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Curriculum for Excellence

'All children and young people should experience personalisation and choice within their curriculum, including identifying and planning for opportunities for personal achievement in a range of different contexts. This implies taking an interest in learners as individuals, with their own talents and interests.'
- Building the Curriculum 3

Two keywords of the Curriculum for Excellence are personalisation and choice. Dynamic Youth and Youth Achievement Awards offer learners the opportunity to create their own learning programme based on their own interests, unlike traditional qualifications. Furthermore, the Awards measure the distance a young person has travelled, making them an individualised experience. This makes them the perfect companion to learners at all levels.

Learners use a variety of skills as they work on their Award, and they often take a multi-disciplinary approach. They are encouraged to be creative in how they evidence their Award. In the past, learners have evidenced their Award by producing DVDs, CDs, websites, wikis, photographs and cartoons.

Curriculum for Excellence places great emphasis on recognising achievement wherever it takes place.  With our Awards, it is possible for learners to accredit their involvement with afterschool and out of school activities, which can be as diverse as playing for a local football team or looking after their grandmother.

There are no exams with the Awards, but learners will be judged by their peers as they complete their Award. This offers the best of Assessment is for Learning principles and helps to motivate learners, as well as teach them invaluable skills about responsibility and teamwork.

Learn more about how Youth Achievement Awards and Dynamic Youth Awards link to Curriculum for Excellence by viewing case studies of how Awards providers have used the Awards to meet the CfE Experiences and Outcomes. Click here to view the presentation.

 

How Good Is Our Community Learning and Development?

How Good Is Our Community Learning and Development? (HGIOCLD) was produced by HMIE to support the continuous improvement of CLD provision.  The publication asks CLD providers to consider the impact of their services on stakeholders, and to identify strengths and weaknesses.  The document can be accessed here.

The publication is divided into Key Areas and Quality Indicators.  Youth Scotland is confident that Dynamic Youth Awards and Youth Achievement Awards can support CLD reach the following Quality Indicators of HGIOCLD:

2.1 Impact on participants

5.1 Opportunity for people in the community

5.3 Planning for learning/development

5.5 Participant learning/development

5.7 Developing skills and confidence for community engagement

5.9 Inclusion, equality and fairness

6.1 Policy review and development

8.1 Partnership working

 

How Good is Our School?

The document, How Good is Our School (HGIOS), was produced by HMIe in order to support schools as they self-evaluate the educational experience they offer to their learners, particularly in relation to Curriculum for Excellence and the vision statement for Scotland’s children.

HGIOS demonstrates the value HMIe places on strong links between a school and its community, as shown by the excerpts below:

Number	Quality Indicator	Themes
4.1	The school’s success in working with and engaging with the local community	* The extent to which the school engages with the local community.
4.2	The school’s success in working with and engaging with the wider community	The extent to which the school encourages and supports creativity and innovation and learns from, and adopts, leading-edge practice; influences wider policy or practice; anticipates and responds rapidly and flexibility to change; and engages in global issues.
6.3	Planning for improvement	* Joint improvement planning with partner organisations and services
7.2	Staff deployment and teamwork	* Deployment of staff, including partnership agencies * Effectiveness of teamwork
8.1	Partnerships with the community, educational establishments, agencies and employers	* Clarity of purposes and aims * Working across agencies and disciplines * Staff roles in partnerships
9.3	Developing people and partnerships	* Building and sustaining relationships * Teamwork and partnerships

 

HGIOS states that evidence a school is working with the local community “will come from data, where available, from surveys and questionnaires, and from discussions with community representatives, training providers, voluntary organisations, employers, agencies and statutory organisations.” (HGIOS, page 31)

Dynamic Youth and Youth Achievement Awards have been used in collaboration with community partners, helping schools meet the needs of the HMIe team.  Some schools have asked community partners to help deliver part of the Awards to their pupils, while others have allowed their pupils to complete part of them outside the school, for example in a youth group.  You may even find that a local youth group already offers the Awards to their members.  Click here to search for youth groups in your area.

How Good Is Our School can be downloaded from the HMIe website here.