Why is Scottish education failing to deliver the long-promised pupil excellence and closure of the attainment gap in schools after two decades of much-vaunted policy-making and legislation? Two leading experts re-examine the roots of the problem in what was once ’the jewel in the British educational crown’. Below, Lindsay Paterson explores the links between the Curriculum for … [Read more...] about Lost opportunities to last a lifetime 1
Education
Lost opportunities in Scottish education 2: lack of leadership
.Are politicians, administrators and senior professionals capable of demonstrating the boldness that is required?The latest PISA figures are disappointing, but not surprising. They confirm a trend that has been apparent for some time. Predictably, they have led to polarised responses by defenders and critics of Curriculum for Excellence, the flagship policy of Scottish … [Read more...] about Lost opportunities in Scottish education 2: lack of leadership
Gulliver’s foot and art’s redemptive power
“I met a traveller from an antique land,Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. . . . nothing beside remains…“OzymandiasI went on a hunt for Gulliver’s foot today - it is all that remains of a gigantic statue by the sculptor and former convict Jimmy Boyle, in a park near the housing schemes of Edinburgh’s Craigmillar and … [Read more...] about Gulliver’s foot and art’s redemptive power
Sunshine on Rachel House
It’s Thursday morning. Sunshine is bouncing off the walls and windows of Rachel House. Birds are singing. After a long, cold spring, flowers are bursting with pent up energy. “You chose a good day to visit,” a smiling Lyndsay Stobie opens the front door to the Kinross hospice for children. As welcomes go, it could hardly be warmer. Yet many people (including Lyndsay herself) … [Read more...] about Sunshine on Rachel House
What have local councils ever done for us?
In the second of our series on local government's past, present and future from the Mercat Group of former local council CEOs, George Thorley urges much greater voter turnout in May's crucial elections than the 47% we saw in 2017. Voting is a fundamental right, he argues – and it matters for more reasons than we probably know. Why Vote?It’s councillors and councils that take … [Read more...] about What have local councils ever done for us?