Fewer than one in 10 schools in has a finance committee providing oversight of the Scottish government’s flagship Pupil Equity Fund (PEF), a survey by the EIS teaching union has found. It has raised concerns that too much control is in the hands of headteachers. Last week the government announced details of PEF allocations for 2018-19, with £120 million shared among about 95 per cent of state schools, including 1,939 primaries.
The NASUWT Scotland teaching union has shared details of its submission to the Education (Scotland) Bill consultation, which closed last week. The proposed extension of powers to headteachers - particularly worrying for small primaries - is a “key concern”, as is the “totally unnecessary proposal to replace the (General Teaching council for Scotland) with an Education Workforce Council”. For more on the Bill, see pages 6-7 and the story opposite.
A Glasgow P7 pupil has created a logo to help people with autism negotiate the centre of Scotland’s biggest city. Nicola Johnston, who has autism and goes to St John Paul II Primary, Castlemilk, won, beating around 180 other entries. Glasgow City Council aims to create the “first autism-friendly city centre in the UK”. Nicola’s logo will help identify autism-friendly locations.
A national challenge has been launched to encourage children to think about Stem careers from an early age. The Scottish Council for Development and Industry and water company Wave are behind Don’t Waste a Drop, which distributes kits to schools for teams to build a pump and pipeline for transferring water. You can register at bit.ly/yesc2018
