Today we are launching a survey to gather input from parents and carers across Scotland as a follow-up to conversations around education reform that we have been having throughout the last 12 months. This survey focuses on creating a new national body responsible for qualifications and assessment.

You can dive right in and complete our survey here. If you’re interested in participating in one of our focus groups on this topic, register your interest here. If you’re an office bearer in a parent forum, parent council, or parent teacher association interested in setting up a local focus group on this issue, please email resources@npfs.org.uk for an info pack.

For background and further information, you can read the Scottish Government’s consultation paper on establishing a new qualifications body here. You can also complete the official Scottish Government survey here.

The SQA has published a message for parents and carers with an update on Higher and Advanced Higher courses 2020-21

A message for parents and carers

Wednesday 16 December

On 8 December, the Deputy First Minister cancelled the Higher and Advanced Higher exams for 2021. This also means that coursework will not be marked by SQA, however it can still count as evidence of your child’s learning. We understand that you want to know what this means for your children.

The National Qualifications 2021 Group continues to meet weekly and is now working through the finer details of how Higher and Advanced Higher courses will be awarded in 2021. These courses will broadly follow the model we recently announced for National 5 results, where teachers and lecturers will use their professional judgement of your child’s evidence, subject to quality assurance.

Your child’s teacher or lecturer will be able to use subject guidance and assessment materials to help them gather evidence of your childs performance. SQA will publish these documents early in the new year to support learning and teaching.

We understand that your child may have already sat prelims or they may be due to sit prelim exams for Higher and Advanced Higher courses early in 2021. Whilst there is no requirement for schools and colleges to hold these exams, it is a school or college decision whether or not to conduct them. Results from prelims which have already been carried out or which are planned may count towards evidence of your child’s learning.

Teachers and lecturers may use various methods to measure the depth of subject learning of your child including class tests, marked assignments as well as more formal style assessments. All of these can be used as evidence to support your child’s provisional result. The school or college will decide on the best assessment approaches for gathering evidence of your child’s learning.

To stay up to date on National Qualifications in 2021, visit www.sqa.org.uk/NQ2021 where we will regularly provide additional information to support you and your child during the course of this school year.

The National Qualifications 2021 Group

The National Qualifications 2021 Group is represented by the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), Colleges Scotland, Education Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), School Leaders Scotland (SLS), the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), the Scottish Government, National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS), and the Scottish Youth Parliament.

Tagged advanced highers exams higher parental views secondary SQA

Further to our survey on the topic of Higher and Advanced Higher exam diet there was a clear message that an overwhelming majority (75.14%) of parents and carers wanted any decision to cancel the Higher and Advanced Higher exam diet to be made prior to Christmas and we welcome the Deputy First Minister’s decision to make a prompt announcement.

We note that of the five thousand parents that responded there is strong confidence in the judgement of teachers to predict grades for children and young people with an overwhelming number of participants identifying confidence in the judgement of teaching staff should predicted grades be used as part of the Higher and Advanced Higher awards (23.36% a great deal, 31.70% a lot)

The Deputy First Minister also announced that for 2020–21, National 5 results will be based on teacher and lecturer judgement supported by a robust set of checks — or quality assurance — which will be carried out by your child’s school or college, local authority and SQA.

The National Parent Forum of Scotland forms part of the National Qualifications 2021 Group along side Education Scotland, Scottish Government, Scottish Youth Parliament, SQA, Local Authorities, School Leaders Scotland, Colleges Scotland, Scottish Council for Independent Schools and the EIS teaching union. The National Qualifications 2021 Group has overseen the development of the quality assurance process which will support teachers and lecturers in providing your child’s provisional results for session 2020–21. Updates from the group are available through www.sqa.org.uk/NQ2021.

We feel that this is a pragmatic approach to a fair and equitable outcome for all senior phase pupils.

We know from our correspondence with parents and carers across the country, that our young people are encountering difficult circumstances in their day to day learning, with self-isolation of both pupils and staff impacting their health and wellbeing at this critical time in their lives.

We hope this timeous decision will enable pupils, teachers and the SQA to have adequate time and resources to achieve the results that are deserved and will be a key to opening up further opportunities for the young people. Positive destinations are vitally important to all young people and we understand that this is a challenge at any time, not least during the COVID pandemic.

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Due to the overwhelming response we have had from parents we are really pleased to have a representative sample from across the country. We are keen to share our findings and so we are closing our survey on Tuesday evening at midnight.

If you would like your views to be shared, please take a minute to complete our survey now. Thank you

We are looking to capture the views of the Parents and Carers of pupils sitting Highers and/or Advanced Highers, to help us establish how COVID has impacted on their learning and preparation for their exams in 2021

It is clear that COVID is impacting everyone differently across the various Local Authority regions and in some schools the level of disruption to our young people’s learning is significant, yet in other areas of the country there is little impact. With that in mind we would like to know to what extent, if any, parents and carers are concerned about the impact the current health restrictions will have on their child’s preparation for Higher and Advanced Higher exams. We are looking to establish if there is any differences of opinions between the different Local Authority areas, so please take a minute to complete this short survey in full.

Below is the link to our survey which has a closing date of the 24^th November 2020 – please share.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3HFM9K9

We really need to hear your voice!

Should you wish any further information on the National Parent Forum of Scotland or would like a copy of our findings once published, please visit our website or email us using the address below.

Thank you

National Parent Forum of Scotland

www.npfs.org.uk questions@npfs.org.uk

Tagged advanced highers exams higher parental views secondary SQA

Below is the link to our survey which has a closing date of the 30^th November 2020 – please share.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3HFM9K9

We really need to hear your voice!

Should you wish any further information on the National Parent Forum of Scotland or would like a copy of our findings once published, please visit our website or email us using the address below.

Thank you

National Parent Forum of Scotland

www.npfs.org.uk questions@npfs.org.uk

Tagged advanced highers exams higher parental views secondary SQA

The National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) understands the difficult decisions being taken regarding the exam diet planned for 2021. As an organisation we have contributed to the Priestly review as well as being consultees in the process to find the best way forward for our children and young people.

As the body representing Parents across Scotland’s public schools, we recently undertook a snap poll of Secondary School Parent Councils to gauge the views of parents and carers in advance of today’s announcement.

Over 80% of Parent Councils who responded to our poll were opposed to the full exam sitting being forced through irrespective of the public health situation at the time.

It was clear that over 70% of respondents wished for Higher and Advanced Highers to be prioritised, given the importance of this stage of the senior phase in education.

A narrow majority of respondents sought to have all exams be cancelled, using teacher assessment and professional judgement be used to estimate the grade expected to be awarded for each candidate.

Clearly evident in our findings is that parents, carers and teaching professionals need to be informed as early as possible in order to mitigate the difficulties experienced with the 2020 examination diet and to allow our children and young people to attain the awards that they are entitled to expect from their level of work in these difficult times.

Speaking about today’s announcement, NPFS Chair Margaret Wilson said

“There is no decision today that is going to please everyone in this situation; whether parents/carers, teachers and support staff and most importantly our children and young people. The pressures faced by families, coping with stress created by the pandemic, sometimes losing employment, supporting home learning whilst balancing many other issues has been significant. Our young people have been through a significantly stressful time and we welcome the timing of this announcement which we trust will give sufficient time for our teachers, schools and education authorities to make sufficient plans. Most importantly we trust that our children and young people will secure confidence in knowing that there is a plan to ensure that appropriate grades are awarded which directly reflect their level of learning, not their postcode or the past performance of their school.”

Further information on the processes to be put in place by the SQA as referred to by the Deputy First Minister are available at

https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/95281.html

*NOTES TO EDITORS*

The National Parent Forum of Scotland is a national body led by and for parents. It is an influential national and independent body, working on behalf of parents with children in education across Scotland to help every pre-school and school pupil maximise their potential.

The National Parent Forum of Scotland is comprised of volunteer parent/carer representatives from each of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas. Please visit www.parentforumscotland.org for more details.

The National Parent Forum of Scotland represents parents and carers by engaging with them and parent councils, and we are involved in working with both local and national levels of government to make sure that parents and carers have a full and equal voice in our children’s education.
We aim to fairly represent all parents, and we appreciate that there are a wide range of views and opinions.

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Who does what in Scottish Education?

The Scotland Act 1998 gave the Scottish Parliament power to make laws on devolved matters. Education and training is a devolved matter. (others include health and social services, law and order, local government, sport and the arts). Employment and Social security are amongst the reserved matters.

The Scottish Parliament comprises of elected Members of the Scottish Parliament and is the law-making body for all devolved matters. The Parliament considers proposed legislation and scrutinises the activities and policies of the Scottish Government through debates, parliamentary questions and the work of committees.

Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) represent their constituents and can take a number of actions in the Scottish Parliament, including putting forward an issue for or speaking in a debate in the Parliament, introducing a bill or proposing changes to the law. Ask questions of the Scottish Government. The MSPs in the other parties with responsibility for Learning/Education are:

Scottish Parliament – Party Spokespersons
Scottish Labour	Iain Gray	Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Skills

Scottish Conservative	Liz Smith	Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills
Scottish Liberal Democrat	Tavish Scott	Spokesperson for Education and Sports
Green	Ross Greer	International Development, External Affairs, Education, Skills, Culture & Media Spokesperson

The main committee in the Parliament that deals with education related issues is the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee. The committee ask relevant parties to provide written or oral evidence if they are scrutinising an issue. The NPFS has been asked to provide evidence. The committee members are:

Scottish Parliament – Education and Culture Committee
Convener	James Dornan	SNP
Deputy Convener	Johan Lamont	Scottish Labour
Member	Colin Beattie	SNP
Member	Daniel Johnson	Scottish Labour
Member	Fulton MacGregor	SNP
Member	Gillian Martin	SNP
Member	Jenny Gilruth	SNP
Member	Liz Smith	Conservative
Member	Ross Greer	Scottish Green Party
Member	Ross Thomson	Conservative

Scottish Government is responsible for deciding how the country is run for devolved matters. It makes policy and implements laws that have been passed by the Scottish Parliament. The current Administration is the Scottish National Party (SNP). Nicola Sturgeon is the First Minister and Head of the devolved Scottish Government. She is supported by 9 Cabinet Secretaries and 12 Ministers.

The cabinet is made up of the senior members of the Scottish Government. Every Tuesday, during the Scottish Parliamentary term, the Cabinet meets to discuss the most important issues for the Scottish Government. John Swinney ( Deputy First Minister) is Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.

There are 12 ministers who are aligned to and support the work of the Scottish Cabinet. Shirley-Anne Somerville was appointed Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science in May 2016. Shirley-Anne Somerville supports the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills

Scottish Government is managed by a Strategic Board of Directors (the civil service top table) who are responsible for different areas of responsibility. Leslie Evans is the Chair of the Strategic Board. The Director-General for Learning and Justice is Paul Johnston.

Scottish Government is made up of Civil Servants. Learning Directorate is structured as follows:

Education Scotland is Scottish Government’s integrated national development and improvement agency for education, charged with providing support and challenge to our education system, right through from the early years to adult learning. It brings together the work of Learning and Teaching Scotland, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education and some functions currently carried out by Scottish Government. As an Executive Agency of the government, Education Scotland agrees its broad strategic plan with Ministers, but also operates with a high degree of independence in turning that plan into practical action. Dr Bill Maxwell, former HM Senior Chief Inspector of HM Inspectorate of Education is the Chief Executive Officer of Education Scotland.

Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is the national body in Scotland for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications other than degrees and some professional qualifications. It is responsible to the Scottish Government for the credibility, reliability and worth of its qualifications. The Chief Executive is Dr Janet Brown.

COSLA is the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and is the representative voice of Scottish local government and also acts as the employers’ association on behalf of the majority of Scottish Councils. There are 32 directly elected Councils in Scotland and 1,222 elected councillors who are elected every 4 years. Councils are responsible for the delivery of local services including education. COSLA represents collectively the Councils to Scottish Government.

ADES is the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland They are an independent professional network for leaders and managers in education and children’s’ services. They work in partnership with local and national government and other agencies.

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Have your say: education reform (national bodies: qualifications & assessment)

SQA message – Update on Higher and Advanced Higher courses 2020-21

The SQA has published a message for parents and carers with an update on Higher and Advanced Higher courses 2020-21

A message for parents and carers

NPFS statement on the cancellation of 2020/21 Higher and Advanced Higher Exams and the plans for the delivery of the N5 assessments

Update regards the Parental View of 20/21 Higher and Advanced Higher Exam Diet

Parental View of 20/21 Higher and Advanced Higher Exam Diet

Press Release: Response to DFM announcement of arrangements for the assessment of National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses in the 2020-21 session

Who does what in Scottish Education?

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