Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in education in Scotland by providing a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum from 3 to 18. The Curriculum includes the totality of experiences which are planned for children and young people through their education, wherever they are being educated.

The 3-18 curriculum aims to ensure that all children and young people in Scotland develop the attributes, knowledge and skills they will need to flourish in life, learning and work.

The knowledge, skills and attributes learners will develop will allow them to demonstrate four key capacities: to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

Learners are entitled to a curriculum that includes a range of features at the different stages of learning. The entitlements ensure that children and young people are provided with continuous opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work.

All children and young people in Scotland have an entitlement to a curriculum which will support them in developing their values and beliefs and enable them to:

- achieve the highest possible levels of literacy and numeracy and cognitive skills

- develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work

- develop knowledge and understanding of society, the world and Scotland's place in it

- experience challenge and success so that they can develop well-informed views and act responsibly

They should be encouraged to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle and be equipped with the skills needed for planning their future lives and careers.

The Curriculum is structured around all the experiences that are planned as part of learning and teaching. This includes the curriculum areas and subjects, the school community and interdisciplinary projects. By recognising and planning learning around different contexts and experiences, the curriculum aims to make better connections across learning.

Experiences and Outcomes

The title experiences and outcomes recognises the importance of the quality and nature of the learning experience in developing attributes and capabilities and in achieving active engagement, motivation and depth of learning. An outcome represents what is to be achieved.

The experiences and outcomes are set out in lines of development which describe progress in learning. They are organised into the eight curriculum areas:

- Expressive arts

- Health and wellbeing

- Languages

- Mathematics

- Religious and moral education

- Sciences

- Social studies

- Technologies

How are they used?

By exploring the entire set of experiences and outcomes, you will be able to see the curriculum from the early years to the end of S3 as a whole. Those who teach a particular stage will be able to see where their contributions to a child's learning and development sit in the span of progression. Secondary teachers will also see where they can make contributions to experiences and outcomes from more than one curriculum area.

Staff can then plan, with colleagues, their contributions to each learner's education and also support learners in making connections in their learning. By doing this successfully, they will ensure that each learner experiences a coherent curriculum, achieves the highest possible standards, and is prepared to move successfully into the senior phase and a positive and sustained destination.

The framework is less detailed and prescriptive than previous curriculum advice. It provides professional space for teachers and other staff to use in order to meet the varied needs of all children and young people.

Pre-school children follow the Experiences and Outcomes listed in the Early Level of the Curriculum, and will do generally until the end of Primary 1. The Curriculum is deliberately flexible with expectations in order to give educators (teachers etc...) the power to create lesson plans that cater for the individual needs of the children. It is broadly understood that all children learn different things at different rates and this approach aims to cater for that.

This approach also allows for cross-curricular activities which is a huge focus in the Curriculum for Excellence. For example Pre-School children might be baking cakes: learning about healthy eating in terms of what we should eat often and what we should only eat sometimes (Health & Wellbeing) as well as measuring, weighing, counting, distributing, and dealing with time (Numeracy).