This approach is based on the mother tongue + 2 additional languages model recommended by the European Union and adopted in many countries in Europe and beyond.

The Group’s recommendations build on the substantial research on the benefits of language learning and the key messages and good practice highlighted in the Modern Languages Excellence Group Report, published by Scottish Government in the Spring of 2011.

This is an ambitious and challenging commitment but one which the Group welcomed. Our report makes 35 recommendations which seek to match the ambition of the Government’s commitment with an honest critique of where we start from. We recognise that the task ahead in implementing the Government’s languages commitment is challenging. However, the Group is strong in its views that the 1+2 model is the correct way ahead if Scotland is to become a confident multi-lingual country of the future.

The Group took as its starting point the confident belief that learning another language has positive educational benefits which contribute to the overall cognitive and linguistic development of children and young people. The world in which even our youngest children find themselves is one in which the ability to communicate is paramount. This should be nurtured throughout their time in school and throughout their lives with access to learning additional languages from the earliest stage.

We call, therefore, for earlier access to language learning for children from Primary 1. We also call for better partnership working between primary and secondary schools, closer collaboration across all sectors of education, more extensive and more effective use of technology and regular access to native and fluent speakers to stimulate young people’s interest in language learning and other cultures.

The Government’s languages policy offers the opportunity to reflect on the development of Scotland as a diverse, complex, multicultural and multilingual nation. I hope that our Report goes some way to setting a positive new direction for language learning so that our young people are fully equipped to succeed in an increasingly globalised world.

Simon Macaulay
Chair
Languages Working Group

Way back in 2006, Young Scot, the national youth information and citizenship agency for Scotland launched the Young Scot Awards, in partnership with the Sunday Mail. The Awards celebrate the achievements of young people across Scotland who are contributing to their communities, and also help to challenge negative perceptions of young people.

We asked nominee Ruairidh Tait, 16, from Scottish Borders but currently studying in Warwickshire, to write a blog on his experience of attending this year’s event which took place last month.

“On April 26th, at Glasgow’s Hilton Hotel, the glamorous Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards, in association with The Co-operative Foundation, took place with an audience of more than 800 guests.

At the festival-themed event we were welcomed to a magnificently designed room. Reading through the programme for the evening it was clear just how inspiring the night ahead was going be.

Nominated for an award myself, as part of the Wired team, being at the ceremony was not about us winning an award, but instead about celebrating the fantastic achievements of every single young person that was sat in the room, as well as those of every other young person across the country. It certainly was an honour to be there, representing the hard working young volunteers of Scotland.

The Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards, to me, are not just an opportunity to reward the fantastic work of groups and individuals, but also a great opportunity to share the stories and spread the word about the great things we all do and help tackle the negative perceptions of youth – something I have been very passionate about for some time now. Without its essential partnerships with the likes of the Sunday Mail and local radio stations, it would be impossible to achieve this and following the event I think such partnerships are a great success.

The morning after the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards I began my six hour journey back to Warwickshire, where I currently study. Whilst sat on the train I had never felt so inspired and overwhelmed after hearing the stories. Not only that but I left Glasgow feeling very proud to be a young scot.”

Ruairidh Tait, Young Scot Awards nominee

Watch videos on all the finalists from this year’s Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards

For more information on Young Scot or to find out more about the Young Scot Awards, go to www.youngscot.net

As a parent myself, I realise only too well that the role can be as challenging as it is rewarding.  For some parents however, it sadly, for various reasons, can sometimes prove too much of a challenge, resulting in children and young people coming into the care system.

And that’s where fostering is so essential, as it can provide an invaluable life-line to a child in need and prove to be the platform for them to enjoy a successful, fulfilling future.

I am in no doubt as to the importance of getting it right for every child and young person from the very start, especially where they are vulnerable and in need of extra care and support.

And clearly, one area where this kind of support can be delivered is through fostering, with thousands of foster parents across Scotland already improving the lives of some of our country’s most vulnerable children and young people. 

I place huge value on the role foster carers play in helping make Scotland the best place for children to grow up and would encourage anyone who is considering  becoming a foster carer to come forward so that more youngsters can enjoy the benefits of  being part of a stable, caring  and loving family.

Providing permanent, secure and loving homes for all children and young people who need them – regardless of their personal circumstances – is my ultimate goal and I’m committed to working with the likes of  The Fostering Network Scotland, local authorities and other partners to make that happen.
 
The Centre for Excellence for Looked after Children in Scotland (CELCIS) which launched last year, will also play a key role in supporting local authorities and agencies to review and improve practices across Scotland.

Overall, my aim is for nothing less than a radical shift in care planning towards fewer placements, early permanence decisions and a system that puts the child at the centre and offers those in care the best possible chance of forming long term, family attachments.

Every child deserves the opportunity to fulfil their potential and flourish. I wish everyone involved in Foster Care Fortnight a successful campaign and would join them in encouraging as many people as possible to take up fostering and help make a hugely positive difference to a child or young person’s life.

Today we’ve announced plans to introduce a new Children and Young People Bill to Parliament next year, which among other things will deliver the best package of free early learning and childcare in the UK by increasing the amount from 475 hours a year to a minimum of 600 hours.

After listening to a range of views including local authorities, health boards, children’s organisations and other experts, we’re clear our ambitions for children will best be achieved through this single, comprehensive piece of legislation which will bolster how we support children and place their rights at the heart of everything we do.

The Bill -  which brings together earlier plans for separate legislation on children’s rights and children’s services into one comprehensive framework  - will add to the progress already made (or planned) on children’s rights, as outlined in our update on the 2009 ‘Do the Right Thing’ children’s rights action plan which is published today.

This update sets out the steps we’re already taking to support a child’s right to play such as our PlayTalkRead campaign which encourages parents to spend more time reading and playing with their babies and young children.  As well as  our work to increase a child’s right to be heard through legally embedding our Getting it Right for every Child (GIRFEC) approach to ensure children’s voices are considered when decisions are taken which affect them.

I intend to consult on detailed proposals for the new Bill later this year and I look forward to engaging with the Parliament and partners across the early years as this important piece of legislation progresses.

Aileen Campbell,
Minister for Children and Young People

Related:
Scottish Government Press Release: New Children’s Bill Announced.

My aim as Children’s Minister is very clear: to make Scotland the best place for children to grow up.  And to achieve that, it’s crucial we have the information available to us to help support everyone working across the early years in Scotland.

Published today, The 2012 Growing Up in Scotland study (GUS) does this through providing a snapshot of the lives of Scotland’s children and their families. It also presents valuable, uniquely Scottish evidence to help our understanding of what makes the best start in life, how to achieve that for our children and how to check against the progress we’ve already made.

GUS follows the experiences of 14,000 children and their families, focussing on issues such as education, health and parenting. The findings from this year’s survey explore a range of topics including: early experiences at primary school; obesity and physical activity and the role grandparents play in children’s lives.

Looking at this year’s findings, there’s much to be pleased with. Particularly around areas such as parental satisfaction with their child’s school – as high as 96 per cent overall. The report also highlights how well children are adjusting to starting school, with the vast majority of parents saying so.

It also shows extremely heartening levels of parental engagement with 94 per cent attending a parents evening and virtually all  saying they’d done something to prepare their child for school such as talking to them about it, practicing learning activities and even visiting their school.

This is especially encouraging as parents and carers are key to the successful implementation of the new Curriculum for Excellence – Scotland’s big idea for education.

Strong parental involvement is built on good communication and engagement and we are committed to ensuring parents receive information about Curriculum for Excellence to enable them to support their child’s learning effectively.

We know from a wealth of evidence, including GUS, that it is the early years where we can make the biggest difference for children and their families, and that high quality early learning and childcare has a vital role to play in laying the foundations for a child’s future learning.

The early level of the Curriculum for Excellence builds on these foundations by providing the key principles for continuing the child’s learning journey.

The involvement of grandparents is also very positive, with GUS showing how many help support their families through the valuable role they play.

As a parent myself, this is something I recognise, given the help my husband and I receive from our child’s grandparents. It also reinforces the message that if we want the best for our children, we need to support all parents and carers, not just the child’s parents, but others with a parenting role, including grandparents and kinship carers. In short, we know it’s what parents do that’s more important than who they are or what they have. And that’s why our new National Parenting strategy is being developed to help all parents and will encourage agencies to work together to support them to develop their parenting skills.

Elsewhere, the findings on children’s health and physical activity underline the need to establish life-long healthy habits in our children.  Our Obesity Route Map action plan – published in March last year -  focuses on just that, with some of the identified action points stressing schools set an example as health promoting environments.

As Children’s Minister and a mum myself, I’m committed to supporting children and families and to ensuring we get it right for every child. The GUS findings are therefore hugely helpful to us in policy terms and to all those working across the early years in Scotland.

Aileen Campbell,
Minister for Children and Young People

Related to Growing up in Scotland study:
Growing up in Scotland: The involvement of grandparents.
Growing up in Scotland: Overweight, obesity and activity.
Growing up in Scotland: Research findings – Early experiences of primary school.

Growing Up In Scotland Study website.

Should you ever be stuck with Gaelic homework, help is at hand! 

Live Help offers a homework support service for parents of children in Gaelic Education.  The service is open from 17.30 to 19.30 Monday to Thursday during term time.

Donald Morrison from Stòrlann describes the service they offer, “Knowledge and experience at Live Homework Help is provided by two experienced teachers.   Since the introduction of the upgraded facility last year, the service has seen a marked increase in usage. There is no need for logins or passwords which makes for easy direct access.

The Live Help service is hosted at www.gaelic4parents.com  – a website hosted by Stòrlann for parents of children in Gaelic education, those who are considering Gaelic education for their child and those interested in using the language.

Among the other resources provided on the site are audio files of children’s books for download or listening to in live streaming.  This includes the Gaelic Storyworlds reader series which children will use in primary school.

The website has recently been redeveloped to improve accessibility.  As a result of Gaelic4parents.com being optimised for mobile devices, parents can now access a wide range of books, stories and rhymes by mobile phone.

So, if you (or your child) has Gaelic homework problems, go to www.gaelic4parents.com and ask them a question!”

Donald W Morrison,
Chief Executive, Stòrlann.
http://www.storlann.co.uk/

Scotland is steeped in a rich cultural history up and down the whole country, but few places have more to offer than Ayrshire, and I was delighted to visit two of the county’s key sites this week.

The spectacular Culzean Castle, where I worked as a student many years ago, is a most impressive property, a testament to both the architecture and the peerage of the eighteenth century.

And just to the north is the village of Alloway, home to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. Hopefully Burns will need little in the way of introduction, but this wonderful site includes the cottage where our National Bard was born, landmarks where he set his greatest works and a modern museum to celebrate his life.

So what is the significance of these places to an education minister?

Well, our commitment developing Scottish Studies as part of Curriculum for Excellence affirms the importance of learning about Scotland and the value of young people being able access education about their heritage.

The National Trust for Scotland – to whom Culzean Castle belongs – provides rich learning opportunities for young people looking at Scottish history.

And the Burns Museum is part of the Heritage Education Travel Subsidy Scheme which offers small grants to schools to assist them in getting their young people out for on-site learning at a range of historic places.

This government is committed to ensure knowledge of these, and other key Scottish landmarks, texts and events are integral to education in this country.

But of course, you don’t need to be at a Scottish school to get something from our unique heritage. The stunning views of Culzean Castle and the fascinating tale of Burns will appeal to all ages and backgrounds, and a trip to Ayrshire wouldn’t be complete without a visit.

Michael Russell,
Cabinet Secretary for Education

Professor Tim Bedford the Associate Deputy Principal of the University of Strathclyde blogs on a week long series of events designed to encourage people to engage with the university.

“At Strathclyde we work hard to ensure that everything we do in teaching and in research is relevant to the needs of our modern society, and we do that by working with partners in business, government and the voluntary sector, as well as with other academic colleagues in Scotland, the UK and internationally. Partnership ensures that we can continue to carry out our mission of being a place of useful learning.

Because we believe that partnership is so important, we have set up a whole week of activity called Engage with Strathclyde to welcome anyone from outside the University interested in what we do. More than 30 different events are taking place across the city centre campus during the week 30 April to 4 May.

 There are events about new renewable energy turbines, marketing through social media, innovation, children in care, health technologies, entrepreneurship, and much, much more. You can see a photo exhibition of our research, talk to our leading researchers, and come to a Technology Showcase.

We are fortunate that the Scottish higher education system is recognised for its quality across the world. But universities cannot work in isolation. It is only by working together that we can fully understand the changing needs of today’s employers and the problems faced by industry and society. Strathclyde’s internationally renowned researchers can use the best of innovative thinking  to tackle those problems.

I look forward to meeting people from across the country as they engage with Strathclyde.  Over 1000 people from more than 300 organisations have already signed up to come to an event. You can find more information about engaging with Strathclyde on our website at www.strath.ac.uk/engage

As our Principal, Professor Jim McDonald, has said, together, we have a real opportunity to make a difference for our community, for society, and the economy.

Engage with Strathclyde runs from Monday 30 April to Friday 4 May.

 Professor Tim Bedford,
Associate Deputy Principal, University of Strathclyde

The Scottish Qualifications Authority is fully committed to the successful implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. We will ensure that the new system is as robust and credible as its predecessor.

Today’s publication of the final documents for the new National Qualifications at National 2, National 3, National 4, National 5 and Higher is an important step on the journey to the implementation of the new National Qualifications.

The collaborative and transparent nature of the development process, involving a wide range of professionals, subject experts and educational stakeholders, has meant that the structure of the qualifications and the skills, knowledge and understanding that they will develop in those who study them, are as relevant, challenging and flexible for today and tomorrow’s world, as they can be.

SQA will continue to engage with and provide support to teachers, lecturers, schools, colleges and local authorities throughout the implementation process to ensure the new qualifications are a success. As the process continues we also undertake to continue development of our communication programmes with parent and employer groups and, indeed, with learners themselves.

I would like to thank all those who have helped us so far, to shape these new qualifications which will provide the young people of Scotland with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century.

Copies of all the final documents as well as a range of support can be downloaded from our website, www.sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence

Dr Janet Brown,
Chief Executive,
Scottish Qualifications Authority

Related:
Guest blog: New Qualifications – Practical advice and guidance, Dr Bill Maxwell, Chief Executive, Education Scotland.

SQA website – New qualifications information - National 2 to Higher.
Education Scotland website – Resources supporting National Qualifications.

I’m glad to take this chance to highlight another significant step in our work relating to Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) – the publication of our practical advice and guidance to support practitioners as they acquaint themselves with the formal arrangements for Scotland’s new National Qualifications courses, which have now been issued by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

It is no coincidence that the publication of SQA’s arrangements and our support materials has happened at the same time. While SQA have clearly taken the lead in the development of new CfE courses and National Qualifications, we at Education Scotland have been playing a full role in supporting them in that development.

We have been working with practitioners as well as national stakeholders to make sure that what we have produced will provide practical advice to assist in implementing key aspects of the new qualifications.

The views of practitioners helped shape the priorities for support, and that is why this new material is focussed particularly on the delivery of courses where there is significant change – such as new units, combined courses, or new contexts of learning; and uses a variety of formats, including written advice, videos and some powerpoint presentations.

In developing these new materials, we have worked with a wide range of experienced subject practitioners across the country – people who are teaching pupils in schools, in subjects, every day. As a result, the materials have been developed by practitioners for practitioners, and their quality assurance has been thorough and rigorous.

This new suite of material is one more part of our programme of guidance and information in support of CfE. I am confident that these new materials will really help practitioners as they introduce the needs of the new National Qualifications into their teaching practice.

Dr Bill Maxwell,
Chief Executive,
Education Scotland

Related:
Guest blog: New Qualifications – Dr Janet Brown, SQA Chief Executive.
SQA website – New qualifications information - National 2 to Higher.
Education Scotland website – Resources supporting National Qualifications.