Landmark exam season begins
- Today marks the start of exam season in Scotland and the end of an era, with students sitting Standard grades for the last time. For 25 years, children across Scotland have been taking Standard grades, but these will be replaced by Nationals for 2013-14. This year, just over 152,000 candidates in 530 schools and colleges will sit a total of 732,000 exams from Standard grade to Advanced Higher.
Labour launches 20-year vision
- Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has committed her party to a 20-year vision for education and attacked the SNP government for “savaging the college system to fund universities” in her address to the Scottish party conference in Inverness. Ms Lamont has questioned the SNP’s policy of free tuition for all university students. She said: “We will not pay for opportunity for some while denying opportunity for others.”
Bid to combat child exploitation
- A Holyrood committee is calling for evidence about the barriers that exist in tackling the sexual exploitation of children. The Scottish Parliament’s public petitions committee launched its investigation into the effectiveness of current guidelines and practices last month following a petition from children’s charity Barnardo’s. Committee convener David Stewart MSP said: “We want to hear from people about what more needs to be done to tackle and prevent this shameful abuse of children.”
Jordanhill School hits a high note
- Jordanhill School in Glasgow has been described as a “notably high performing school” that has “fully embraced” Curriculum for Excellence by the chief executive of Education Scotland, Bill Maxwell, after an inspection. Jordanhill - an all-through school - is the only non-specialist state school in Scotland directly funded by the government. The report, published this week, praised the P6 to S2 transition programme and the school’s “consistently innovative and creative lessons”.
Boxer packs a charitable punch
- Boxer and Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams visited a Glasgow primary this week to launch a partnership between the Commonwealth Games organisers and children’s charity Unicef. The partnership aims to enable children to be the best they can be by raising funds for Unicef’s work in Commonwealth countries. Swinton Primary in the east end of Glasgow, visited by Ms Adams, is a Unicef rights-respecting school.
