Gordon Brown to become UN schools envoy
The Scotsman
Former prime minister Gordon Brown is to become the UN’s special envoy for global education. The role will see the MP lead a campaign to meet the Millennium Development Goal for every child to be at school by the end of 2015. He will accompany UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on a tour of Asia in August.
How getting into Oxford just got harder
The Scotsman
Demand for the University of Oxford has outstripped the number of places to such an extent that more than four-fifths of candidates will sit extra aptitude tests to get in. In the coming year about 85 per cent of applicants will take “some form of aptitude test”. In economics and management there are now about 1,300 applicants for 96 or 97 places.
Nursery paedophile jailed
The Herald
A nursery worker who filmed himself sexually abusing two young brothers has been jailed for eight years. A judge branded Alexander Mortimer, 28, a danger to children and made an order preventing him from working with children again. South Lanarkshire Council has set up support for those affected.
Scouts arrive from tsunami-hit Japan
The Herald
A contingent of scouts from an area of Japan devastated by last year’s tsunami have arrived in Perthshire for an international jamborette, the only event of its type in the world. The 13 scouts from the Iwate province in northern Japan have been sponsored by a scout troop in Fife, which has raised nearly pound;10,000.
Lessons by moonlight
Daily Mail
A Scottish Daily Mail investigation has found that teachers use their long holidays to take jobs such as waiters, fitness instructors and social workers. Other second jobs that have come to light are night-shift managers in call centres and, in one case, a church minister. The revelations have brought angry criticism that teachers’ holidays are too long.
