Abuse apology landmark for Scots Catholic church
The Herald
- One of Scotland’s most senior Catholics has issued a heartfelt apology to victims of child abuse in a move described as a landmark step in the Church’s attitude towards the issue. Leading experts and a child abuse victim praised the announcement by Hugh Gilbert, the Bishop of Aberdeen, that the allegations surrounding Fort Augustus Abbey, a former Abbey school in the Highlands, had shamed the Church.
Highland children give voice to best of English opera
The Herald
- This year’s centenary of the quintessentially English composer Benjamin Britten will be celebrated in a most unlikely location when a small Highland community launches Scotland’s newest opera company. Cromarty Youth Opera will stage its first performance next week - it will be Britten’s Noye’s Fludde (Noah’s Flood). Scottish classical composer and conductor James MacMillan is its patron.
Summer school helps poorer pupils into university
The Scotsman
- A pioneering summer school programme is helping hundreds of pupils from poorer backgrounds into higher education. Lothians Equal Access Programme for Schools (Leaps), which operates in 59 schools across eight local authority areas, has more than doubled the number of pupils going to university at some of its partner schools since 1996.
Schools given choice on Gaelic teaching
BBC online
- The Scottish government is pouring cold water on claims that every primary pupil in the country is to start learning Gaelic. Support agency Education Scotland is to produce materials for schools or councils that want to teach young people Gaelic as a second or third language. But the government is stressing that schools and councils can choose.
Arkansas teachers are to stand guard
TES
- Teachers in Arkansas, US, will be carrying concealed weapons when students return to school next term, in response to the deaths of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. More than 20 teachers, administrators and other employees of the Clarksville school district are being trained to carry handguns.
