First aid `should be a lesson for life’ at schools

Scotland on Sunday

Teaching every child first aid at school would save thousands of lives a year and reduce waiting times at Aamp;E departments, a top doctor has claimed. Dr Jennifer Devine, associate specialist in emergency medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, believes children should be taught four R’s rather than just three - reading, writing, arithmetic and CPR.

Children’s charity in plea over alcohol

The Scotsman

Almost a quarter of Scots have seen someone who was drinking alcohol acting aggressively or violently towards a child, a survey has found. Launching a campaign to stop alcohol affecting the lives of the young, Children 1st said 52 per cent of people have witnessed a person drunk in charge of a child.

Why e-book families don’t live happily ever after

Daily Mail

Reading interactive e-books to under-threes could hinder a child’s development and break vital bonds with parents, experts have warned. Digital books are becoming increasingly popular in Scotland - but child development specialists say that such material could harm youngsters’ eyesight and their imaginations.

How American fundamentalist schools are using Nessie to disprove evolution

Sunday Herald

Schoolchildren in Louisiana are to be taught that the Loch Ness monster is real in a bid by religious educators to disprove evolution. The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) argues that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time as man, then Darwinism is fatally flawed.

Police dig up garden in hunt for missing woman

The Herald

Police are to dig up a garden in the hunt for a teacher who went missing nearly 43 years ago. Detectives fear the remains of mother-of-two Ellen Ruffle may be buried at the property. She lived at the address in Motherwell with her husband and two children before vanishing without trace, aged 34, in November, 1969.