Developing your Senior Phase CurriculumMay 2017 (updated March 2018)

Introduction

Over the past few years I have come to realise that many secondary school leaders in Scotland don’t get the simple concept that, ‘curriculum drives attainment’. Instead of focusing on improvements to the school curriculum many Headteachers instead become fixated on trying to improve the number of Cs to Bs or Bs to As in an attempt to boost Insight tariff scores. While I am not saying this isn’t important, what I am saying is that young people will always do considerably better in subjects that they want to study rather than ones that they are forced to take because the school or local authority policy is that all S5 or S6 learners must take a minimum amount of subjects.

The next thing that I have noticed is that in my experience very few schools in Scotland actually properly tailor their Senior Phase curriculum to their local need or their local context. You can identify this by looking at the narrow range of subjects and types of qualification (normally Nationals and Highers) that most young people leave secondary school with.

Finally, I find it astonishing that a large percentage of education professionals (Headteachers included) who don’t fully understand and Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) and the range of qualifications that are available to young people (and adults) in Scotland. I would go as far as to say that most secondary

practitioners couldn’t tell you the difference between an SVQ, a NPA or an NC? or how an Advanced Higher weighs up against and HNC?

With all of this in mind it is no wonder that some schools struggle to improve.

Understanding the SCQF

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is Scotland’s National Qualifications Framework. It classifies qualifications from SCQF Level 1 (eg: SQA National 1 Award) to SCQF Level 12 (Doctoral Degree).

Schools are mostly familiar with National 3, 4 & 5 Awards, Highers and Advanced Highers. A National 3 Award is at SCQF Level 3, a National 4 is at SCQF Level 4, a National 5 is at SCQF Level 5, a Higher is at SCQF Level 6 and a Advanced Higher is at SCQF Level 7. But there are lots of other awards that are also at the these SCQF Levels that with the correct approvals schools can deliver as part of their curriculum. These include Skills for Work Courses, National Progressing Awards (NPAs) and National Certificates (NCs).

The diagram below shows how various qualifications relate to the SCQF Framework.

Traditionally, NPAs and NCs were seen as the domain of colleges but the philosophy behind the Curriculum for Excellence changed all of this years ago (it is just that some people didn’t notice!) The way schools are measured through Insight Benchmarking

(rather than the amount Nationals, Highers and Advanced Highers a young people collects) has also provided a licence for schools to be a lot more imaginative and relevant with their qualification offering.

The 7 Principles of Curriculum Design (a document that many schools need to go back and re-visit) provide yet another reason for schools to offer a wider qualification portfolio to its learners.

Senior Phase Development at Kingussie High School

There has been a real focus on raising aspirations, improving positive destinations and the development of careers education in Kingussie High School (KHS) since October 2013. The publication of the Developing Young Workforce Interim Report towards the end of 2013 along with a follow through inspection report from Education Scotland of the school created a real desire to re-think and modernise its curriculum.

The publication of Highlands and Islands Skills Investestment Plan in 2014 started to make me think about future local employment and the skills that young people would need to access jobs locally. As part of our focus on developing a future workforce we developed a model around the 5 A’s as simple (and also terrible!) acronym to get staff thinking about local employability.

The five A’s are:

Activity TourismA9An Camas Mor (new housing development)A Wind Farm (and other renewables)Anywhere Working (digital)

As a result of the above and a real desire to offer an improved range of qualifications in the Senior Phase the following courses and initiatives were incorporated into the life of the school over a period of time.

Local need Senior Phase Course / Initiative

Activity Tourism N4/ N5 Travel and TourismNC Activity Tourism (SCQF Level 6)N4 Rural SkillsNPA Rural Skills (SCQF Level 5)NPA Exercise & Fitness Leadership (SCQF Level 6)Confucius Hub ProjectIntroduction of Languages Life and Work Project

A9 N4/N5 ConstructionN4/N5 Practical Metalwork

An Camas Mor N4/N5 Construction

A Wind Farm N4/N5 ConstructionN4/N5 Practical MetalworkN4/N5/H Engineering Science

Anywhere Working NPA Digital Passport (SCQF L4, L5 & L6)1:1 Chromebook rolloutS1 ICTElective ICTCreation of the STEM Room (Digital Creators) and associated projects (eg: Lego Space Challenge)

Following the publication of Developing Scotland's Young Workforce (June 2014) the school incorporated many of the recommendations into its Improvement Plan. This was built upon following the publication of the Developing the Young Workforce: Career Education Standard (3-18). We have also introduced an S3 course on the future that focuses on what the future looks like as well as future jobs and the skills needed to access them.

A Growing Portfolio of Qualifications

The introduction of the above Senior Phase courses did not happen overnight but over a four year period we worked with staff, departments and partners to significantly improve our offering of Senior Phase qualifications.

The amount of options available to students in 2012/2013 was 19 subjects and in 2016/2017 this number was 41 (this doesn’t include variations in subject such as N5, Higher, AH, etc.) and it also doesn't include courses that students can study at College or via distance learning. It just includes the courses that are run by KHS and our partners at KHS.

2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017

ArtBiologyChemistryPhysicsBusinessPractical CraftHistoryHospitalityEnglishMathsPEGraph ComGaidhligGeographyModern StudiesProduct DesignPsychologySport and RecreationFrenchMusic

ArtBiologyChemistryPhysicsBusinessPractical CraftHistoryHospitalityEnglishMathsPEGraph ComGaidhligGeographyModern StudiesProduct DesignPsychologySport and RecreationFrenchMusicDesign & ManufactureEarly Years and ChildcareActivity TourismZESTTravel and TourismRural SkillsSpanishYASS Courses

ArtBiologyChemistryPhysicsBusinessPractical CraftHistoryHospitalityEnglishMathsPEGraph ComGaidhligGeographyModern StudiesProduct DesignPsychologySport and RecreationFrenchMusicDesign & ManufactureEarly Years and Childcare*Activity TourismZESTTravel and TourismRural SkillsSpanishYASS CoursesConstructionPractical Metal WorkUniformed ServicesCreative IndustriesPhotographyRMPSEngineering Science

ArtBiologyChemistryPhysicsBusinessPractical CraftHistoryHospitalityEnglishMathsPEGraph ComGaidhligGeographyModern StudiesProduct DesignPsychologySport and RecreationFrenchMusicDesign & ManufactureEarly Years and ChildcareActivity TourismZESTTravel and TourismRural SkillsSpanishYASS CoursesConstructionPractical Metal WorkUniformed ServicesCreative IndustriesPhotographyRMPSEngineering ScienceDigital PassportExercise & Fitness LeadershipASDANScottish Baccalaureate

Total: 20 Total: 28 Total: 34 Total: 40

*some courses run every two years. Learners are aware of this to allow them to plan their S4 - S6 Senior Phase Curriculum.

Perhaps what is more impressive than the range of courses that we now offer is that we have been able to increase our academic and vocational offering and reduce staffing to meet our imposed efficiency targets. In 2012 we had 35 FTE Teaching staff (not including support for learning teaching staff) and in 2017 we have 31 FTE (again, not including support for learning teaching staff).

Changing the Mindset

One of the keys to being able to offer more with less staff is to really get across to young people that they are trying to develop a portfolio of qualifications during their time in the Senior Phase. To help us do this we have one to 1:1 interviews with all pupils and their parents as part of the options process. This helps young people plan and also co-create their Senior Phase. It also allow us to explain differences in SCQF Level qualifications and make recommendations.

A good example of this appears in PE.

● Pupil A takes National 5 PE (SCQF Level 5) in S4 and because they have developed literacy skills (normally at SCQF Level 5) they progress to Higher PE (SCQF Level 6) in S5 and then add breadth and depth to their learning by taking an NPA in Exercise and Fitness Leadership (SCQF Level 6) in S6.

● Pupil B takes National 5 PE (SCQF Level 5) in S4 but because their literacy skills are still developing and they may struggle with a final written exam they choose to progress to the NPA in Exercise and Fitness Leadership (SCQF Level 6) in S5 and then add breadth and depth to their learning by taking Higher PE (SCQF Level 6) in S6.

Both pupils leave the Senior Phase with the same qualifications but the pathway they take is tailored to each individual pupil. Of course, there are many other combinations and permutations. For example, Pupil A could also take Advanced Higher PE (SCQF Level 7) in S6 progressing their leaving from Higher PE while at the same time adding breadth and depth SCQF Level 6 learning by also taking the NPA in Exercise and Fitness Leadership.

Results

Here is what attainment would have looked like for academic year 2012/2013 if we had Insight then:

Some emergency actions put in place from October 2013 leads to some improvement for academic year 2013/2014. Education Scotland described this as 'green shoots' of improvement.

Year 1 of the New Curriculum (see evolution model above) - Results from academic year 2014/2015.

Year 2 of the New Curriculum (see evolution model above) - Results from academic year 2015/2016.

Year 3 of the New Curriculum (see evolution model above) - Results from academic year 2016/2017. Note: S6 Leavers have now benefitted from three full years of the new curriculum model.

Next Steps

We have a lot to be proud of when it comes to our Senior Phase curriculum at Kingussie High School. But we also know that we have the capacity to do more and be even more creative with our senior phase offering.

Our renewed focus for 2018/2019 is system leadership. At the heart of system leadership is the notion that all professionals within a school think of children in other schools as importantly as the children in their own schools.

The emphasis is on community and networked sharing and we have sought endorsement from both students, staff, parents and local members to place sharing (curriculum, pedagogical, pastoral and administration knowledge and practice) at the core of what Kingussie High School stands for.

We want other schools in Scotland and beyond to take the best bits of our practice and combine this with their own ingredients create their own local recipes to drive forward school improvement.

Ollie BrayHeadteacherKingussie High SchoolMay 2017[updated March 2018]

www.kingussiehigh.org.uk