
What are the seven principles of curriculum excellence?
- Depth. There should be opportunities for children and young people to develop their full capacity for different types of thinking and learning, exploring and achieving more advanced levels of understanding.
- Coherence.
- Relevance.
- Personalisation and choice.
- Challenge and enjoyment.
- Breadth.
- Progression.
What are the values of curriculum for Excellence?
Mar 02, 2020 · What are the seven principles of curriculum excellence? Depth. There should be opportunities for children and young people to develop their full capacity for different types of... Coherence. Relevance. Personalisation and choice. Challenge and …
What are the 7 principles of the curriculum design?
Based on the literature and the experience of the teaching faculty, ten principles of effective teaching were recommended: 1) create an active learning environment, 2) focus attention, 3) connect knowledge, 4) help students organize their knowledge, 5) provide timely feedback, 6) demand quality, 7) balance high ….
What is CFE (curriculum for Excellence)?
Curriculum principles are the values a school believes will give both their pupils and community the best chance of succeeding, and what they know to be right, given its context. You can think of curriculum principles as being like those by which you …
What are the objectives of the curriculum?
The Principles Of The Curriculum’s Design . When practitioners are planning the children’s learning, they must take into account these 7 broad principles: Enjoyment and challenge; Progression; Breadth; Depth; Coherence; Choice and personalisation; Relevance; What Does The Curriculum For Excellence Involve?

What are the 7 curriculum principles?
What are the principles of Curriculum for Excellence?
- Enjoyment and challenge.
- Progression.
- Breadth.
- Depth.
- Coherence.
- Choice and personalisation.
- Relevance.
What is the purpose of the 7 principles of Curriculum for Excellence?
What are the 8 curriculum areas?
- Expressive arts.
- Health and wellbeing.
- Languages (including English, Gàidhlig, Gaelic learners, modern languages and classical languages)
- Mathematics.
- Religious and moral education (including Religious and moral education and Religious education in Roman Catholic schools)
- Sciences.
What is curriculum excellence?
Curriculum for Excellence places learners at the heart of education. At its centre are four fundamental capacities. These capacities reflect and recognise the lifelong nature of education and learning. The four capacities are aimed at helping children and young people to become:
When will the refreshed curriculum for excellence be published?
Resources to support the Refreshed Curriculum for Excellence Narrative - These resources have been designed to support practitioners in engaging with the Refreshed Curriculum for Excellence Narrative, published on 9 September 2019.
What is the curriculum entitlement in Scotland?
Curriculum entitlements. Children and young people’s rights and entitlements are central to Scotland’s curriculum and every child and young person is entitled to experience: a curriculum which is coherent from 3 to 18;
What is a broad general education?
a broad general education, including well planned experiences and outcomes across all the curriculum areas from early years through to S3. This includes understanding the world, Scotland’s place in it and the environment, referred to as Learning for Sustainability;
What is the building curriculum?
Building the Curriculum - The 'Building the Curriculum' document series provides advice, guidance and policy for different aspects of Curriculum for Excellence including: the curriculum areas assessment; and developing skills for learning, life and work.
How many levels are there in the general education curriculum?
Curriculum levels. The broad general education has five levels (early, first, second, third and fourth). The senior phase is designed to build on the experiences and outcomes of the broad general education, and to allow young people to take qualifications and courses that suit their abilities and interests.
What is the purpose of experiences and outcomes?
They are used to help plan learning and to assess progress.
Why is the curriculum relevant?
Relevance. The learning contexts within the curriculum are planned to ensure they are relevant to the needs, age and stage of the learners. Much of the curriculum is practical and meaningful to ensure all children and young people understand the relevance of learning.
What are cross curricular themes?
Topics/ cross curricular themes and relevant aspects of learning and play reinforce learning and enable teachers to capitalise on learners’ interests and motivation. Young people can research areas of interest such as aspects of personal life, the school, the wider school campus and the local and wider community.
How do teachers ensure progression?
Teachers ensure progression through referring to skills frameworks such as Equals P Scales and the school’s Skills Development Framework, which is described later , to inform planning. Generalising the developing skills of children and young people across different contexts provides evidence of progress.
What are some of the initiatives that children are involved in?
All children and young people are involved in whole school initiatives such as Enterprise, Rights Respecting Schools, ECO and Health and Wellbeing.
What is the importance of making choices?
Making choices is a central aspect of the development of children and young people. This includes helping children to know what choice is, widening learning experiences, interacting with the environment, social interactions, working and collaborating with others and personal responsibility.
What is learning context?
Learning contexts are age and stage appropriate whilst taking account of the developmental needs of children and young people. Progression routes for children and young people are individualised by planning small steps forlearning which are evaluated and celebrated.
What is curriculum principles?
Curriculum principles are the values a school believes will give both their pupils and community the best chance of succeeding, and what they know to be right, given its context. You can think of curriculum principles as being like those by which you live your life and base important decisions on. Except, when deciding on curriculum principles, a school needs to consider what will give all its children the best possible chance of becoming informed, well-rounded, happy individuals who are prepared for the next steps of their lives.
What is the purpose of a broad and balanced curriculum?
To explain the purpose of that principle, a school may say: ‘ A broad and balanced curriculum will provide our children with the skills, knowledge, and understanding they need to develop into well-rounded, informed individuals.’ .
What is Amanda Spielman's commentary on curriculum?
Amanda Spielman’s initial commentary on curriculum states that, for some schools, external pressures such as school inspection or KS2 tests have led to a ‘focus on performance’ trumping the urgency to establish and stick to a set of fundamental principles, although, she says, not intentionally.
What factors might help a school to decide upon them?
But what factors might help a school to decide upon them? Influencing factors might include all or some of the following: personal values, religious beliefs, social context, geographical location, pedagogy, national policy, and resources.
When was the curriculum design blog updated?
After that, the rewarding task of curriculum design can begin. This blog was updated in May 2021. First published in November 2017. Back to Articles.
Is there a one size fits all approach to curriculum development?
There is no one size fits all approach to curriculum development, but you should be clear on the values that are behind your chosen design. Without these principles, the curriculum is set to fall short of providing everything that your school needs.
Why should curriculum be organised?
The curriculum should be organised so that they will learn and develop through a variety of contexts within both the classroom and other aspects of school life.
Why should learners of all aptitudes and abilities experience an appropriate level of challenge?
At all stages, learners of all aptitudes and abilities should experience an appropriate level of challenge, to enable each individual to achieve his or her potential. They should be active in their learning and have opportunities to develop and demonstrate their creativity.
Why is personalisation important in education?
Personalisation and choiceThe curriculum should respond to individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents. It should give each young person increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice as they move through their school career. Once they have achieved suitable levels of attainment across a wide range of areas of learning the choice should become as open as possible. There should be safeguards to ensure that choices are soundly based and lead to successful outcomes.
How does the nature of choice change as a child develops?
The nature of choice will also change as a child develops, for example starting with choices in play activities, moving through choices in topics and contexts for learning and eventually reaching opportunities for decisions between programmes which may have implications for subsequent careers.
What should be the role of young people in education?
should enable all young people to benefit from their education, supporting them in different ways to achieve their potential. must value the learning and achievements of all young people and promote high aspirations and ambition. should emphasise the rights and responsibilities of individuals and nations.
Why is flexibility important in teaching?
There will need to be sufficient flexibility in the way in which teaching and learning is managed to find the right blend and balance for each young person for their particular stage and circumstances. To enhance opportunities and allow greater personalisation of learning, schools will need to look beyond their own expertise and resources so that their students can have access to suitable provision. This may be through technologies to make connections between learners and teachers at a distance, or partnerships with other schools and colleges.
What is the aspiration of every child?
Our aspiration for all children and for every young person is that they should be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors to society and at work. By providing structure, support and direction to young people’s learning, the curriculum should enable them to develop these four capacities. The curriculum should complement the important contributions of families and communities.
What are the experiences and outcomes of curriculum planning?
The experiences and outcomes include aspects such asenterprise, sustainability and creativity which schools have sometimes had to plan as additionsto their curriculum. Time allocations for each curriculum area are not being specified nationally.The broad principle is that children need sufficient time to make good progress through all theexperiences and outcomes and achieve the learning set out at each level securely so that theycan apply their learning in a range of situations. Where this is not being achieved in an aspectof their learning, then more time may be required or changes to learning and teachingapproaches or support may be needed.
What is curriculum in education?
The curriculum is the totality of experiences which are planned for children and young peoplethrough their education, wherever they are being educated. It includes the ethos and life of theschool as a community; curriculum areas and subjects; interdisciplinary learning; andopportunities for personal achievement.
What is getting it right for every child?
The key concept of Getting it right forevery childis a common, coordinated approach across all agencies that supports the deliveryof appropriate, proportionate and timely help to all children as they need it.
What is the senior phase of the curriculum?
The senior phase of the curriculum offers extensive opportunity for personalisation andchoicefor young people. It is the period of learning where young people are expected to makeinformed choices, based on appropriate information and advice from a wide range of sources,about programmes of study leading to qualifications at a level appropriate to the individual’sneeds and achievements. For some young people, this will be about gaining the necessaryqualifications to enter further or higher education. For other young people it will involve buildingon the experiences and outcomes to develop opportunities that will allow them to move on tosustained and positive destinations and lifelong learning. Young people should be encouragedto choose a well balanced andcoherentprogramme of study throughout the senior phasewhich isrelevantto their future pathways.
What is the purpose of the curriculum at this early stage?
The purpose of the curriculum at this early stage is to support children in all aspects of theiremotional, social, cognitive and physical development. It should enable them to becomeincreasingly independent, responsible and eager to progress in their learning. Staff in pre-school education achieve this through their skilled interaction with each child and by providing
What is early education?
Early education in particular adopts a holistic approach to young children’s learning whichresponds to each child’s changing developmental needs and values a child’s prior knowledgefrom home. Centres have the scope to reflect the individuality of their local communities and torespond by providing unique, high quality learning experiencesfor all their children. From theoutset, young children are partners in the learning process, actively participating in theplanning, shaping and directing of their own learning. With sensitive adult support they will learnhow to make good, informed choices and take responsibility for their own learning.
How do learners progress?
learners progress to motivate and encourage their learning. To support this, all learners shouldbe involved in planning and reflecting on their own learning, through formative assessment, selfand peer evaluation and personal learning planning.

Scotland's Approach
What Matters?
- As part of their learner journey, all children and young people in Scotland are entitled to experience a coherent curriculum from 3 to 18, in order that they have opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to adapt, think critically and flourish in today’s world. Curriculum is defined as the totality of all that is planned for children and young people from earl…
Curriculum Entitlements
- Children and young people’s rights and entitlements are central to Scotland’s curriculum and every child and young person is entitled to experience: 1. a curriculum which is coherent from 3 to 18; 2. a broad general education, including well planned experiences and outcomes across all the curriculum areas from early years through to S3. This includes understanding the world, Scotlan…
How We Do It
- Taking curricular aims and translating them into practice is a continuous process. The How we do itsection of the Refreshed Narrative sets out key considerations, activities and ways of working to support the process of curriculum making.
Key Elements
- Curriculum levels
The broad general education has five levels (early, first, second, third and fourth). The senior phase is designed to build on the experiences and outcomes of the broad general education, and to allow young people to take qualifications and courses that suit their abilities and interests. - Curriculum areas
There are eight curriculum areas: 1. Expressive arts 2. Health and wellbeing 3. Languages (including English, Gàidhlig, Gaelic learners, modern languages and classical languages) 4. Mathematics 5. Religious and moral education (including Religious and moral education and Rel…
Related Links
- Benchmarks– The Curriculum for Excellence Benchmarks set out clear statements about what learners need to know and be able to do to achieve a level across all curriculum areas.
- Experiences and outcomes(often called Es+Os) are a set of clear and concise statements about children's learning and progression in each curriculum area. They are used to help plan learning and to...
- Benchmarks– The Curriculum for Excellence Benchmarks set out clear statements about what learners need to know and be able to do to achieve a level across all curriculum areas.
- Experiences and outcomes(often called Es+Os) are a set of clear and concise statements about children's learning and progression in each curriculum area. They are used to help plan learning and to...
- Resources to support the Refreshed Curriculum for Excellence Narrative- These resources have been designed to support practitioners in engaging with the Refreshed Curriculum for Excellence Narrativ...
- Principles and practice- The principles and practice documents are essential reading for practitioners as they begin, and then develop, their work with the statements of experiences …