2017 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan

Introduction

The 2017 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan is now the definitive plan for our collective work. It brings together improvement activity from both the Delivery Plan and the Curriculum for Excellence Implementation Plan and also includes improvement actions on parental and family engagement in keeping with our commitments within the Delivery Plan.

Our vision for education in Scotland

• Excellence through raising attainment: ensuring that every child achieves the highest standards in literacy and numeracy, set out within Curriculum for Excellence levels, and the right range of skills, qualifications and achievements to allow them to succeed; and
• Achieving equity: ensuring every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

We need Scottish education to deliver both excellence in terms of ensuring children and young people acquire a broad range of skills and capacities at the highest levels, whilst also delivering equity so that every child and young person should thrive and have the best opportunity to succeed regardless of their social circumstances or additional needs.

Key priorities of the National Improvement Framework

The National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan is designed to help us deliver the twin aims of excellence and equity; galvanising efforts and aligning our collective improvement activities across all partners in the education system to address our key priorities. These priorities remain as:

• Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy
• Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children
• Improvement in children and young people's health and wellbeing
• Improvement in employability skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people

Everyone working in Scottish education should be clear about how they can contribute to addressing these priorities. Local authority and school improvement plans should reflect these priorities and ensure the clear line of sight between local and national expectations. There may be further improvement priorities at school level based on local needs and self-evaluation.

The priorities are likely to evolve over time as issues are addressed successfully and new evidence identifies emerging priorities.