Today marks an auspicious new era for The TES Scotland. For the first time in our 40-year history, we can truly call ourselves The TES Scotland, as we change to a fully Scottish newspaper with a UK-wide magazine - all in full colour, also for the first time. This reflects the growing divergence between the two education systems north and south of the border.
Some things never change, of course, and we have no plans to do other than what we have done in the past, acting as purveyor of educational news, analysis, features and comment, but to do so in a way that is now appropriate and relevant to Scottish circumstances. Our intention remains as it has always been - to be a forum for ideas and information which will, hopefully, stimulate thinking in the classroom and beyond.
Every profession has its detractors, and some of the worst perpetrators are often those inside the professions themselves; people in education are no different. Our aim, unashamedly, is to talk up the work of teachers and teaching, while performing the role of candid friend and political foe where necessary.
Teaching has to be seen as a rewarding career if it is to attract the teachers of tomorrow. Potential recruits, forced to digest an unrelenting diet of negativity, are not going to line up to join the ranks. Relatively stable industrial relations for the first time in many decades have provided a golden opportunity to concentrate on education, an opportunity the new TESS will happily seize.
