Early Years in Scotland | Friendly Childminders' Hub

Early Years in
Scotland

Children in Scotland do not start school until they are five years old, when they join Primary 1 (P1) and the education for the early years children is referred to as, 'Early Learning and Childcare'. To quote directly from the education.gov.scot website [accessed 8/5/25], this term is used because it's 'intended to emphasise that the care and education of very young children are inseparable. Babies, toddlers and young children learn all the time from their experiences.'

Education Scotland has produced an in depth document, entitled 'Realising the Ambition; Being Me', which is the national practice guidance for early years children in Scotland. it covers a child's early life from pre birth until they are three and contains so much information on everything from development, different educational approaches (for example Reggio Emelia), schemas, transitions and critically reflective practice.

It was amazing to see that where the terminology is explained on page four, the word 'practitioner' that is used throughout the document, lists childminder first ahead of teachers, headteachers, managers, support workers etc. It's not very often that you come across childminders being mentioned first on a government document and it needed a mention.

To access this document for yourself ,just click the link below:

Realising Ambition: Being Me

When children reach the age of three, they come under the umbrella of the 'Curriculum for Excellence', which continues until they are eighteen years old. This curriculum is split into two parts and the one that concerns early years is the 'Broad General Education', which covers children's curriculum from 'pre - school' and is known as their Early Level.

Education Scotland produced a document entitled, 'Benchmarks for Early Level', which gives a breakdown of the national standards expected across the core subjects of the Scottish curriculum. It's intended to make clear the progress that children need to make; what they are learning now and what they need to learn next; whilst also providing a useful assessment tool for practitioners.

To access this document for yourself, just click the link below:

Benchmarks: Early Level - All curriculum Areas

Here is some more information from Education Scotland about the early years, that you may find useful:

Learning in the Early Years

Here's a link to the Scottish government's Early Years Framework. The PDF version seems to have been archived and isn't accessible, but you can read it directly through the website:

Early Years Framework for Scotland

**If you have any questions that aren't answered here, please get in touch and I will do my best to help you. As I've made clear in Sam's Pledges, I was a childminder in England and I've had to teach myself about the Scottish Education System and it's something I am still learning about! Sam x

Benchmarks Document

Early years learning and development is described in detail in the Benchmarks: Early Levels - All Curriculums document, so let's take a closer look at what that includes. For a link to the entire document, see here.

Benchmarks is split into 13 different subject areas and within that, each subject is broken down further into specific parts, for example Literacy into Listening and Talking, Reading and Writing. For each of these specific parts, information and advice is given to inform childminders and other early years educators about;

- how the curriculum should be organised,

- the expected experiences and outcomes for planning, learning, teaching and assessment

- 'benchmarks' to support educators' professional judgements

These Benchmarks guide childminders to provide professional educational support as they meet each child exactly where they are, determining what their next steps should be to make great progress. Childminders don't just get children 'school ready'; they help set the building blocks children need for their whole lives.

Below, in the next section, is a breakdown of each subject area across the curriculum and the specific areas of focus within each one to give you a better understanding of what's involved.

Benchmarks' Curriculum Areas

If you've just landed in this section, have a look here to learn more about the Benchmarks' document. Below are the subject areas for the Scottish Early Levels and you may notice that some areas do not sound suitable for young children, but when you look at the full document, it's evident that they are taught in age appropriate ways and that learning is scaffolded as the children progress through their education.

Literacy and English and Language

Listening and Talking

Reading

Writing

Number and Maths

Number, Money and Measure

Shape, Position and Movement

Information Handling

Literacy and Gàidhlig

Listening and Talking

Reading

Writing

Expressive Arts

Art and Design

Dance

Drama

Music

Gaelic Learners

Listening and Talking

Reading

Writing

Health and Wellbeing (Food and Health)

The Food Experience

Developing Healthy Choices

Nutritional Needs

Keeping Safe and Hygienic

The Journey of Food

Food and Textiles Technologies

Health and Wellbeing (Personal and Social Education)

Planning for Choices and Changes

Physical Activity and Health

Substance Misuse

Relationships , Sexual Health and Parenthood

Keeping Safe and Hygienic

The Journey of Food

Food and Textiles Technologies

Health and Wellbeing (Physical Education)

Physical Competencies

Cognitive Skills

Personal Qualities

Physical Fitness

Religious Education in Roman Catholic Schools

The Mystery of God

The Image of God

Revealed Truth of God

Son of God

Signs of God

Hours of God

Word of God

Reign of God

Religious and Moral Education

Beliefs

Values and Issues

Practices and Traditions

Science

Planet Earth

Forces, Electricity and Waves

Biological Systems

Materials

Topical Science

Social Studies

People, Past Events and Societies

People, Place and Environment

People in Society, Economy and Business

Technologies

Literacy

Food and Textile

Technological Developments in Society and Business

Craft, Design, Engineering and Graphics

Computing Science