Parent approval falls through ages
Nine in 10 of all parents with school-aged children are satisfied with the education provided by their child’s school, according to the Scottish Household Survey annual report, published this week. But parental satisfaction decreases slightly as the age of the schoolchild increases: from 96 per cent for those aged four to six down to 88 per cent for those aged 13 and above.
Primary modern languages push
The Scottish Government is to set up a working group to examine ways of meeting its ambitious target to teach all primary pupils at least two modern languages. The group will look at the role of employers, universities and parents in promoting languages, as well as giving languages a higher profile in teacher training. This year’s Highers results showed a 4 per cent drop in the number of pupils sitting French, German and Italian; only Spanish showed an increase.
Dispute ends at Telford College
A long-running dispute at Telford College in Edinburgh has ended following an agreement being reached between the EIS union and the college’s management on no compulsory redundancies for lecturing staff. All planned industrial action has now been called off.
Call for integrated post-16 approach
A review of post-16 education and vocational training by Willy Roe, chair of Skills Development Scotland, has called for better integration with other parts of the education and employment systems. Employers should have more influence over college and training provision it says, and there should be changes to the funding system, including creation of personal development accounts for post-16 learners.
Schools to gain forensic identity
School buildings in Edinburgh are to be given their own forensic identity as part of a joint council and police campaign to tackle the theft of copper and lead. An estimated pound;177,000 worth of damage has been done to council buildings this year. Vulnerable parts of buildings are to be doused in “smart water” which, like DNA, can be traced if detected on a suspect and “dummy” metals will be trialled on council properties as a deterrent.
