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New National Qualifications - Update from SQA

The Scottish Qualifications Authority has a number of resources to support our teachers and practitioners to help them understand the changes to Scotland’s national qualifications.

Your Feedback

There’s still time to give feedback on the documents we published in August - Unit Specifications for National 4 and National 5, Course Rationales and Summaries for Access 2, Course Rationales and Summaries for Access 3 and Course Specifications for Higher.

Comments can be left on these documents by 31 October 2011 on our Have Your Say page. A summary of all the feedback we've received to date is available.

CfE Events

In December, SQA and Education Scotland will hold a series of curriculum area update events to discuss several aspects of the qualifications with teachers and hear their views. We will be writing to all local authorities and independent schools about these over the next month.

Mythbuster

Our new mythbuster videos are available now and give more information about the new qualifications and answer some of the most common questions. We also several videos explaining our development process and the groups working with us to develop the new qualifications.

Support Materials

Following the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement at the Scottish Learning Festival, we’ll be sending a pack to every school and college by the end of October containing copies of the draft Unit Specifications for National 4 and National 5 and copies of our new teacher handbook and parent leaflet.

CfE Website Sections

We have sections of the CfE website for teachers, parents and employers. We are designing a new homepage which will direct people to the appropriate area.

Visit www.sqa.org.uk/cfeforteachers or www.sqa.org.uk/cfeforparents or www.sqa.org.uk/cfeforemployers

Controlled Assessment

We are introducing controlled assessment to ensure rigour in assessment methods. This will mean consistent approaches to setting, conducting and marking assessments. Controlled assessment will make sure that assessment methods are secure, valid and reliable. Assessments will be manageable, fair and consistently applied for all learners. Find out more about controlled assessment here.

Appointee Vacancies

We’re still welcoming applications for the 3 appointee roles - Principal Assessors, Item Writers and Item Checkers (Note: these vacancies have now closed) - for the new qualifications. The closing date is 2 November 2011. Additional information on other CfE related vacancies can be found here.

Latest information

Continue to visit our website at www.sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence for the latest news and resources. Use our subject drop-down on each page to find the latest information for your subject. Sign up for MyAlerts to receive e-mail updates.