Senior Phase

Pupils enter the senior Phase of Curriculum for Excellence at the start of their fourth year of secondary school. During this year they will embark on their studies towards national qualifications.

As pupils come to the end of the Broad General Education phase in S3 they start to think about the subjects they wish to focus on in the senior phase and begin to select the subjects they will study and complete national qualifications in.

Pupils can still leave school when they turn 16 at the end of S4 or December of S5 (depending on date of birth), however, the vast majority of pupils now stay on in school and complete a 5^th and 6^th year. The senior phase is designed to offer greater flexibility for young people to achieve a variety of qualifications; schools work in partnership with colleges and other partners including employers to offer opportunities for young people to achieve.

Pupils can choose a flexible learning pathway that is designed to suit their career aspirations, skills and abilities. Qualifications include the following:

• National Qualifications e.g. National 4, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher
• Skills for work qualifications
• National Progression Awards
• Foundation Apprenticeships (in partnership with colleges)
• Higher National Certificates (in partnership with colleges)
• Personal Development Awards
• Employability awards
• Wider Achievement Awards e.g. Duke of Edinburgh Award, Saltire Award, John Muir Award

In Beeslack Community High School pupils are timetabled together in what is called an aligned senior phase S4-6. This affords us the ability to timetable pupils according to their level of study and not their age.

This is our first year of an aligned senior phase and the table below illustrates the difference between the traditional structure of S4, 5 and 6 timetabled separately and the new aligned senior phase in Beeslack.

Traditional Model		Aligned Senior Phase
Year	Qualifications	Year	Qualification
S4	Typically 7 x Nat 5 for the majority	S4	Mixture of 6 qualifications at any level
S5	Typically 5 x Higher/Nat 5 for the majority	S5	Mixture of up to 6 qualifications at any level
S6	Typically 4 x Advanced Higher/Higher/Nat 5 for the majority	S6	Mixture of up to 6 qualifications at any level
Total	Maximum 16 Qualifications	Total	Maximum 18 Qualifications