Scottish teachers, please talk to me about the so-called "Curriculum for Excellence" and why I shoud allow my DS to be a guinea pig?

[gaelicsheep]

I am struggling to find information about the following things:

1. What is DS actually going to learn during his time at school? As in knowledge and facts? (And I don't mean how to use the internet to teach himself). Where is the actual syllabus?

2. Where is the hard research (preferably non-Scottish) upon which this new approach is based?

3. Where is the proof that it works and that children will actually be any better off? Will my child leave primary school actually knowing anything at all?

I have looked in depth at the official CfE stuff and it does not answer my questions. The "parents' toolkit" is worse than useless. I will be eternally grateful to anyone who can help answer these questions, or direct me to where I can find answers. Because right now, for DS's sake, I am seriously regretting moving north of the border.

god no- i get my class to badger their parents to take them to the library- constantly asking who was there at the weekend, who has a library card(bit cheeky i know) also 'finding things out for themselves' approach is actually more to do with placing emphasis on talking and listening, group work, the teacher providing information and the child deciding what it is about that topic the child wants to focus on iyswim... reporting back to group etc etc, teachers also need to take the time to show children how to research EFFECTIVELY on the internet anyway- which in itself will be crucial literacy skill for them.

I have no experience of Scotland but followed this thread because I have just moved my Reception child out of a school in Surrey that heavily emphasised child centered learning. I have had to face that I have turned into a 'pain in the backside type of parent'.
What I would say from my experience is that even within a guidance framework schools are able to interpret change and tend to do so to suit the approach to education they already have. Go and see different schools if you can and you'd be surprised how much of a feel you get once you can make comparisons.
Some schools seem to make child centered learning an end in itself. After my experience I looked for a school that used the methods prescribed to achieve firm and ambitious academic goals.

I'm not sure if I can see different schools though since there's only one option. To be fair, I haven't had chance to see the primary part of this school either yet because DS is still at pre-school age. It's a good point though that schools will probably interpret the new guidance according to their existing ethos.

Sorry to be a pain, but since you're here can you teachers also clear something up for me and DH please? Do you, or do you not, use textbooks any more, particularly in a subject like maths? Because I get the impression that almost everything is based around random worksheets these days. Caz's point about core things possibly being overlooked when mapping to the outcomes makes me wonder whether there is a structured progression in this kind of subject, or whether teaching is purely topic based with no continual reinforcement and development of the concepts. (I watched that Dispatches programme, can you tell?)

CfE maths
literacy
sciences
www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/expressivearts/outcomes/alloutcomes.asp
health & wellbeing/pe

it's very similar to the new English primary curriculum from what I can see.

Thanks, I've seen all those. I think I've come to the conclusion that it's the patronising language that I don't like. As you say, once you get past the language the content isn't hugely different.

re the resources etc - some schools I know have ditched core textbooks completely in maths, but actually with the aim of doing more teaching of the core concepts, rather than just plodding (or sometimes racing, depending on how demanding your SMT are) through the chapters regardless of understanding. I think a combination is best but that's just a personal opinion.