The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has announced that more support and resources will be made available in the new year for teachers helping Higher history students prepare for their exams in May.
The SQA said that, after feedback from history teachers, it would provide an extra package of support for schools and colleges after prelim exams are completed in January.
There will be an extra ”understanding standards” webinar covering question paper 2 on Scottish history; SQA will confirm a date for this in the new year.
More examples to help teachers and students
SQA will now provide more examples of responses to question paper 2 for teachers to use in their work with students.
It will also open a “dedicated Higher history enquiry point”, giving teachers and school leaders a way to directly “raise any queries or questions they may have”.
Earlier this month, the results of a survey carried out by the Scottish Association of History Teachers (SATH) into the big fall in the Higher pass rate in 2024, attracted responses from 174 of the roughly 1,000 history teachers working in Scotland.
Some 75 per cent said their students did not perform as expected in the 2024 Higher exam; 82 per cent said the cohort was at least similar to previous cohorts, if not stronger.
The survey came after a delayed SQA review into concerns of Higher history in 2024 pointed to a “poor standard of responses” from students in 2024, especially on the Scottish history paper.
After the announcement of extra support in the new year, Donna Stewart, SQA interim director of qualifications development, said: “These measures follow the discussions we have had with the Scottish government and [SATH] regarding feedback from practising history teachers about what support would help them and their learners.
“We recognise there is work to do to support teachers and lecturers delivering SQA’s Higher history course. We have heard their feedback, and we are working to provide schools and colleges with support and resources they need to help them prepare their learners for their assessments in 2025.”
Resetting relationships with teachers
Ms Stewart said that the SQA is “committed to resetting and building stronger relationships with teachers, lecturers, pupils and students”, as it had outlined in November with the publication of A Prospectus for Change, a document on the process of changing from the SQA into a new national body, Qualifications Scotland, in 2025.
The SQA also said this week that chief examiner and SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson and the Scottish government had accepted the findings of the review.
However, critics of the review, which was published in November, have said it was not independent enough from the SQA to be credible.
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