Dr David Lees, rector of Glasgow High School, said at the school club’s annual dinner that he had intended to retire this autumn but had decided not to because he knew it would give the corporation “an excellent opportunity to chop the school”.
He would remain rector so long as there was life in him or until he was forced to retire by the Superannuation Act.
* The jury in the fatal accident inquiry into the deaths in the Cairngorms of five Ainslie Park pupils and a student returned a formal verdict at Banff, ascribing no blame.
Among their seven recommendations was a general call for more care to be exercised, with special regard to fitness and training. “Certificated” teachers should accompany parties of pupils to centres such as Lagganlia and thereafter expeditions should be led by qualified and long experienced instructors. Fuller information should be given to parents about such activities.
* In spite of general acceptance of the need for pre-school education, only 4.4 per cent of Scottish two, three and four-year-olds receive state-provided nursery education. “In England and Wales the average figures, though still totally unacceptable, are much better - about 10 per cent,” says a newsletter issued jointly by the Confederation for the Advancement of State Education (Glasgow) and the Renfrewshire branch of the National Campaign for Nursery Education.
* (From a letter) A headteacher of a primary school in a mining community facing diminishing supplies of coal announced to two striking miners that he would close the school and send all their children home if more fuel wasn’t forthcoming.
The two fathers looked alarmed but didn’t say anything. The next morning when the headteacher arrived at the school, there on his doorstep was a lorry load of coal.
