I Inspire! Science/Engineering Teacher of the Year

Do you know an exceptional teacher? Do they have a real passion and flair for teaching science or engineering? Then nominate them for SQA's Teacher of the Year Award.

The competition is open to teachers in primary schools, secondary schools, FE colleges and training organisations in Scotland. More information, competition rules and online nomination form are available on our website.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 30 June 2010.

The Big Experiment!

The Big Experiment is a competition open to all students studying science at school or college. Have you worked with your students to develop an innovative scientific experiment -  then tell us about!

The experiment can be in any science discipline: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or related subjects, and your submission should be in the form of a science report - including pictures and film clips.

More information, competition rules and application forms are available on our website.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 30 June 2010

Subject Working Groups - Have Your Say

Work to develop the new national qualifications, which will support Curriculum for Excellence, is well underway and stakeholders have the opportunity to be directly involved in the qualifications development process.

We are setting up Subject Working Groups (SWGs) in subject areas to participate in the development of the products for the new qualifications and are looking for teaching professionals to assist us in this work.

SWGs will be established from summer 2010 to carry out discrete pieces of work, for example, the rationale and course summary, Unit specification or Unit support packs for a particular subject area.  They will be directed by the relevant Qualifications Design Teams (QDTs) who are working on the design of qualifications within individual subjects.

If you or your colleagues are interested in helping us to develop the next generation of National Qualifications, submit a 'Register of Interest' form available on our website.

Curriculum for Excellence New Qualification Progress Reports

The first of our Curriculum for Excellence Progress Reports are now available to view on the dedicated Curriculum for Excellence pages of our website. 

The Reports represent the next stage in the development process of the new qualifications and are an important opportunity for all stakeholders to provide us with their feedback on the development.  A feedback facility is available on the website.

Reports have been published for seven of the eight curriculum areas: expressive arts, health and wellbeing, languages, mathematics, sciences, social studies and technologies as well as literacy and numeracy.  Work on the report for religious and moral education is continuing and will be published in July.

The Reports outline the research and targeted engagement that has taken place with stakeholders and give recommendations on the scope, skills and issues within each curriculum area. 

The Report will inform the development of the Overview document and Suites of Courses for their curriculum area.  Our qualifications design teams will then take the recommendations forward into the design of qualifications within individual subjects such as French, Physics or History.
 
To keep up-to-date with the latest Curriculum for Excellence news and reports you can sign up for our MyAlerts facility which provides notification of updates to our web pages.
 

Engage in Education

Everyone with an interest in Scottish education will have the opportunity to engage directly with Government and share their views on what is going well and what needs to change.

Engage for Education - www.engageforeducation.org - is a new website for teachers, young people, parents, school staff and others across the wider education community. Participants will have the opportunity to influence government policy by providing feedback on the key issues facing Scottish education.

Engage for Education provides an online space for everyone involved in Scottish education to provide their views and feedback. A series of workshop sessions will be held on the website, which will refresh with new subjects regularly, focusing on topical issues to gather views.

More information

NQ Question Paper Survey - closes Friday 25 June 2010

As part of our ongoing maintaining standards work, Qualifications Portfolio Management Team (QPMT) manage this annual on-line question paper survey which makes an important contribution to how effectively we maintain standards from year to year and across subjects.

The aim of the survey is to give subject teachers the opportunity to tell us what you think about the standard of the most recent question paper(s) in your subject, the sample of which for this year is:

• Classical studies
• Computing
• English
• French
• German
• History
• Italian
• Managing the Environmental Resource (MER)
• Mathematics
• Modern Studies
• Politics
• Psychology
• Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS)
• Spanish
• Technological Studies
• Urdu

Access the survey here

If you have any queries about this year's survey, please speak to your SQA Co-ordinator in the first instance. You may also contact us directly on mycentre@sqa.org.uk or by phoning 0303 333 0330. A report summarising your feedback will be circulated to qualification teams and Assessment Panels and we would like to thank you for your continuing support in this important area of work

Closure of 5-14 National Assessment Bank (NAB)

The 5-14 National Assessment Bank will be closed on 2 July, at the end of the summer term this year.

This decision has been made by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and follows consideration of the advice from the Curriculum for Excellence Management Board.

The decision takes into account the range of measures which have been made available to ensure the appropriate support for teachers in the new assessment approaches for Curriculum for Excellence.

These measures include: 

• a range of assessment materials published on the Curriculum for Excellence website in the priority areas of literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing across all curriculum areas;
• national quality assurance of the initial assessment items to ensure that they reflect national standards and expectations;
• a further in service day for teachers which will focus on assessment,
• the development of the National Assessment Resource, which will be available in September this year, to support teaching staff in the new assessment approaches
• and the transition of existing Scottish Survey of Achievement items which are Curriculum for Excellence compliant to the National Assessment Resource.

In addition, funding of £3 million will be made available to Local Authorities to support quality assurance and moderation approaches in schools.

A letter  was issued to all teaching staff from the Cabinet Secretary on 8 June.

Customer Service Professional celebrates a century of graduates

The pioneering Customer Service Professional (CSP) qualification celebrated a major milestone recently with the graduation of the 100th successful candidate - Nina Ferguson, a member of the City of Edinburgh Council's Revenues and Benefits Contact Centre team when she took the qualification, she has since taken up a promoted post with Midlothian Council.

Part of the Improvement Service's Customer First programme, Customer Service Professional is the only local government-led online qualification certificated by SQA. It is also endorsed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA).

These ground-breaking qualifications for customer-facing staff working in Scottish councils aim to make customer service more efficient by increasing the ability of staff to deal with core service requests in the first instance.

'The CSP qualification is transferable across local authorities in Scotland, so when I applied for the role of Revenues Officer at Midlothian this was recognised,' said Nina. 'It has definitely improved my knowledge and understanding of customer service. I have developed better listening skills and learned that body language is very important when dealing with a customer.'

The CSP qualification is available at Award, Certificate and, shortly, Diploma levels.

More information about the qualification is available here.
 

Herald Press Awards

The talent of student journalistswas recognised at the The Herald's 14th annual Scottish Student Press Awards.

SQA sponsored the 'Best college publication' category which was awarded to the Cardonald Courier from Cardonald College, at a glittering ceremony in Glasgow.

Dr Gill Stewart, SQA's director of qualifications development, said: 'These awards really showcase the great talent of student journalists in Scotland. I congratulate all the finalists for their enthusiasm and hard work and wish them well in their future careers. I'd also like to thank all the teachers, lecturers and families of the students who do so much to support and encourage.'

Student journalists made of 'write stuff'

Now in its 13th year, the prestigious Write Stuff Student Journalism Awards - organised each year by Cardonald College Glasgow - rewards the very best up-and-coming journalists from across the country's colleges and universities.

SQA sponsored the College Feature Writing Award which was presented to Stephanie Beechey of Glasgow Metropolitan College.

The event was opened by Lord Provost Bob Winter and featured a key note speech by Mike Russell MSP, Cabinet Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning. Mr Russell said: 'Journalism plays a key part in helping us all think about education with a clear and open mind. It can help build consensus around the fundamental principles of sound education policy and I have seen in other countries how such consensus can deliver huge gains in educational performance.'

Education Awards 2010 - Winners announced

The winners of the 2010 Scottish Education Awards were announced at a glittering awards ceremony on Friday 18 June at the City Halls, Glasgow.

SQA was a proud sponsor of the Awards which are organised by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Daily Record, with the specific aims of celebrating the successes and recognising the achievements taking place within Scottish education.

Entry to the Awards was open to all publicly funded schools, from nursery to secondary stage and special schools. The achievement of schools and individuals was recognised across 15 categories.

You can find out more and register an interest for the 2011 awards now.

Glasgow Informal Committee are Community Champions

SQA's Glasgow Informal Committee is a voluntary group of staff who co-ordinate fundrasing activities to support our nominated charity, The Yorkhill Children's Foundation. 

Their dedication was recognised when they were invited to the gala final of the Evening Times' Community Champion Awards recently, receiving an award at the glittering ceremony at Strathclyde Police's Pitt Street Headquarters which honoured their commitment to making a difference in the Central and West area of Glasgow.

Yorkhill Children's Foundation nominated the Glasgow Informal Committee which raised a stunning £23,000 for them over the last year.

Evening Times' editor Tony Carlin said the spirit of community had been kept alive by those who made a positive difference to the areas around them. He added: 'It's an opportunity to honour and thank all those individuals and groups who selflessly work to make Glasgow a better place.'

Pictured left are Janet Brown with the Glasgow Informal Committee handing over the cheque to Abigail from Yorkhill Children's Foundation.