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Curriculum

Curriculum Rationale

Calderglen High School is a non-denominational, comprehensive secondary school located in St Leonard’s, East Kilbride. We form part of the Calderglen Learning Community with our associated nursery, primary and special needs schools. We work closely with our campus school, Sanderson High, to ensure an inclusive approach. Pupils and staff share facilities, resources and significant curricular opportunities. In session 2019-20, our school roll was 1370 with a teaching complement of 96.8FTE and a number of support staff to meet the needs of all learners. Our SIMD profile is mainly in SIMD 4-7, this masks a lot of hidden poverty, the current FME is 17.5% and 24% young people are currently eligible to access EMA funding.

Calderglen High School Curriculum was developed by the Curriculum Architecture Group at the inception of the school to realise our shared vison of ‘Working Together to Inspire Learning and Shape the Future’. This vision is the foundation upon which our curriculum is built. The group involved was comprised of a team of teachers across a range of promotion levels, experience and age. The group worked in consultation with the wider staff, parent council, partners and the wider parent body to arrive at a model, which suited the needs of the pupils the school serves. Prior to arriving at our current curriculum model a considerable amount of research was undertaken involving discussions with and visits to schools in Scotland, England, Spain and America. Over the last 2 years our work with 2 schools in Italy and one in Poland, as part of a European Agency Project, has informed more recent changes in our curriculum. In our constant review and refresh of our curriculum learner participation has been a key driver. Our curricular model is constantly being evaluated and updated to ensure it continues to be effective in meeting the needs of changing groups of learners. More recently, staff, pupils, parents and partners have been engaging with Design Thinking led by NOTOSH. This has allowed all stakeholders to more fully examine where we are as a school, what is working well and what we need to move forward. Our Design Thinking team has identified the following as characteristics we would like to develop in our staff and pupils :

Our Design Thinking team has identified the characteristics we would like to develop in our staff and pupils

These closely align with our school values of Achievement, Ambition, Determination, Respect, Responsibility and Inclusion and our vision which is ‘working together to inspire learning and shape the future’.

Calderglen High School Curriculum is centred around ensuring the holistic development of every child. All pupils are supported and challenged to reach their full potential. It is shaped in such a way to allow pupils to become: - Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens, the 4 capacities which underpin Curriculum for Excellence. At all stages in the curriculum there is a very clear strategy in place to allow the development of skills for life learning and work. This is facilitated by ensuring pupils have the opportunity to fully exploit the 4 contexts for learning. We place high importance in mapping out the BGE learning experience to shape learner pathways. The interdisciplinary learning of pupils is varied and progressive across the BGE and allows development of a range of skills including creativity and critical thinking. The extensive use of a range of partners local, national and global including local business, parents and former pupils to support learning enhances the experience of pupils and provides a real-life context to their learning. Our many partners help us to ensure relevance in learning and skills development. The main drivers of our curriculum in ensuring the holistic development of every child are:-

Raising Attainment for All
Improving Literacy and Numeracy
Ensuring High Quality Learning Experiences
Ensuring wellbeing indicators are fully embedded in the curriculum

All pupils are supported and challenged to reach their full potential.

In terms of raising attainment for all, our curriculum has a strong focus on learner pathways and offers bespoke provision for individuals and groups of learners. Pupil voice & learner participation have a clear role in shaping the curriculum. Vocational, skills-based courses offered as Masterclass in BGE have been developed into Qualifications in the Senior Phase. For example, Childcare was offered as a master class to S3 pupils. Following its success, it will now be offered as a National 5 qualification in S4 and pupils will have the opportunity to progress to a Foundation Apprenticeship in Childcare as part of our DYW strategy. There is a strong emphasis on the continued development of new courses within the Senior Phase. Our suite of qualifications is continually being updated and refreshed in line with relevant pathways for pupils and takes account of current labour market trends. This allows all pupils to access a range of relevant qualifications including National Qualifications as well as the range of qualifications within the SCQF framework, which ensure that by the point of exit pupils have gained the skills and qualifications they need to ensure a positive sustained destination. All faculties are currently looking at SCQF framework to identify courses that could dovetail with courses already on offer to allow pupils to achieve at a higher SCOF level or progress into courses which have no well-established progression route from SQA qualifications.

Some of the subjects currently being investigated for S5/6 students are:-

As well as widening the suite of qualifications available to pupils via the SCOF framework our pupils can also access Open University YASSmodules such as Law making in Scotland, Communication skills for Business and Management and Molecules, Medicines and Drugs: A Chemical Story.

In terms of improvements in Numeracy and Literacy clear strategies have been put in place to ensure pupils who are at risk of missing out on achieving qualifications in Literacy and Numeracy are identified and given the opportunity to achieve these.

The introduction of Personal Finance provides an interdisciplinary course which is a more appropriate pathway for particular groups of pupils.

High quality teaching and learning experience have always been a focus of the Calderglen High School curriculum. The teaching and learning group is establishing base line data, which together with the moderation feedback from pupils will be used by the Tapestry Group for staff training.

The wellbeing of our pupils is of paramount importance. To support our pupils we work closely with a number of partner and voluntary agencies such as the chaplaincy team, the volunteers who run the Head Space Initiative as well as the more mainstream agencies such as CAMHS and Educational Psychology Team. Learner participation is key to our wellbeing strategy with young people trained MVP and anti-bullying ambassadors.

Our Curriculum Sway

Our Curriculum Rationale