MOVE and Scottish Education Frameworks: Getting It Right For Every Child

The MOVE Programme is currently used in 17 schools and 1 paediatric therapy team across Scotland. Willowbank School is a Silver Quality Mark accredited special school in East Ayrshire who started using MOVE in 2018. Here, Principal Teacher and MOVE Coordinator Nicola Murray discusses how the programme fits with the Curriculum for Excellence and the Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) approach:

“The MOVE Programme forms a key part of our curriculum at Willowbank because it prioritises the need that many of our pupils have for structured physical development, and the programme aligns well with Scottish education frameworks.”

The Curriculum for Excellence encompasses the entire learning journey for children and young people and aims to enable them to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens, and effective contributors. The Curriculum works across four contexts:

  • Opportunities for personal development
  • Interdisciplinary learning
  • Ethos and life of the school as a community
  • Curriculum areas and subjects

The Curriculum works hand in hand with the principles, ethos and philosophy of the MOVE Programme because both focus on providing our young people with learning opportunities that suit their needs in order for them to improve their independence, wellbeing and quality of life. Like the Curriculum, the MOVE Programme also works across multiple contexts to make sure that our young people gain skills in different environments so they can use these skills to actively take part in a wide range activities, which sets them up well for adulthood.

Central to the Curriculum is the GIRFEC approach, which aims to promote the wellbeing of children and young people by centring their needs and their family, and by encouraging the different organisations supporting the child/young person and their family to work together.

Putting the child and their family first is an important part of the MOVE Programme. It focuses on motivational goals that are set by families because they know what is most important to their child and what will make the biggest difference to their family life. This makes the MOVE Programme bespoke to each child/young person’s needs.

Also, the MOVE Programme is a framework that encourages families, teachers and therapists to work together to achieve the best possible outcomes for our young people. By using the MOVE Programme, schools can support the physical development of children/young people with complex additional needs because teachers and teaching assistants are empowered to work with therapists to provide movement opportunities throughout the learning day. Schools can also support families to keep movement going after school and during school holidays by sharing ‘MOVE at home’ activities.

For any young person with severe and complex additional support needs, the MOVE Programme is the foundation for ensuring that we are getting it right for every child in Scotland. Everyone learns through planned and challenged movement, learning from repeated opportunities and being allowed to make mistakes in a controlled environment to learn and improve. The MOVE Programme gives everyone supporting the young person a clear focus to work towards, and provides fun and engaging learning experiences that will enable the young person to reach their full potential, which is exactly what the Curriculum for Excellence and GIRFEC aim to achieve.”

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