All is not well with education in Scotland. We’re sliding down the international literacy and numeracy charts. Our ‘poverty-related attainment gap’ is widening. What to do? In 2015, the First Minister took decisive action. ‘Judge me by my performance on education,’ she said and – to provide data on which to base that judgement – introduced Scottish National … [Read more...] about P1 tests – first green shoots of recovery for Scottish education?
school tests
Silence of the weans: why children need outdoor play
SIXTY years ago, people walking in American country lanes noticed the birds had stopped singing. Their concern led to a book, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, explaining how crop- spraying of DDT killed wildlife and wrecked the local ecology.As well as securing a ban on dangerous pesticides, publicity around Silent Spring brought the environmental movement to public … [Read more...] about Silence of the weans: why children need outdoor play
Testing time for the Scottish Government
After months of simmering opposition, the Scottish Government’s difficulty with P1 testing has now come to the boil.Various stakeholders had expressed opposition to testing four- and five-year-olds – the EIS, Connect (formerly the Scottish Parent Teacher Council), as well as various children’s charities. In the past few months many individual parents, teachers and … [Read more...] about Testing time for the Scottish Government