The EIS teaching union has issued a warning about cuts to instrumental music lessons. A recent survey by the union’s Instrumental Music Teachers’ Network found that 71 per cent of respondents cited budget and staffing cuts as a problem in their area. The charging of fees to pupils was also a frequent concern of teachers.

A guide to improving early years learning across Scotland has been published. Space to Grow is designed to be used across the childcare sector as it prepares for the nationwide expansion of funded early learning and childcare, which is set to increase to 1,140 hours by 2020. The guidance includes case studies from as far afield as Japan, New Zealand and Sweden, alongside examples from Dunfermline, Glasgow, Aberdeen and the Highlands.

Pupils from Glasgow have organised a display at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on aspects of childhood. Life in Glasgow: The Past is Present includes a baby chair dating from around 1860, a 20th-century school satchel and a Tudor-style doll’s house. Hannah Murray, 9, from St Constantine’s Primary, said: “I learned that the past is not as boring as it seems and that we should stop and take another look.”

A P2 pupil from a small island school has won a national engineering competition. Bruce Cutlack, from Ulva Primary on the Isle of Mull, topped his age category in the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award. Bruce chose to tackle plastic pollution in the oceans by designing a submarine that sucked up tiny plastic balls, known as nurdles, and used them to power the craft.