The University of Edinburgh’s decision to close a four-year undergraduate course for aspiring primary teachers has been criticised by the UCU Scotland union. UCU Scotland official Mary Senior said the move was “particularly puzzling” at a time of teacher shortages. Dr Rowena Arshad, head of the Moray House School of Education, said the introduction of a master’s in transformative learning and teaching - enabling teachers to work across primary and secondary - “contributes to the widening of routes into teaching” across Scotland.

Education secretary John Swinney has insisted that the Scottish government’s International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA) will ask difficult questions to address the divide between rich and poor that emerges even before primary school. He commented as the ICEA prepared for its second meeting this week, after investigative journalism website The Ferret revealed that the first meeting cost £36,000. Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said the ICEA was in danger of becoming “an expensive dining club”.

Aberdeen City Council may have missed out on around £700,000 after failing to claim money from the UK government through the Nursery Milk Scheme. In 2015-16, the council spent £71,000 on free milk for under-5s but did not apply to be reimbursed. A council report reveals that no claims had been made since 2007. The authority hopes to claw back the £71,000 but is unlikely to be able to claim for previous years.

Some 46,000 primary pupils in Scotland have participated in a programme designed to boost computing skills. The Barefoot Computing project, led by BT and the British Computer Society, helps teachers to improve their confidence and has now reached pupils in 28 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. The scheme’s Scottish branch was launched at the Community School of Auchterarder, where headteacher Stuart Clyde said staff confidence was “increasing very quickly”.

@Henry_Hepburn