for excellence and the Scottish education system in today’s Scotsman at: http://www.scotsman.com/news/mike-russell-leading-young-to-a-fulfilling-future-1-2191646

An international perspective

Mike Osborne's blog post on yesterday’s video conference workshop, leading up to next week’s international perspective event can be found on the Pascal International Observatory website. You can read this through the following link: http://bit.ly/GCKPj6

An international perspective

“By 2025 Scotland will be regarded as a world-leading learning nation” An international perspective. Geddes talked of thinking globally and acting locally. However, in today’s global village,surely we must be thinking and acting globally. If we are to properly explore the proposition that Scotland will be regarded as a world-leading learning nation by 2025, we need to be mindful of developments in other parts of the world and how Scotland can connect to those places. Very few of the problems Scotland faces are unique and we can learn much from countries where radical thinking is leading to new forms of learning, education and skills and economic benefits. The next event in the GGiS/SFF project, between 10.00am and 1.00pm on 30 March 2012 will hear about case studies from around the world – Ontario, Finland, France, Sweden and the USA via a pre-recorded video conference held with the GGiS / SFF project team. The workshop will then break into a café to discuss what lessons can be drawn for lessons for Scotland and for our project. To register for a place email events@ggis.org.uk.

New national exams debate

Today, MSPs will debate whether the implementation of the new national exams should be delayed by a year to allow teachers and schools extra time to prepare. The parties are currently divided, with Hugh Henry MSP, Scottish Labour’s spokesperson, calling on the government to delay implementation by a year. A survey carried out by EIS has found that fewer than ten per cent of teachers are prepared for the implementation of the new national qualifications and 80 per cent described the level of support from the Scottish Government as unsatisfactory. EIS are also calling for a delay in implementation or for schools to at least be given the option of delaying by a year. Cabinet Secretary, Michael Russell MSP has said that there will be an audit of schools in the coming months to ensure they are ready for the new exams.

Three new event reports

Three event reports from the GGiS/SFF project are now available online: Early years, The unreasonable learner's network and Education entrepreneurship. These can be found on the publications page.

Government unveils plans for post-16 education reform

In today’s newspapers, the Scottish Government has outlined reforms for post 16 education. Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning has unveiled plans to smooth out the learner journey from school into further or higher education and vocational training. Mr Russell also revealed plans to widen apprenticeship access to degree level and progress college mergers where demand exists. Plans have been welcomed by Universities Scotland and the NUS. The NUS have particularly welcomed the commitment to a minimum income of £7000 per year for university students. More details of this are expected of this in the summer. The reforms follow the ‘Review of post 16 education and vocational training’ which was carried out by Willy Roe CBE. The report stated that the learner should be put at the centre of all education reforms and called for a re-think in how we fund post 16 education and encourage all learners to reach their full potential.

CFE Summit

Today's Scottish news carries to storyline: Education Directors are meeting today to try and agree a common position on rolling out the new National 4 and 5 exams. The summit comes after East Renfrewshire Council and many independent schools announced plans to postpone implementation of the new exams by a year. Parents’ leaders have called for clarity and the EIS have said that there are serious concerns coming from teachers and schools over a lack of detail on the new exams. Postponing the exams, however, would not be without problems including a loss of momentum and practical difficulties. Last week, Education Scotland, ADES, SQA, the Scottish Government and the National Parent Forum issued a joint statement in an attempt to reassure parents that implementation of Curriculum for Excellence was on track but concerns still exist. More details of the summit should be available tomorrow and we will update you accordingly.

ICT and Scotland's Schools

Michael Gove's comments about ICT in England prompts me to reflect on the position in Scotland. It is true that the trend has been towards a focus on the application of ICT in school education over the last decade or so . The assumption was that 'computing' was something which was for post-school and the vital importance of stimulating interest and establishing a grounding in the nature of computing itself at school was downplayed. However, Curriculum for Excellence explicitly includes Computing Science as part of general education for all up to age 15, including aspects of programming at level 4. More conventional use of ICT is a cross-curricular responsibility. As with much of CfE, the challenge is to ensure that the original vision is put into practice and built upon.