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What is Curriculum for Excellence?

About the 3 - 18 curriculum

Curriculum for Excellence is Scotland's curriculum for children and young people aged 3-18.
It's an approach designed to provide young people with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need for learning, life and work in the 21st century.

It aims to enable every child or young person to be a:

  • Successful learner
  • Confident individual
  • Responsible citizen
  • Effective contributor.

Levels and Stages

The curriculum is broken into two broad stages:

  • a broad general education, providing a rounded education from the early years until the end of S3
  • a senior phase, which will include studying for qualifications (from S4-S6).

The broad general education is divided into five curriculum levels  (Early, First, Second, Third and Fourth) across eight curriculum areas.

Curriculum Areas

There are 8 curriculum areas across the broad general education and can be seen to the left.

(please note that Languages, includes Literacy and English)

To see the Experiences and Outcomes for each curriculum area, including the experiences and outcomes for Healths and Wellbeing Across Learning, click on the relevant link below.

External Link Icon Outcomes and Experiences (Full Set)
External Link Icon Expressive Arts
External Link Icon Health and Wellbeing
External Link Icon Literacy and English
External Link Icon Modern Languages
External Link Icon Numeracy and Maths
External Link Icon Religious and Moral Education
External Link Icon Sciences
External Link Icon Social Studies
External Link Icon Technologies
External Link Icon Health and Wellbeing Across Learning

NB:  All information on this page has been taken from Education Scotland.  Follow the link below for more information.