The Assessment and National Qualification working group report has been circulated to members of the CfE Management Board for approval. However, the SSTA sought clarification from SQA of the measures proposed within the report to reduce teacher workload. A report of the clarifications can be downloading using the link below.

Please note - The SSTA will be moving to an Indicative Ballot of members on ‘teacher workload’ in the coming days. The ballot will carried out on-line and it is essential your email details are up to date to participate in the ballot.

National Qualifications - Members Bulletin

The SSTA National Council has sanctioned an Indicative Ballot of members on the Government’s Assessment and National Qualification working group report due at the end of March.

The Indicative Ballot of members will be sent out by e-mail with a unique voting code.  To ensure that all members who are eligible to a vote receive an email, we are asking that members who have not been receiving emails from the Association contact the SSTA office by emailing info@ssta.org.uk or by calling 0131 313 7300 with a note of their email address(es).

Background

Following a survey of members in December 2015 which clearly found that the SQA requirements and processes had added considerably, and in many cases unnecessarily, to teacher’s workload, the SSTA Council resolved to conduct an indicative ballot of members on cutting bureaucracy in National Qualifications.

The Government established the ‘Assessment and National Qualification working group’ in January and was tasked to produce a report, by the end of March that would reduce teacher workload in the 2016-17 cycle. The SSTA participated in the working group and pushed hard for the recognition of the importance of the teachers’ professional judgement in the process. The working group report was completed on 21 April and has been circulated to members of the CfE Management Board. Until the CfE Management Board meets the report cannot be published to teachers in schools.

The SSTA National Executive has considered the report and has sought clarifications of the measures proposed within the report to reduce teacher workload in the 2016-17 cycle. The SSTA National Executive has prepared a report for members of the proposals and is seeking members’ views on the extent of the workload reductions.

The CfE Working Group Tackling Bureaucracy Follow-up Report’ published in March. This report has been produced by the Scottish Government, the employers and Teacher Unions and is intended to tackle the problems teachers face in schools. The report has four sections

• Assessment
• Forward Planning
• Monitoring and Reporting
• Self-Evaluation and Improvement Planning

FOUR posters have been produced to highlight the sections within the report for school notice boards.

The SSTA believes that this report has the potential to reduce teacher workload and recommends that members use this report to seek reductions in bureaucracy. It is important that this document is included in schools Working Time Agreements negotiations and the intentions of Government are realised. The SSTA believes that teacher’s professional judgement needs to be acknowledged and respected in the process and allow teachers to focus on teaching and learning.

The SSTA conducted a survey of all teaching members for whom a valid e-mail account was available. The survey asked about members' confidence in delivering the curriculum and assessment for National 4 and 5 courses and gauged their confidence for the same issues in their readiness to deliver the new Highers next session. Members were also asked if the Working Time Agreement for session 2013-2014 adequately met their needs for implementation and associated duties such as assessment and verification.  The report on outcomes from the survey can be downloaded using the link below.

SSTA - CfE Survey Full Report

Responses to the survey categorised by subject can be downloaded by members from this page.  You must login to the website to view the page.

We provide a link for members to view the debate on the Motion tabled by Neil Bibby, Labour asking Scottish Government to respond to the concerns around implementation of CfE by conducting an independent review.

The Working Group set up to tackle concerns over unnecessary bureaucracy around the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence has released its Final Report and recommended a series of actions.  The SSTA welcomes the Report as a genuine attempt to address one of the problems of CfE. It contains a practical and common sense set of recommendations that will be welcomed by hard pressed teachers.

The Scottish Governments statement on the report can be found on their website.  The Report can also be download from the website