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The Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA) published the final course, unit and assessment specifications for the new National 2-5 and Higher qualifications on 30 April 2012. From October 2012 to April 2013, SQA will be publishing a package of assessment support covering the Units for each Course at National 2,3, 4 and 5. Finalised National 5 specimen question papers and course work will be available by April 2013.

Education Scotland is also working closely in partnership with Directors of Education and others to provide a comprehensive package of course materials for every National 4 and National 5 course to help teachers move forward with confidence. These will be available on-line by end of April 2013.

The Scottish Government issued comprehensive advice in April 2009 to all teachers setting out, through a national framework of experiences and outcomes, the expected knowledge and skills that should be developed across primary and secondary sectors.

Advice on assessing pupils’ progress is given on the Education Scotland website :

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The National Assessment Resource also contains exemplification from a range of schools on how they are developing arrangements to share pupil progress at the point of primary/secondary transition.

In addition to guidance published in December 2010 (Building the Curriculum 5), Education Scotland has had a number of seminars for authorities and schools to provide advice and guidance on profiling and the development of profile. In addition they worked with schools to develop exemplars of profiling and pupil profiles at P7 and S3 and these have been made available on their website:

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Education Scotland are also currently working with a group of 13 schools to provide further exemplification on profiling and the S3 profile which will be published in December 2012. A Curriculum for Excellence briefing on profiling and the S3 profile for all practitioners is currently being prepared by Education Scotland with a view to publication early this school session.

Guidance on profiling and the development of profiles was published in December 2010 as part of the Building the Curriculum series. It is for education authorities and schools to manage and agree the time to be spent by teachers to discuss with peers on annotated portfolios of pupils’ work.

The Scottish Government issued comprehensive advice in April 2009 to all teachers setting out, through a national framework of experiences and outcomes, the expected knowledge and skills that should be developed across primary and secondary sectors.

The Scottish Government does not gather this information. All primary 7 pupils will develop a profile with support from their teacher which will build an accurate and comprehensive account of their progress and achievement. The profile is developed as an on-going process of dialogue and reflection between the teacher and the learner. The first P7 profiles were developed during the schools year 2011-12 and the first S3 profiles will be developed by third year pupils with support from their teachers during the school year 2012-13.

The Scottish Government has not issued any guidance on this issue. It is for education authorities to provide advice to their schools on the nature and time spent on transitional arrangements between their primary and secondary schools.

It is for education authorities to provide advice to their schools on the nature and time spent on transitional arrangements between their primary and secondary schools.

Funding of £6.7 million in 2010-12 and a further three years funding of £3.762 million from 2012-15 has been made available to local authorities to support additional local activity associated with introducing and operating a quality assurance and moderation system. This will allow time for teachers to build their expertise and amongst other practitioners in sharing, understanding and applying standards.

The Scottish Government issued a suite of guidance on assessment approaches, known as Building the Curriculum 5, including quality assurance and moderation, to all schools and authorities in January 2010. In addition to seminars, Education Scotland in partnership with SQA and the Scottish Government has developed the National Assessment Resource (NAR) to support teachers to develop their professional skills and a shared understanding of assessment practices for CfE. The exemplars on the NAR have been developed by teachers supported by Education Scotland. The NAR also includes case studies from several authorities on quality assurance and moderation in and across authorities. It is for headteachers and Education Authorities to advise their staff and schools respectively on their deployment of time with inter-school discussion. The Scottish Government does not set expectations on such matters.

Education Scotland support and share best practice with schools and authorities in seminars, their website and with exemplars in the National Assessment Resource on transition from early years to primary and from primary to secondary.

Local authorities also have a responsibility to encourage schools to engage in joint planning activities within their Associated School Groups and to develop curriculum structures and learning pathways which are appropriate for their local context, and the needs of individual learners.