Winning pupils stranded in US
- Ten pupils and two teachers from Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, were stranded in New York as TESS went to press, after Hurricane Sandy hit the American east coast. The pupils, aged 16-18, successfully took part in an international mock trial competition - scooping two awards - and were due to fly back on Monday, but may now have to wait until early next week.
Violence against staff on the rise
- The number of violent incidents against public sector workers has risen, a Unison Scotland survey has shown. Some 34,739 violent incidents were reported to employers last year, almost 15,000 more than in 2006. Education remained the area with the highest number of assaults, with classroom and special needs assistants particularly vulnerable. A total of 3,758 assaults on non-teaching staff were recorded.
Wide support for `guarantee’
- A dozen voluntary sector organisations in Edinburgh have shown their support for the Edinburgh Guarantee, which aims to ensure all school- leavers in the city have a positive destination - a place in education or training, or a job. The organisations have committed to try to identify jobs, modern apprenticeships or paid internships young people would be able to take up. Edinburgh’s third sector employs 15,000 people.
Teacher sentence for sex offences
- A teacher has been sentenced to a two-year community payback order for performing a sex act in front of a teenage boy on the internet and having indecent images of children. Christopher Daniels, 29, was working as an IT tutor at Lossiemouth High in Moray when he exposed himself to the teenager over a webcam in July last year. He will remain on the sex offenders’ register for two years.
Lib Dems renew pledge for HE
- The Scottish Liberal Democrats have renewed their pledge to support free higher education in Scotland. Education spokesman Liam McArthur wrote on the NUS Scotland website that they would not be joining their Westminster colleagues in moving towards support for tuition fees. “By standing up for students, we are standing up for a strong economy which draws from a broad and talented skills base,” he said. “Society benefits when education is offered on the principle of ability to learn.”
