Thoughts from the Home Front

Yesterday saw the delivery of the last workshop in the 2011-12 National Records of Scotland (NRS) schools programme, providing a moment to reflect on the impact of Curriculum for Excellence. Those of you who are not working in Scotland may be unaware of the replacement of the schools’ curriculum in Scotland with Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).  CfE is intended to provide a framework for educating the whole child to become an informed and responsible citizen, able to plan and direct his or her own learning. There is no structured syllabus, instead pupils and teachers are able to follow their particular interests.

We (the Education team at NRS) have warmly welcomed this new opportunity to create interesting, quirky and diverse workshops for schools and have expanded our programme to include sessions on the ‘Snail in the Bottle’ legal case, the effect of the Second World War on lightkeepers and their families, and the chequered history of Scottish tartan. And yet, during this academic year the most popular workshop has remained the World War II: The Scottish Home Front workshop. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really good workshop in which the children use Valuation Rolls and other sources to trace the story of two streets in Greenock during the war… but I can’t help wondering when CfE is really going to kick in and when teachers are going to start thinking beyond the project boxes and try something new….