Thoughts on Scottish schools

[sonjadog]

I have been asked to make a short presentation on the Scottish school system at work next week. I don't live in the UK and will be making this presentation to people who know very little about Scotland. After going through the structure, curriculum etc, I´d like to finish off by presenting some things that Scottish parents are particular focused on or concerned about in Scottish schools. I think it would be good to end with more personal perspectives.

Is there anyone on here who would be willing to share a thought or two that I could include in my presentation? Thank you!

Bumping for you. Why are you doing a presentation on Scotland if you aren’t there and the people there know little about it out of interest? I personally felt that it was better (more thorough) than the English system back when it was standard grades and highest but it may have changed now and I guess it will also depend on how good the school is.

Your answers will be along political lines and therefore fairly meaningless I suspect

Hard to explain without giving away too much about me. But in vague details, I'm an academic who will be giving a presentation to a group who will be going on a study tour there next year.

Well, very current issues are the introduction of formal tests in P1, the upcoming strike of support staff and the teachers’ pay campaign. Play in P1 seems to be gaining momentum.

There has been a push towards the recognition of ACEs but very little support to back it up.

Great, thanks!

Absolutely key are Scottish Attainment Challenge,

use of Pupil Equity Funding in narrowing the gap and raising attainment.
Happy answer any specific questions as parent ..or educator

You know that every area has two state schools , non demoninational and Catholic ?
The RC schools tend to have bigger catchment areas.

Expansion of early years provision
Lack of funding to make this happen
Wraparound care and education being provided in the same setting with little clear demarcation.

Councils panicking on how to provide increased free hours

Thank you!

Asking ‘whit school do you go tae?’ Is actually cods for ‘are you Catholic or Protestant?’ Lol

I’ve experienced English and Scottish systems as a parent. Much much prefer Scottish system. Broader curriculum, felt like teachers could teach to their strengths, less emphasis on teaching to test etc. I presume you’ve looked at this site: education.gov.scot/

not all areas have catholic schools

Not only p1 testing but the reintroduction of testing at p4 and p7 which were removed when 5-14 was phased out.

Great, thanks!

The flop that is curriculum for excrement.

There are loads if fantastic incentives within our education.
Developing the young workforce is also a priority so during the senior phase pupils are given the opportunity to gain vocational qualifications in a college setting and extended work placements.
Active schools is also a partnership with primary schools, leisure and sports clubs to give more varied Physical Education.
There are also increased breakfast and holiday provision within schools to help tackle child poverty.
As previously mention Pupil equity fund empowers head masters to source provision for their own schools to help bridge the gap between the pupils in areas of deprivation and high earners.
There are also youth employability teams that work within education to help tailor alternative curriculums to give young people a better chance of moving in to a positive destination after school.

The presumption of inclusion has and continues to catastrophically fail children with SEN.

People generally go to their catchment school, unlike in England where there is the illusion of choice. The philosophy here is that all schools should be good, whereas England has a more consumerist approach. So in Scotland you don’t have a big headache about which secondary school to choose and whether your child will get in and all that.

It doesn’t mean that all school ARE good, just that there are fewer sharp elbows around.

ratspeaker that is not the case in the North East, we have only a few catholic primary’s and not even sure if we have a secondary school either.

You could mention Gaelic Medium Education if your group have a linguistic interest.