Curriculum and Assessment Board minutes: September 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Andrew Creamer, Head of Learning Teaching & Assessment, Education Scotland  
• Andrea Bradley, General Secretary, The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) 
• Clare Hicks, Co-chair, Director of Education Reform, Scottish Government 
• Erica Russell Hensens, Deputy Director, Student Interests, Access, and Quality, Scottish Funding Council (SFC)  
• Gavin Yates, Executive Director, Connect, Scottish Assembly of Parents and Carers (SAPC)
• Gill Mann, Interim Head of NQ Policy, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
• Gillian Hamilton, Co-chair, Chief Executive, Education Scotland
• James Mckean, Policy Officer, Colleges Scotland 
• James Russell, Director of Careers Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) Operations, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) 
• Janie McManus, HM Chief Inspector of Education, Education Scotland 
• Joan MacKay, Assistant Director, Education Scotland 
• Laura Murdoch, Deputy Director, Curriculum and Qualifications, Scottish Government  
• Louise Hayward, Professor of Educational Assessment and Innovation, Academic Representative, University of Glasgow  
• Mark Priestley, Professor of Education, University of Stirling, Academic Representative  
• Matthew Sweeney, Policy Manager, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Nik James, National Executive Member, The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)  
• Pauline Radcliffe, Chief Executive, Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership (SCQF)
• Robert Quinn, Head of Service, Humanities, Arts, Business, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
• Sarah Sinclair, Head of Professional Learning, Scottish Council of Independent Schools
• Stewart Nicolson, Joint Chair of Association of Directors of Education (ADES)
• Stuart Hunter, Vice President, Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA)
• Tim Wallace, Primary representative, Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) (Head Teacher, Preston Tower Primary School) 
• Tina Harrison, Representative, Universities Scotland  
• Victoria Smith, Strategic Director, General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) 

Apologies

• Carrie Lindsay, Executive Officer, Association of Directors of Education (ADES) 

• Catherine Nicol, President, Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA)

• Gill Stewart, Director of Qualifications, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) 
• Jane Brumpton, Chief Executive, Early Years Scotland 
• John Guidi, District Secretary, Renfrewshire, Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA)  
• Julie MacDonald, Vice President, School Leaders Scotland (SLS) 
• Lisa Bird, Deputy Director, Education Reform, Scottish Government
• Lorraine Davidson, Chief Executive, Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) 
• Marie Hendry, Chief Executive, College Development Network 
• Martyn Ware, Head of Policy, Research & Standards, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) 
• Ollie Bray, Strategic Director, Education Scotland  
• Pauline Stephen, Chief Executive, General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) 

Items and actions

Welcome and draft minutes from last meeting, 3 June 2024  

Co-chair (Gillian Hamilton) welcomed attendees to the Curriculum and Assessment Board (CAB) meeting. Draft minutes from the meeting on 3 June 2024 received late additional comments and will be reviewed in the coming days, and then sent round to members before being published. 

It was mentioned the action from the last meeting, to discuss the timeline of curriculum areas for review under the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC), will be incorporated in today’s meeting and picked up later in the agenda. 

This virtual meeting of CAB focuses on Education Reform, including National Improvement Framework (NIF), and to provide an update on the work of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC). 

Education reform update and forward look

Clare Hicks (Director of Education Reform, Scottish Government) provided an update to board members:

Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (IRQA):

• Scottish Government’s response to IRQA statement is on Thursday 19 September 2024 (two days after CAB), setting out the short, medium and long-term actions from SG. There will be a further opportunity for CAB to consider at a future meeting as an agenda point
• the education reform timeline for 2024/25 sets out key aspects of work that is happening in the education reform programme, managed at portfolio level. It is understood the key benefits of the system working collectively to ensure alignment and achieve positive outcomes

Education Bill is working its way through Scottish Parliament:

• currently at stage 1, looking at the evidence throughout September and October, with the debate taking place in November
• The Education Bill is a Technical Bill to establish the new Qualifications Scotland and removal of HM Inspectors of Education (HMIE) from Education Scotland
• legislation is not required for the refocusing of Education Scotland
• specification for the Centre for Teacher Excellence is established with members from CAB, this is now live and anticipate work going forward
• the live consultation on post school landscape, funding and legislation, will close on 20 September. The main focus of proposals is around changes to what public bodies do in the post-school system – the scope of the bill will be set out once the consultation responses have been received and reviewed
• the roles of the new Chief Executive of Education Scotland and HM Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland have now been advertised, members invited to share information on these adverts and links will be sent after the meeting

National Improvement Framework (NIF):

• evidence from recent reports on education will help galvanise work going forward to improve Scottish education, and the refreshed NIF aims to do this with a clear articulation of short, medium and longer term priorities for Scotland’s schools
• paper 28-03 asks questions on how do we use the NIF for the purpose it was originally put in place for (i.e. to support the aims of excellence and equity in education). The NIF team are happy to further discuss any points in the paper, and welcome written comments to nationalimprovementframework@gov.scot

The Chair invited members to provide any feedback or ask questions on this agenda item. Comments relating to NIF were captured:

• it was noted that it is generally difficult to respond to the NIF at this moment without knowing the response to IRQA
• a data informed approach needs to underpin improvement work but should not drive unhelpful performative behaviours. We need different approaches to measurement, and a system that is re-balanced between measurements and targets
• the language needs to be adjusted to reflect the teacher workforce in Scotland and the challenging context they are working in
• need more clarity on who is measuring education outputs
• there should be a target to develop knowledge, skills and attributes for young people living in a modern democratic society 
• welcome the inclusion of key messages from the National Discussion and broader purposes of education
• the NIF should include more of a link between drivers for education and the skills needs of industry and wider sectors – currently, the drivers represented appear based only on schools and school professionals at the moment. The positive impact of Community, Learning and Development (CLD) and youthwork needs to be captured as part of this
• covid recovery needs to be included, as it has affected some year groups more than others and is having a lasting impact in schools
• the NIF should complement the renewed focus on teacher quality to encourage a joined up approach on discussions for the Strategic Board for Teacher Education (SBTE)

The publication of the refreshed NIF will be in December, with opportunities to engage ahead of publication through consultations with local authorities and children and young people.

Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC): update, next steps and high level communications plan

Andrew Creamer, Head of Learning Teaching & Assessment, Education Scotland and Joan MacKay, Assistant Director, Education Scotland provided an update on the curriculum improvement cycle and shared a presentation.

Education Scotland colleagues last met with CAB at the in-person meeting on Monday 3 June 2024 and plan to reconvene the previous sub-group on CIC for a short workshop series across October/November.  This will further inform another wider session with CAB later this year.

An update on progress was provided as informed by the previous CAB session and wider activities, which highlighted the following key points:

• Education Scotland continue to progress work to evolve the technical framework within the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) that will strengthen the position of knowledge, and provide greater clarity while decluttering to support improved quality of teaching, learning and progression.  This work builds on the OECD 2021 recommendation for Scotland to explore alternative approaches to curriculum design, such as a know-do-understand model
• focused work to consider cross-curricular themes (“core competencies”) has been progressing at pace through dedicated workshop series with a range of practitioners and stakeholders. The outputs from this work will be shared with CAB, before testing the system with wider stakeholders
• for each subject area review, Education Scotland are putting in place inclusive engagement mechanisms to ensure a wide range of diverse voices can contribute. Education Scotland have also started recruiting new national advisers to support each subject area review, who will bring recent experience from educational settings to bear
• key challenge in the development work is education practitioners (e.g. primary and secondary school teachers) having the time to engage in face-to-face discussions, which pilot CIC reviews have demonstrated is the most effective approach. A question was raised if CAB could support this engagement with their wider networks?
• CIC communications will be launched after the Scottish Government’s IRQA response statement and will outline the approach being taken to the wider system. A dedicated web hub will be live on Education Scotland’s website soon after, providing additional information on the programme. A request is if members can help with communications, advocacy and engagement strategies to help build wider awareness and support for the programme moving forwards, to ensure positive engagement of practitioners and other stakeholders throughout development and implementation?

The Chair invited questions and comments from the Board:

• there needs to be clear communication with the profession that teachers will not need to take up personal hours for this work, therefore the timelines may need to be reconsidered to allow teachers to create the time and space for this. It is very important that teachers are involved to ensure a whole system approach
• this work is a great development for Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in the past 20 years. The advantages of the approach being taken is that it will help tackle the issues around coherence across the 3-18 framework
• the CIC work is a good model of collaboration. This mirrors the approach adopted by Professor Hayward for the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (IRQA) with its consultation and engagement work
• Professional learning needs to be prioritised in all review/reform work

Education Scotland encouraged CAB to keep engaged with CIC and to keep members networks up to date if they are interested. 

Any other business

The Chair welcomed any comments on the below the line papers and then confirmed there was no other business. The next meeting will be held in November 2024 (exact date to be confirmed). 

Actions

• share education reform slides (secretriat)
• share OECD education at a glance publication (secretriat)
• send requests in writing about involvement of CAB members in next phase of curriculum improvement cycle (secretriat)
• share links to adverts for HM Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland and Chief Executive of Education Scotland (secretriat)