I’m on on the train on my way home from an SQA Higher Biology engagement event in Glasgow today. It was an interesting day for a number of reasons.

Firstly, although it was good to get a look at the revised Higher Biology, I hadn’t appreciated that this will need to be revised once the agreed format for CfE Highers is developed. As a result of this, the revised Higher we saw today will dual run with the current Higher up until the new “CfE Highers” come into play. I had (wrongly) assumed that the revised Science Higher were simply leading the way in this. They did say that they have had verbal reassurances that the content should remain the same between the newly revised Higher and the CfE Higher Biology…but nothing in writing!

I was also surprised to see the actual content for the new Higher. I have to admit to being really quite surprised with the level of depth they’re thinking of going for here. They’ve taken out a lot of content – which we’ve all been saying needed down – but have they gone too far? For example, there is no evolutionary biology in the course – but they have taken numerous very challenging concepts from the Advanced Higher course. I have no problem with science content migrating down through the courses as knowledge and skill progress overtime – but I do wonder if they’ve over cooked it…?

One of the most significant issues today for me though was the mood in the room regarding Curriculum for Excellence. I’m more than used to hearing criticism and concerns regarding CfE, and share many of these myself. However, the overwhelming sense of negativity I felt in the room today was quite a shock to me and much more than I’ve experienced up to now.

There are many possible reasons to explain why this was so strong today – but it really does show how much work we’ve got ahead of us.

I’m off now to watch a few videos on Don’s fantastic series to cheer me up…

Image by Lordcolus