You are invited to a series of free half-day consultation events for parents, carers and support groups and would very much appreciate it if you could pass the information on to any parents, carers or colleagues you know who would be interested in contributing their views.

On behalf of the Scottish Government, Peter Doran is currently chairing a review of how best to provide education for Scottish children and young people with the most complex learning needs. The Doran Review will be providing recommendations to the Scottish Government in June 2012 on how the system can be improved.

These consultation events are to gather the views of both families and parent support groups on the key issues, which will be submitted to the Review.

We will be asking your views on:

● how satisfied you are with the processes to identify your child’s care, health and learning needs

● how well informed you feel about schools and services that could help your child

● how well your child’s nursery or school and other services such as health and Social Work are meeting his or her needs

● how well supported you and your child feel when he/she is preparing to leave and settling in to a new school or leaving school to go on to adult services.

Dates and locations

22nd March, 12 noon to 3pm

Aberdeen Thistle Altens Hotel

27th March, 9.30am to 1pm

Edinburgh Hilton Grosvenor Hotel

29th March. 9.30am to 1pm

Glasgow Hilton Grosvenor Hotel

The events are open to parents, carers and support groups from across Scotland who have an interest in the provision of education for children and young people with complex additional support needs.

Irene Russell, Development Officer, Parental Involvement

Education Scotland

The Optima

58 Robertson Street

Glasgow  G2 8DU

T: +44 (0) 141 282 5055,

M: +44 (0) 7985349791

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk

… and they’re available as free apps in the Apple store!

One is ‘My Exams’, the SQA’s personal timetable builder, that gives the dates and times of your exams.

The other is ‘My Study Plan’, which designs your most efficient revision schedule, based on your exam timetable.

Here is a very interesting short film, shot in a local school, that shows how the Curriculum for Excellence initiative can look in a classroom setting.  It’s good viewing for parents who want to deepen their understanding of the rationale behind the undertaking now well under way.

… you can see the very fine presentation here, or by clicking the temporary link on the Broughton High School website.

Here’s an important reference tool for parents of S4’s.  It’s available on the school website in Word format, but this has been failing to load correctly on some devices, particularly the hand-held type.  While that glitch gets fixed here it is, in pdf.  A ‘NAB’ (for ‘National Assessment Bank’ of exam questions) is a unit assessment at Intermediate and Higher level.  There are three in each subject area.  The prelim is the dry-run for the final exam, normally taken after all the NABs are done.  Your student is not required to sit the prelim, but the prelim can serve as the final exam if something goes terribly wrong on final exam day.  (Highers pupils also need prelim scores for grade estimates in university applications.)

Find it by clicking here.