To really really hate the SNP.

[Twooter]

Got that off my chest.

"They cheat and start 4th year at Easter in order to squeeze in the extra subject"

That's when year groups have always moved up, it happened when I was at school, it happened when my DS was at school before CfE and it's still happening with DD who is about to sit Nat 5's.

The general structure for the CfE btw pre-dates the SNP governance, they inherited it...they did then implement it pretty badly, but it is not all their mess, not by a long shot.

I'm not an SNP supporter though I currently am an SNP voter - because at the moment they are the best of a bad lot.

Trixy, I don't agree with college places being cut. I do agree with free tuition. I'm not a die - hard SNP supporter, but I do want an independent Scotland.

tabulah - not quite, the year groups normally move up after the exams so that's the beginning of June - ours move up at the end of April giving around 5 weeks extra.

No, I don't like being restricted to 6 subjects in S4, but that's the way our Council has implemented CfE. I think it's restrictive and counter intuitive - why can't you study all three sciences as separate subjects for instance?

It is completely unfair that different authorities have implemented it differently, lots of DS's cohort struggled to cut their subjects down to essentially 4 choices with at least 3 of those then having to lead onto Highers. It's lead to a lot of crash Highers being taken in S5 and S6.

OneMagnum...the beginning of exams has always been when they move up IME, so April and that's in 3 different LEAs, so not a local thing.

Can some of the independence voters tell me what exactly it is that they think they will be achieving through independence under Brussels which is what the SNP want? Is it just heart over head? I'm not trying to be goady by the way, it's a genuine question. In my heart I'd love an independent Scotland under a socialist general principle. My head knows that that just isn't possible but that there is things we could do to make things better for the disadvantaged. I personally don't think the SNP want to deliver that, it's independence at any cost. I've looked at the costs and I'm not happy to pay them as it means that the vulnerable and disadvantaged will still be fucked. Obviously that's just my view but is based on looking at the facts as they stand.

I was told by our head that the cfe was meant to allow for local variation. Now to me this creates unfairness because the very premise of having an educational framework for senior phase that is to be adapted to local conditions works against an individual who should be able, via external examinations, to show they can compare with the best nationally so as to enter university or a competitive apprenticeship.

To me it should be a given of an educational system that external exams should be sat consistently across the country.

Also in our local school kids are also now taking quite a few exams later if they are not deemed to be ready in S4. Laid back kids are taking a slower path through exams which may be stressing them less now ( tbh my children need stressing a bit!) but they won't have such strong results to show.

talulah well I must be mistaken once again in what I did, what my siblings did (Edinburgh) what my nieces and nephews did (Edinburgh, Highland, East Lothian, West Lothian, Falkirk and Borders) and what my children's school (Stirling-shire) did up until the last couple of years - none of the other schools in the area move up at the beginning of the exams, they all move up at the end when the exam leave pupils return. If it's happening differently in all the other local authorities then I apologise.

And how do you think Scotland would have managed to continue to provide free tuition after independence given the latest GERS figures?

Tiny, the thing with regional variations and catering to that doesn't really stack up as most schools will have a mixed demographic of children and whilst it may seem that they can cater to the majority be that kids from deprived backgrounds or kids from wealthier backgrounds, the very academic v's the non academic, it remains that each pupil should have the opportunity to achieve as best they can within any school. So I agree that there needs to be a better measure of consistency across all areas.

My children's school as well only allows 7 nat 5s which includes the core topics English and Maths. Choices are made in S3 but the 7 nat 5s are only possible due to stealing part of the school year from S3 and moving the pupils to S4 after the Easter break. 6 or 7 nat 5s are the standard here unless you are at private school and they manage that by starting the nat 5 curriculum at the start of s3, these children are at a great advantage as they have a huge amount of extra time to complete the course and associated course work. Susanne u state that your girls made their choices in S2 therefore their school as with private schools are not following the guidelines of the b&g curriculum.

But education in secondary schools isn't the only problem, curriculum for excellence is having an awful impact on primary education, so much so that I have removed DS3 from state education to private. I feel for the children left behind who are receiving an education completely inferior to what was delivered even 6 years ago when my older children were at primary. Parents whose children have arrived at High School this year have been incredibly upset when they've been told that there are significant gaps in math skills and that remedial plans need to be put in place, these are children who were on the 'top' table.
I've heard anecdotely that first runs of assessment for primary children are disastrous.

Higher education, good luck to Scots children getting a place! Cuts in places and the fact that English students come with tuition fees means that they will find it much more difficult then previous years. If they need to go through clearling they will be at the bottom of the pile.

I can't see any of my DC staying in Scotland which is sad.

Tabulah our S4s and S5s move up after exams, so the end of teaching for one year is end of April and the start of teaching for the next year is the end of May. The intervening period is exams / study leave. For S3 and below, they move up after Activities Week, which is the end of May. Either way, it generally means about an extra 5 weeks or so of teaching.

I love the SNP, it is a bit sad they didn't manage to take the work-shy Scots out of the union but at least they can be content with mismanaging it.

Our schools move up in June to the new year. Again this shows there is a huge variations in different areas. We are 7 subjects in S4, 5 in S5 and 4 in S6.

I love the SNP, it is a bit sad they didn't manage to take the work-shy Scots out of the union but at least they can be content with mismanaging it

Are you deliberately trying to be goady? Care to explain about "work-shy Scots"? One Scottish person? An entire nation?

No clue what other schools did when I was at school as firstly I was a teenager and didn't care, lol, but also I went to a school with a forty mile catchment area, so not a huge amount of contact with other schools.

But I do know that the school DD goes to does it at a different time to other ones - but things like that have always varied slightly.

Some schools used to do compulsory RMPS standard grades instead of core for instance, some did that with PE, they changed timetables at different times and standard grade courses could vary wildly in what was covered or what subjects were offered - so not all of the variance is new was really my point.

laguna I was going for the ignore strategy. They missed a trick though and didn't call us the work shy scotch.... maybe a pointer for the future?

You're right OneMagnum, I find it quite difficult though when I see such casual anti-Scottish rhetoric, regardless of who we do or dont vote for.

Oh well better get back to my non-existant job being the "work-shy Scot" that I am!

OneMagnumisneverenough I have taught in Highland since 1997 and in all my time there, pupils have moved up around the time of the end of the exams. This is usually the last week in May or 1st week in June and there has been some variation between schools as to which one they choose. Mine has always changed the timetable early - ie the last week of May.

You could not change it before the start of exams - or even at the start of exams - because exam classes are often still being taught. This year, for 3 weeks after the start of April.

Well, maybe you could tell that to the headmaster then Rose as they have done this for the last few years at my sons High School. This year they break up for exams on the Friday, it's a holiday Monday on the 2nd, New timetable starts on Tuesday, First exams commence on the Wednesday. I'll be happy to PM you the school timetable if you'd like? No pupils in the school in the exam years attend any classes after exam leave begins on 29th April. Thinking though we may have crossed wires? When I said Easter, I meant the Easter holidays as opposed to actual Easter if that makes sense - it seems a little late this year to be honest, we return from Easter hols on the 18th April. Pupils return from exam leave on 6th June. This is normally when schools move to their new timetable. By moving on 2nd May they have 5 weeks extra in S4.

Maybe not you then - OneMagnumisneverenough but a PP was listing all the authorities that have ALWAYS apparently changed timetable at the Easter holidays, suggesting that it was no great change. The PP (can't see as on a phone) also listed Highland as one of the areas where the change had always been at Easter.

I have no idea how your school changes the timetable so early. (beginning of May) as I am still working with exam classes then. However, it sounds horrendous for pupils (and staff). It would also drive my colleagues whose exams are later nuts as well. But, this is a new system - not something that has never changed. It is the usual tangle where policy meets reality....

Rose - she was saying the exact opposite...it was me that said I knew of schools in different areas that had always changed timetables at the start of the exams and study leave.

I didn't name them though. That was a list of areas that had changed after exams.

Apologies again.

My DC is doing 8 nat 5s including French physics and chemistry.

They do start them in s3, just like the standard grades I remember.

Fwiw at the academic private school I went to in the 90s most pupils did 7 standard grades.

No political party is going to be liked by everyone that's kind of the point of democracy?

But I find the vitriol against the snp as opposed to say the anti Tory rhetoric amongst English labour baffling.

If you don't like them don't vote for them.

Simple.