Fitness hurdle for PE
- John Beattie, a BBC sports broadcaster and former Scotland rugby international, has tackled the deepening crisis over young people’s activity levels by calling for a thorough review of core PE. The Physical Activity Task Force chaired by Mr Beattie accepts it could take 20 years to ensure 80 per cent of under-16s meet basic activity levels.
Citizenship begins in playschool
- The Scottish executive has cleared the way for schools to equip youngsters from as young as three to become good citizens. The report from a review group chaired by Edinburgh University’s Pamela Munn was unveiled by deputy education minister Nicol Stephen. Successful schools will involve young people in “actively negotiating what they learn and how”, said Professor Munn. She acknowledges potential barriers: lip-service paid to equality and inclusion, and narrow performance measures.
Fresh call for single union
- The momentum for a merger between the teaching unions was given further impetus by EIS president Sandy Fowler. He hopes his union and the SSTA “can both work together to that end and that unity will be possible sooner rather than later”. EIS general secretary Ronnie Smith said last year that there were “no fundamental differences” between the unions.
Lifeline for single-teacher schools
- Dumfries and Galloway has become the first authority to declare opposition to single-teacher schools. The council has been wrestling with a radical restructuring to put it in line for a pound;70 million public-private partnership initiative. Consultants recommended closing 40 primaries and possibly two secondaries. The committee accepted that remote schools should be exempted.
Drive to improve scooter safety
- Two-thirds of the two million Italian secondary pupils who drive scooters to school regularly lose control of their vehicles, and during the past year one in four has been involved in an accident. Some 56 per cent of 14 to 19-year-olds admitted they went through amber traffic lights, and 64 per cent admitted to drink-driving. Education minister Letizia Moratti may introduce compulsory road safety programmes in schools.
