Inspection approaches to support the Curriculum Improvement Cycle: Background

Education Scotland is currently leading work to review Scotland’s curriculum.

This work is called the ‘Curriculum Improvement Cycle’ and will ensure there is an ongoing review of the curriculum to make sure it remains “relevant, forward looking, clarifies the role of knowledge and ultimately supports high quality teaching, learning and progression”.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills first announced plans for a CIC during a statement to parliament on 12 December 2023. As part of that statement, the Cabinet Secretary announced this work would start with a review and update of the numeracy and mathematics curriculum, followed by a review and update of the literacy and English curriculum.

The Cycle builds on the many strengths of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) while taking steps to de-clutter and clarify where we know improvements are needed. The CIC which has been initiated is not a one-off event, rather a continuous cycle of improvement as recommended by the OECD.