Educational Reform in Scotland: Curriculum for Collaboration

Few Scottish secondary educators would disagree that the aspiration and vision of the key recommendations of last summer’s Hayward Review are as essential as they are radical to ensure Scotland’s young people are suitably future-skilled to tackle the rapidly changing challenges of tomorrow.

Although the recent publication of the Education (Scotland) Bill is welcome, to many it will read as little more than a re-branding exercise. The Education Secretary’s initial hold on educational reform has already significantly set progress behind the review’s recommended timeline for its implementation. As it stands, we are not currently “placing learners’ interests at the heart of every decision…”. We are persisting at a snail’s pace with a curriculum and assessment structure which is acknowledged as no longer fit for purpose. How many more cohorts of Scotland’s learners will leave school before the new Bill’s objectives are realised?

Scotland’s educational reform will, of course, be a vast undertaking and its implementation is an understandably daunting prospect for all key stakeholders, be it the Education Secretary, local authorities or the Headteachers who will be locally responsible for its successful delivery. However, there is no question that its ultimate success lies in classroom teachers’ ability and willingness to buy-in to the radical changes afoot and the steep curve of career-long learning that will be required to facilitate the Hayward Review’s recommended reforms and beyond.

Our teachers are crucial to the successful modernisation of the Scottish Curriculum and we must acknowledge the need for swift and significant professional learning to support the timely management of this change. Teachers understand the importance of assessment for learning and the impact of sharing success criteria with pupils; examples of “what a good piece of work might look like” is an invaluable way to show learners what is achievable. The key to educational reform’s success in Scotland might start with something similar and straightforward to promote – the sharing of good practice that is already in place. There will be many schools and teachers in Scotland already exemplifying core “elements” of a future SDA model in their classrooms. Arguably, independent schools might be expected to offer a rich tappable resource in this respect; with baccalaureate curriculums, comprehensive Duke of Edinburgh Award provision, extracurricular enrichment modules of learning, not to mention the autonomous nature of schools’ curriculum adoption allows for more freedom to rapidly adapt their educational offering to suit advancing technology and real-world societal shifts.  Similarly, state sector schools have much good reflective practice to offer independent schools not familiar with delivering the Experiences and Outcomes of the Curriculum for Excellence or the Broad General Education that will more readily feedforward into the SDA’s ethos, timetabling structure and assessment.

To accelerate and utilise comprehensive resources towards educational reform in Scotland, the Education Secretary might consider how to support or legislate the forging of more formal links between state and independent sectors to “build collaborative networks whereby every organisation has a clear understanding of the roles each will play in the design and development of the SDA”.

The High School of Dundee supported by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) hosted a professional learning event in June 2024 to encourage SCIS schools to look beyond the preservation of unique selling points to share their current practice with a view to initiating conversation and collaboration within the sector towards curriculum reform.

The following SCIS schools from across Scotland signed up for a productive day of collegiate working to share respective innovative practices which may readily feed forward towards a Scottish Diploma of Achievement model:

• Dollar Academy
• Fettes College
• George Heriot’s School
• George Watson’s College
• Glenalmond College
• Hamilton College
• High School of Dundee
• High School of Glasgow
• Kelvinside Academy
• Morrison’s Academy
• Robert Gordon’s College
• Strathallan School
• Wellington College

A notable component of the SDA is the inclusion of ‘project learning’, which holds the potential to offer pupils exciting, real-world, collaborative, inquiry-based learning opportunities, but likewise might also be anticipated to create significant challenge for schools and teachers beyond the current mode of subject content delivery.

The High School of Dundee presented case studies from their new “Future Skills Curriculum” for their STEM Innovation, Robotics and Business Enterprise courses.  The purpose being to provide exemplar studies of innovative practice, showing what this type of interdisciplinary project working might look like and how it can be achieved within typical classroom resourcing.

Following the success of the SCIS Education Reform: Curriculum for Collaboration professional learning event, follow-up sessions hosted by Dollar Academy and Hamilton College have been proposed for later this year, with a view to keeping the collaborative momentum going. This sort of collaboration might seem counter intuitive between businesses eager to maintain a competitive advantage in the market; however, it is becoming increasingly clear that the monumental challenge of bringing Scotland’s educational aspirations to fruition exerts a far greater purpose; impacting all key stakeholders and for the benefit of all of Scotland’s schools.

Could this invitation be formally extended to state sector colleagues with a view to building collaborative networks across ALL of Scotland’s schools? To tap into resources, experience and most importantly expertise of ALL of Scotland’s registered teachers.  By working together in a truly comprehensive and collaborative way, teachers can each play a role in the design and development of Scotland’s future curriculum for the benefit of all of Scotland’s young people.