Bringing joy to learning - Innovate to elevate

Education Scotland works alongside schools and settings, alongside local authorities, and with educators who are improving the curriculum offer for their learners. In this guest article Julie Fleming, Head Teacher at Barassie Primary School in South Ayrshire, shares her experience of taking part in the Curriculum Design Professional Learning sessions.

My name is Julie Fleming and I am the Head Teacher at Barassie Primary School in South Ayrshire. Barassie Primary School and Early Years Centre is situated to the north of the town of Troon close to Barassie beach.

This session, I was interested in taking part in the Curriculum Design Professional Learning sessions (co-created by our Curriculum Innovation Lead within the Local Authority and the Curriculum Innovation Team within Education Scotland). The time was right to explore our curriculum offering across the school as I knew we needed to be more innovative. We have worked collegiately to look at our approaches to IDL and other contexts for learning, but I was questioning the relevance of some areas of focus for this generation of learners. I wanted to gain a better understanding of the national view on curriculum and where our context fits with this.

As a Head Teacher who has participated in the Curriculum Innovation professional learning sessions this year, I can confidently say that the experience has been truly transformative for me.

As a Head Teacher who has participated in the Curriculum Innovation professional learning sessions this year, I can confidently say that the experience has been truly transformative for me. The sessions led by Nicola and Gail were engaging and inspiring. I learned something from every session and left with tools to take back to my own school and share with others. I left with plenty of questions for myself about our curriculum and what it has the potential to become.

Participation has challenged my thinking and really made me question why we do what we do, in the way that we do it. The sessions have given me the professional confidence to ‘shake it up’ and be brave. This has started by seeking children’s views using the ‘What If’ prompts we received from the Curriculum Innovation Team during one of the sessions. My next step will be to have open and honest professional dialogue with the staff team in relation to what our young people are saying. We need to be creative and innovative to ensure we have a responsive curriculum, reflecting the interests and aspirations of our learners – enabling all young people to be “confident individuals”, “successful learners”, “effective contributors” and “responsible citizens”, the purpose of Scotland’s Curriculum.

The insights gained from these sessions have allowed me to re-evaluate, innovate and creatively approach our curriculum to meet the needs of our learners.

The insights gained from these sessions have allowed me to re-evaluate, innovate and creatively approach our curriculum to meet the needs of our learners. I now feel confident to support our teachers with the knowledge and tools to create high-quality, pupil-centred learning experiences that foster critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.

I highly recommend these professional learning sessions to any Head Teacher looking to innovate their school’s curriculum and ignite the joy of learning!

I have seen first-hand the positive impact this is having on our school community, and I am really excited about the continued progress and growth we will achieve as we continue to implement new curriculum design principles. I highly recommend these professional learning sessions to any Head Teacher looking to innovate their school’s curriculum and ignite the joy of learning! Using a quote from one of the sessions, ‘What if we get it right?’

If you are thinking about the curriculum offer in your setting Education Scotland would love to hear from you! Email – [email protected]? Visit scotlandscurriculum.scot to find out more.