School Leaders Scotland (SLS) has backed some of the key proposals in the ongoing Hayward review of qualifications and assessment.
SLS, whose members largely comprise headteachers in the Scottish secondary sector, has shared with Tes Scotland its response to the final stage of consultation for the Hayward review, which was due to close last Friday but has now been extended to Sunday 30 April.
Eyecatching reforms proposed when the interim Hayward report was published on 3 March included: an end to three years of high-stakes exams from S4-6; a “Scottish Diploma of Achievement” to better represent students’ full range of achievements while at school; and a renaming of the Higher so that all qualifications at that level go by the same name.
SLS has given its support to all of the above.
The interim Hayward report echoed the view of Professor Gordon Stobart, author of a 2021 report for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, who said at the time that “Scottish students are the most over-examined in the world”. He highlighted how unusual the Scottish pathway was, with its end-of-year, end-of-course exams in S4 (typically National 5s), S5 (Highers) and S6 (Advanced Highers).
SLS has come out strongly against what it describes as ”three successive exam diets with associated prelim exams”, and backs the Hayward review’s call for change. The SLS submission states that this “cannot be the default approach to assessment of learning and is, indeed, harmful to achieving a coherent programme of teaching, effective learning and skills development”.
Changing qualifications and assessment in Scotland
On the idea of ceasing to refer to Highers, after more than 130 years of the qualification, SLS says that “there needs to be a move away from current nomenclatures”. It backs the idea of blurring the distinction between what have traditionally been viewed as “academic” and “vocational” school subjects and activities.
“We are strongly of the view that the academic/vocational terminology should form no part of the revised narrative on qualifications,” the SLS submission states.
SLS also says that the proposed a Scottish Diploma of Achievement ”presents an opportunity...to build on the aspirations of Curriculum for Excellence and create a qualifications framework which captures the totality of a student’s learning”.
It adds: ”We fully endorse the principle of the Scottish Diploma of Achievement as being for all learners.” SLS says that this could help to close the attainment gap between wealthy and poor students, but only “if the approach is carefully planned and sequenced and an up-front commitment is made to ongoing resourcing”.
The diploma would comprise three elements, one of which is the “personal pathway”. The Hayward interim report envisaged that this would allow students to “select aspects of their experiences that reflect their interests, the contributions they make to society and their career aspirations”, including volunteering, music, art, drama, Gaelic culture, sport, part-time employment and Foundation Apprenticeships.
SLS views the personal pathway as a means of ”giving value to previously ignored aspects of competence and endeavour” in schools, but cautions that “implications for staffing capacity and staff training must be considered carefully”.
