Move to protect play parks from cuts

Scotland on Sunday

- Children’s playgrounds should be given legal protection to insulate them from the impact of financial cutbacks and to help curb growing levels of obesity. PlayScotland has petitioned MSPs asking them to legally safeguard playgrounds following a survey that found less than 1 per cent of all “greenspace” in Scotland is devoted to play areas.

Legal highs death warning

The Herald

- A specialist doctor believes it is only a matter of time before more people die from taking so-called legal highs, as a survey showed the number of young people needing emergency treatment after taking them has more than trebled in a year. Patients who take the substances are often so seriously ill when they come to hospital that urgent specialist treatment is needed, said Dr Richard Stevenson of Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

10,000 children take a two-week classroom break

Daily Mail

- More than 10,000 Scottish schoolchildren are missing at least a fortnight of classes a year because their parents take them on term-time holidays. Fears have been raised that children’s education will suffer because they are regularly taken out of school to suit family holiday planning, in what has been dubbed “middle-class truancy”.

Estate kids are singing power of Scotland

Daily Record

- As billions globally watched the opening ceremony, youngsters from a Scots council estate were among the first voices they heard. The 53-strong choir, aged eight to 21, from Edinburgh’s Broomhouse, sang Flower of Scotland as viewers heard anthems from all the home nations.

Parents protest at Chinese `brainwashing’ in schools

The Scotsman

- Tens of thousands of Hong Kong parents marched in the streets to protest against a school curriculum plan they said was an attempt to brainwash students by extolling the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party. The controversy is the latest backlash against perceived political influence from Beijing in the former British colony.