Significant Changes in S4 Subject Choices in Dundee Secondary Schools

I raised this issue on the Agenda of the Education Committee on Monday night because I believe we should be monitoring and responding to the effects of switching from Standard Grades to the new National 4 and 5 examinations.

I want to make it clear that my observations should in no way be seen as a criticism of the examination results of our pupils nor their teachers in our schools. My comments should be seen as issues we should acknowledge and respond to in the current school year.

What was noticed when the changes to the examinations were first flagged up to pupils, parents and carers was the reduction in 25% of the subjects that our young people could enter in their S4 examinations. Whereas an S4 pupil could undertake 8 standard grade courses, with the new National 4 and 5 examinations only 6 subject courses could be followed throughout S4. This reduction seemed to be at odds with the aims of Curriculum for Excellence promoting a broad general education. Some of our secondary teachers had concerns about the effect on fewer choices on the number of senior pupils electing to take their particular subject. Many parents were concerned that this reduction in choice would involve not being able to gain the necessary breadth of qualifications to undertake a particular career.

Now we have some figures it is possible to see that some subjects have suffered from very significant reductions in pupil numbers in S4. Comparing 2012/13 when pupils last took Standard Grades with the first year of taking the new National 4 and 5 examinations, there has been a very big reduction in our young people taking a modern language. An 86% reduction in French, 65% reduction in German and a 21% reduction in Spanish. 666 pupils in classes taking a standard grade modern language (General and Credit classes) in 2013/14 as against 171 taking a National 4 or National 5 class in 2013/14. Changes like this are likely to have a profound effect on the number of young people taking a modern language at Higher. Advanced Higher and subsequently at University. It will also have an effect on the number of language teachers we can maintain in our schools; weakening rather than strengthening this area of the curriculum.

The second issue arises from recommendations from the Curriculum for Excellence Management Board Report This working group reviewed the experience of the first year of the new qualifications and produced a report with recommendations for teachers, local authorities and national bodies about tackling the 'significant and unsustainable level of over assessment (of pupils undertaking National 4 and 5 courses)in many parts of the system.'

With all these issues, I think that parents and carers, pupils and their teachers as well as members of the Education Committee are entitled to know how we will be supporting our secondary schools to respond to these issues in the current school year and beyond.                          

Introduction of the New Secondary School Exams - Call for Clarity in Dundee

A poll by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) has revealed that 45% of secondary schools in Scotland are still allowing pupils to choose exam subjects at the end of second year.
The SSTA survey was reported in The Herald on Saturday 18 February.

The move runs counter to official guidance from the Scottish Government on the new Curriculum for Excellence which seeks to give pupils a broad-based education up until the end of S3.

It is only at that point pupils are supposed to choose which subjects they will sit under the new National 4 and National 5 exams – which replace Standard Grade and Intermediate qualifications.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education has previously spoken out on the issue after East Renfrewshire Council's decision to allow S2 pupils to choose subjects.

However, it is clear from the SSTA survey that such delays are far more widespread. 

The SSTA survey shows very clearly that, many schools are ignoring the Cabinet Secretary's advice and retaining subject choice in S2 rather than S3.

It is not clear from the reporting of the SSTA survey whether any of our nine Dundee Secondary Schools are part of the 45% of secondary schools taking their own decisions about moving towards the new examinations.

Members of the Education Committee has been kept in the dark about what is planned in Dundee by the Education Directorate. Under protest, I have received an assurance from the Director of Education that a detailed report on Curriculum for Excellence will be coming up at an early meeting of the Education Committee. I hope we will have an opportunity to postpone Dundee pupils taking the new examinations if there is any doubt that not to do so would disadvantage these pupils who would otherwise act as guinea pigs for the new examinations.

One anxiety often reported to me by parents with children in S2 is that their children will be restricted to taking six subjects in the new National 4 and National 5 examinations examined at the end of S4. This is a 25% reduction from the current eight subjects at standard grade. The new curriculum for excellence is meant to broaden the education of pupils, but this restriction on courses in S4 appears to prematurely and abruptly close off career and educational options for senior pupils. It is disappointing if all the upheaval of a new curriculum and new examinations is leading to a backward step rather than some tangible improvements.

I think the case for delaying the transition to the new exams gets stronger by the day.

Dundee pupils, parents and teachers deserve better.

Curriculum for Excellence in Dundee - Urgent Local and National Changes Required

Now that the 33 period week has been abandoned in Dundee, parents and carers and members of the Education Committee need to know how our nine secondary schools will progress the new S3 which will run for the first time from August 2012. We also need to know how the senior phase, S4-S6, will be structured. The first students undertaking the new S4 on Curriculum for Excellence will begin their studies in August 2013. This year of study will lead up to the examinations, National 4 and 5, in May 2013. 

Although the new S4  was not strictly part of the consultation about the 33 period week, it was inquired about by parents at both of the consultation events I attended at Grove Academy and Morgan Academy. The biggest bone of contention is the narrowed number of subjects that each pupil will apparently be able take in S4. Pupils will only be able to take a maximum of six subjects at National 4 or 5, the new exams, compared with a maximum of eight subjects at Standard Grade, which are being phased out.  While a model of the the new 'senior phase' (S3-S6) has been sent to the Head Teachers in our nine secondary schools, there has not been a cheep to the Education Committee. This should be remedied at the next Education Committee. I have written to the Council requesting that this is added to the agenda of the next meeting of the Education Committee.

This narrowing of subject choice in S4 seems at odds with the stated aspirations of the Curriculum for Excellence which was supposed to provide a more comprehensive broad general education. It seems we may have had all this upheaval to make S3 a general year with a wider number of subjects while postponing exams until S4 when there would be 25% fewer subject choices.

But not all these issues can be fixed on the spot in Dundee; some need attention at the national level by the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mike Russell. 

For example, the slow pace of details being released by the Scottish Qualifications Authority about the new National Four and Five examinations is reducing the long term planning time in secondary schools. This could be remedied by a one year postponement of implementing the introduction of the new examinations and continuing with Standard Grades for another year. In similar circumstances in England, the government have been prepared to allow twelve months more for preparing for an important educational change. Last week we learned that in East Renfrewshire, a Labour/SNP led council has decided to postpone putting its pupils in for the new exams by one year.

  

If we don't take this decision to postpone in the next few weeks, timetables will be written for next year and we will be saddled with a change that is being rushed in without the confidence of teachers, parents and carers that this is neither the right change nor the right timescale for the new exams.

If I met Michael Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, these are the four key questions I should want to ask him about making a success of the Curriculum for Excellence in Dundee schools:

• Why, while advocating a broader general education via curriculum for excellence, is choice actually going to be decreased by a quarter in S4? What has he got to say to the parents who have already complained about the effects of this reduced number of choices in S4 on the options for their child in meeting entrance requirements for some University courses?
  
• Why has the Cabinet Secretary gone out of his way to antagonise teachers by cutting their conditions of work and their pensions at a time when he needs their undivided professional attention to make a success of implementing the Curriculum for Excellence and the new examinations?
  
• Why has be allowed the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to get so far behind providing the documentation for schools and teachers so that they can adequately prepare themselves and their senior pupils for the new exams to be sat for the first time in May 2014? Many parent are worried that their children are the unfortunate guinea pigs for all these changes.
  
• Many secondary teachers feel they are under prepared and the changes in the Senior Phase (S4-S6) of Secondary Schools are being rushed. Many parents have reservations too. Will he now provide another year of preparation time for the new examinations and review the limits on subject choices in S3/4?

Should we Delay the Introduction of the New National Exams in Dundee Secondary Schools?

Now that the 33 period week has been abandoned in Dundee, parents and carers and members of the Education Committee need to know how our nine secondary schools are planning the new S3, which will run for the first time from August 2012. We also need to know how the senior phase, S4-S6, will be structured. The first students undertaking the new S4 on Curriculum for Excellence will begin their studies in August 2013. This year of study will lead up to the examinations, National 4 and 5, in May 2014.
Earlier this week, East Refrewshire Council announced that they had decided to delay by a year putting their secondary pupils in for the new National 4 and 5 Examinations. Current S2 pupils in Dundee will be amongst the first to sit these in June 2014. Teachers' leaders have also voiced concerns that many secondary teachers do not feel adequately prepared for the next phase of implementing the Curriculum for Excellence. This is not a vote of confidence in the Scottish Government’s plans for the Curriculum for Excellence which frankly seem to be unravelling.
In Dundee we need to know whether the Education Convener, Liz Fordyce has a Plan B for our secondary schools? More specifically, will she give an absolute guarantee that the resources are in place and that teachers in all our nine secondary schools will be ready for the next phase of the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence and preparing their pupils for the new examinations? If not, will she stand by her pupils and give their teachers an additional year to prepare for the new examinations while continuing with Standard Grades? This would allow one more year of preparation for our secondary teachers. 
While I appreciate that she is standing down as a Councillor in May, I hope, for the sake of the pupils involved, she is looking further ahead. It's not Liz Fordyce's education which is at risk, nor mine. We can’t afford to gamble with the education of our children.