The objective is to encourage flexibility within schools within the constraints of the
guidelines, levels of attainment and the structure and balance of the curriculum.

It is proposed that pupils will experience a certain number of attainment targets by the end of P3, P5 and P7. However, the order that these targets are met can be managed within the planning framework developed by individual school programmes of study. A school may choose to add additional targets to different stages within its planned programme of study; however, it would be expected that all pupils would experience the attainment targets to Level D by the end of their P7 school programme of study. This would allow the secondary school science framework for learning to build upon the pupil's prior science teaching.

The framework for planning may therefore be of use to schools as a platform for the development of audit tools for an individually defined programme of study.

An illustration of a P1 to P3 programme is shown below in that P1 pupils start with the group of targets described as A2 Ourselves. and the remaining seven groups of targets can be taught in any order but all should be covered by the end of P3.

Where new groups have been created, these have been given a coding with the letter A to show that this is an Alternative group from the standard pathway. The other groups are identical to the standard framework for planning.

The standard pathways for P4-P5 and P6-P7 can be rotated for the upper primary, that is, the P5 programme can completed within P4 and vice versa.

The framework shows recommended attainment targets to be covered by the end of P3, P5 and P7.