School IT systems and equipment must be upgraded urgently to cope with the curriculum’s demands, according to teachers at the NASUWT Scotland teaching union’s annual conference. The call came days after the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy showed that, between 2011 and 2016, the proportion of P4 pupils using computers in the classroom “very often” decreased from 34 per cent to 28 per cent; in P7, the proportion fell from 38 per cent to 31 per cent.

Around 40 per cent of Scottish primary schools have no library and the vast majority have no librarian, new figures reveal. Data disclosed by councils, under freedom of information law, to The Ferret media organisation shows that 767 of 1,969 primaries do not have libraries and 1,948 are without librarians.

The Green Party’s education spokesman, Ross Greer, has challenged education secretary John Swinney to meet with the universities providing primary teacher training to ensure that the quality of education does not vary greatly from course to course. The call comes after a newly qualified teacher told Parliament’s education committee that many of those on her course will go into teaching without the numeracy skills to adequately teach a class of 11-year-olds.

A rural school with just 31 pupils has become Scotland’s first Microsoft Showcase School - an award that recognises schools that excel in their use of technology to support learning. At Kirkton of Largo Primary in Fife, which has just two classes, pupils learn about animation and movie-making using iPads, and every pupil has an e-portfolio on the schools’ intranet, Glow.