Chamber and committees

The curriculum improvement cycle for Literacy and English will commence later in 2024 and will be informed by a range of evidence, including The Education Scotland pilot curriculum review, which will commence in March 2024, the thematic inspection of Literacy and English, also announced on 12 December.

The national action plan will be developed in collaboration with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS), which met to discuss the draft action plan on 12 December 2023 and 31 January 2024. It is expected that the action plan will be published in spring 2024.

Children and young people with additional support needs continue to achieve and we continue to prioritise reducing the attainment gap in Scotland. The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data shows that the attainment gap between mainstream school pupils with additional support needs and those pupils with no additional support needs, across all primary stages and for S3 Third Level or better, has reduced since 2021-2022.

Since 2019-20, we have continued to invest £15m per year to support local authorities and schools to respond to the individual needs of their children and young people. In 2022, 307 additional pupil support assistants were recruited as a direct result of this investment, supporting our ongoing commitment to reduce the attainment gap. We also provide over £11m of funding to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and their families.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the experiences and outcomes for young people with additional support needs, which we have outlined in our Programme for Government 2023-24. Ministers will work with teachers to provide additional professional learning opportunities while seeking to build on the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

The initiation of a systematic curriculum improvement cycle was announced on 12 December 2023, however the background to the cycle stems from the OECD 2021 report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future” and its specific recommendation for Scotland to "develop a systematic approach to curriculum review” which was accepted by Scottish Government.

Since then, the Curriculum and Assessment Board, which includes a range of stakeholders including Education Scotland, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland, leading academics, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority, has already considered and offered views on a range of papers in relation to taking forward a systematic curriculum review cycle in Scotland. Papers were informed by a rapid evidence review supported by the OECD, which looked at international best practice.

In updating the curriculum framework, we will harness the expertise and insights of our teachers, practitioners and subject specialists amongst others. In determining how best to do that, in early 2023 Education Scotland began a number of different curriculum review pilots to test out different approaches, reporting into the Curriculum and Assessment Board.

A wide range of stakeholders will be involved in taking forward each substantive curriculum improvement cycle, in particular teachers, practitioners and subject leads across Scotland, the Curriculum and Assessment Board and the organisations represented on it.

As announced in the statement to the Scottish Parliament on 12 December 2023, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education has arranged for HM Inspectors to carry out a national thematic inspection of mathematics in 2024. The report from the thematic inspection will be published in autumn 2024.

HM Inspectors have recently written to local authorities to outline the approach that they will take for this national thematic inspection.

The final thematic report will be developed by HM Inspectors and will be published on the Education Scotland website and shared with schools and local authorities. The document will summarise the findings of HM Inspectors and highlight what is working well, and what needs to improve.

Work to refresh guidance on the use of mobile phones in schools is underway. There have been high level discussions with local authority and school representatives as part of that process. The Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, which includes a wide range of representative interests, including local authorities and others, will oversee the development of the refreshed guidance, which will be published in the Spring.

As noted in the answer to question S6W-24947 on 19 February 2024, the draft Professional Framework will undergo further evaluation and consultation about ease of use from now until March 2024.

This evaluation evidence will be used to inform further development with another opportunity for users to provide feedback on the content from March 2024 to June 2024. The evaluation will be provided by users of the Framework and is included at the end of the material. It will also be gathered by Education Scotland staff delivering content from the Framework. Other on-going consultation and feedback will occur through our Networks and programme boards which Education Scotland attend.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23510 on 19 December 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

As announced in the statement to the Scottish Parliament on 12 December 2023, the review of the maths curriculum framework will begin this year (2024), with a revised maths curriculum to be tested with teachers before the end of the year.

We have begun engagement with trade unions and other stakeholders in preparation for the wider co-design process which will start this month. We anticipate the design process will take approximately six months to ensure this is a collaborative endeavour. This will feed into the identification of a suitable host institution, followed by a launch once appointed. Specific timelines will follow once the specification of the Centre has been developed through the co-design process.