To Aberdeen for the Scottish School Board Association’s annual conference and a presentation from Hamish Vernal, education director in Aberdeenshire, now a one-school-less authority.
Vernal had been rather detained trying to provide alternative schooling for the 400 pupils at the cindered, and now inappropriately named, Strathburn primary in Inverurie.
He thereore sped through a presentation on the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc (Scotland) Act. “It’s a bit like the Amazon jungle. Quite thick and in places impenetrable,” Vernal revealed.
But the actual printed version, we are pleased to reveal, was usefully deployed. Neighbouring Aberdeen director John Stodter used it to prop up his Powerpoint presentation.