THAT Curriculum for Excellence look!

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Feb 24 2008

Posted at 9:13 am under Curriculum for Excellence

Friday 22nd February 2008 saw the launch of the eagerly anticipated Literacy outcomes for the new Curriculum for Excellence for Scotland. Ewan McIntosh has led the way in expressing his thoughts on the new outcomes in his post and further supportive comment in the Guardian on-line

I for one was overjoyed to see how forward thinking and embracing of new media and young people’s culture they are, I was even more heartened by Maureen Watt’s (Minister for Schools and Skills) statement, expressing some of the more punchier aspects of the outcomes.

I got to thinking…if the Literacy outcomes can be this innovatory and this is an indication of how the Scottish Government want the new curriculum to be as excellent as it can be, then I can’t wait for the Health and Wellbeing ones!!! Those who know me, know that I’m an excitable puppy at the best of times, but between now and May I shall be counting down the days.

Yes, May, that’s when the Health and Wellbeing outcomes will be published along with the guidance on the new School Act. The delay in the Health and Wellbeing outcomes being published has raised concerns amongst my colleagues nationally. At the last network meeting hosted by the Scottish health Promoting Schools Unit A colleague raised the notion that because they were the last of the outcomes to be published it could give the impression that they are the least important. It was confirmed that this wasn’t the case at all and the delay in them being published was because they have been so difficult to write.

Like Ewan has stated in his post, there will need to be some support in the interpretation of the outcomes in Literacy for teachers. Indeed, I’m ~~certain~~ convinced a parallel can be drawn here for the Health and Wellbeing ones too, where there will have to be much support for some staff to shift their thinking about health e.g. from having healthy activities provided to having Health and Wellbeing embedded as core business. But more on this later ..as my next posts will focus on suggestions for how Health and Wellbeing can be demonstrated in lesson/project planning.

You may be wondering about the title and picture?! Having no television at the moment due to redecorating, we (Mr J and I) decided for post-dinner Saturday evening entertainment we’d have a little trawl on BBC’s excellent, watch again IPlayer channel.

If ever there was a moment of divine intervention that could sum up all my thoughts about the new outcomes in a short skit then this was it. That Mitchell and Webb Look Series 2 was another eagerly anticipated release of mine. This didn’t disappoint either… Stone Age barbarians Bigfeet and Redbeard are new characters who moan about having to go on the Bronze Age Orientation Day. The two stone age workers, reluctantly, are being prepared for the traumatic transition to bronze. Mmm, strike any chords!? Classic comedy from the BAFTA winning duo, and this comic timing could not have been more perfect. Brilliant.