October 2021
Price: £95 PLUS VAT
Format: DOWNLOADABLE PDF
This conference examined the key policy priorities for curriculum design in Scotland, with discussion on measures that can be taken to narrow the attainment gap, expand the current education offering, and respond to disruption caused by the pandemic.
This was a timely opportunity to consider the recommendations made in the recently published OECD Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence, which include:
- replacing the SQA with a new agency
- removing the school inspections function of Education Scotland and replacing it with a new independent inspection agency
- the introduction of a more tightly focused and streamlined qualifications system
With The Scottish Government accepting all 12 of the OECD’s recommendations, delegates discussed key priorities for taking them forward.
We were delighted to have been able to include keynote contributions from Beatriz Pont, Senior Policy analyst, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Anneli Rautiainen, Senior Counsellor of Education, Finnish National Agency for Education (FINEDU).
Attendees
Our forums are known for attracting strong interest from policymakers and stakeholders. Places were reserved by officials from the Scottish Government; Education Scotland; the Intellectual Property Office; Ofsted; and. Also due to attend were representatives from Audit Scotland; Ayrshire College; Borders College; Banff Academy; Bright Red Publishing; Cambridge Assessment; Cattanach; Children & Young People's Commissioner Scotland; CodeClan; Colleges Scotland; Copyright Licensing Agency; Creative Scotland; Dollar Academy; Duncanrig Secondary School, Glasgow; East Ayrshire Council; East Lothian Council; East Park; George Watson's College, Edinburgh; HarperCollins; Heriot-Watt University; Hodder Gibson; Includem; Institute of Physics; Inverness College UHI; Leadership for Change; LinkLiving; Mindroom; NHS Lanarkshire; Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership; Scottish Qualifications Authority; SEEMiS Group; Skills Development Scotland; Systems Technology Forum; The Education and Training Foundation; The Fostering Network; The Glasgow Academy; The Good Shepherd Centre; The Volunteer Tutors Organisation; The Wood Foundation; University of Aberdeen; University of Bristol; University of Edinburgh; University of St Andrews; University of Stirling; and Who Cares? Scotland.
Press passes had been reserved by representatives from DC Thomson and The Times.
For this conference, as is typical of our meetings, we expected speakers and other delegates to be an informed group comprised of parliamentarians, senior government officials involved in this area of public policy, together with other education stakeholders including school leaders, teachers and teacher groups, virtual learning platforms, skills and training bodies, programme coordinators, mentoring groups, counsellors and wellbeing officers, local government, as well as academic researchers and reporters from the national and specialist media.
