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The initiation of a systematic curriculum improvement cycle was announced on 12 December 2023, however the background to the cycle stems from the OECD 2021 report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future” and its specific recommendation for Scotland to "develop a systematic approach to curriculum review” which was accepted by Scottish Government.

Since then, the Curriculum and Assessment Board, which includes a range of stakeholders including Education Scotland, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland, leading academics, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority, has already considered and offered views on a range of papers in relation to taking forward a systematic curriculum review cycle in Scotland. Papers were informed by a rapid evidence review supported by the OECD, which looked at international best practice.

In updating the curriculum framework, we will harness the expertise and insights of our teachers, practitioners and subject specialists amongst others. In determining how best to do that, in early 2023 Education Scotland began a number of different curriculum review pilots to test out different approaches, reporting into the Curriculum and Assessment Board.

A wide range of stakeholders will be involved in taking forward each substantive curriculum improvement cycle, in particular teachers, practitioners and subject leads across Scotland, the Curriculum and Assessment Board and the organisations represented on it.

Work to refresh guidance on the use of mobile phones in schools is underway. There have been high level discussions with local authority and school representatives as part of that process. The Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, which includes a wide range of representative interests, including local authorities and others, will oversee the development of the refreshed guidance, which will be published in the Spring.

As noted in the answer to question S6W-24947 on 19 February 2024, the draft Professional Framework will undergo further evaluation and consultation about ease of use from now until March 2024.

This evaluation evidence will be used to inform further development with another opportunity for users to provide feedback on the content from March 2024 to June 2024. The evaluation will be provided by users of the Framework and is included at the end of the material. It will also be gathered by Education Scotland staff delivering content from the Framework. Other on-going consultation and feedback will occur through our Networks and programme boards which Education Scotland attend.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I welcome the report from Education Scotland, which was produced in response to my request for a national evidence base to better understand the current barriers and challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and their families which influence school attendance.

Following its publication, I tasked the Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland to work directly with Directors of Education to take forward improvement on attendance as a matter of priority. The Interim Chief Executive has since written to all Directors of Education setting out current and future support that Education Scotland can provide to schools and local authorities to improve attendance.

We continue to review the findings of Education Scotland’s report, together with the findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, as part of the development of our relationships and behaviour action plan.

Membership of the Head Teacher Task Force represents a range of perspectives from primary, secondary and special schools, with an interest in school improvement and wellbeing. Head Teachers from the following schools were invited to the Task Force meeting held in June 2023:

Brechin High School

Douglas Academy

Glenrothes High School

Hazelwood ASL School

Heathfield Primary School

John Paul Academy

Mearns Castle High School

Ness Castle Primary School

Oban High School

Preston Lodge High School

Royal High School

Saracen Primary School

Smithycroft Secondary School

St Kentigern’s Academy

Stonelaw High School

Members were identified through a variety of means including Local Authority nominations and engagement in other Scottish Government work.

Definitions of destinations used in the Scottish Government's positive destination statistics can be found in the background notes of the relevant publications, for example in section 7.4.1 of the 2021/22 Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver destinations publication . This includes definitions for Higher Education, Further Education, Training and Employment. Note that those still attending education at school are not included in these statistics. The definitions are reproduced below.

Higher Education: includes leavers following Higher National Diploma (HND) or Higher National Certificate (HNC) courses, degree courses, courses for the education and training of teachers and higher level courses for professional qualifications. It includes programmes at a level higher than the standard of the National Qualifications, i.e. above SCQF Level 7. Leavers with a deferred, unconditional place in higher education have also been included in this category.

Further Education: includes leavers undertaking full-time education which is not higher education and who are no longer on a school roll. This may include National Qualifications.

Training: includes leavers who are on a training course and in receipt of an allowance or grant. It also includes leavers who are on local authority or third sector funded training programmes that are in receipt of a training allowance or those participating in Community Jobs Scotland.

Employment: includes those who consider themselves to be employed and in receipt of payment from their employers. It includes young people undertaking training in employment through national training programmes such as Modern Apprenticeships and Graduate Apprenticeships.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23510 on 19 December 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

As announced in the statement to the Scottish Parliament on 12 December 2023, the Council of Deans agreed to reconvene their Initial Teacher Education (ITE) National Maths Group.

The first meeting of the reconvened group took place on 29 January 2024 and we understand that the Council of Deans will be communicating with members in due course about the timings and focus for future meetings.

The ITE Maths group will meet up to four times per year. An Education Scotland representative will be invited to each meeting. Contact details for the Council of Deans are available at: https://www.scde.ac.uk/contact-us/ .

We have announced £900,000 for local councils to aid training of support staff who are responding to the new challenges in our schools, post-Covid. This announcement was made in direct response to the findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, which indicated that it is school support staff who have the most challenging experiences in dealing with negative behaviours, and that support staff themselves would welcome more training to support them in their roles.

Allocation and use of the funding was agreed at the meeting of COSLA leaders on 26 January 2024. Each local authority will receive a minimum of £10,000 of funding, with the remaining funding distributed on the basis of pupil numbers. A letter was issued to local authorities on 7 February 2024 advising them of their funding allocation. Local authorities will decide how best to use their allocated funding to help the support staff in their area.

The curriculum improvement cycle for Literacy and English will commence later in 2024 and will be informed by a range of evidence, including The Education Scotland pilot curriculum review, which will commence in March 2024, the thematic inspection of Literacy and English, also announced on 12 December.