A review of the senior phase of curriculum for excellence is needed to ensure that pupil aspirations are being met and that breadth of opportunity remain a cornerstone of Scottish education. Continue reading Review of S4 – S6 education is needed, says Holyrood committee
New schools will be built from Aberdeenshire to Ayrshire in the first phase of a nationwide £1 billion investment programme.
The Scottish Government will contribute funding of between £220 million and £275 million in partnership with local authorities across the country to replace 26 schools, with a further phase of investment to be announced within 12 months.
A new Currie Community High School is included in the first phase. Continue reading First class: New schools and campuses for Scotland
Approximately 1,000 extra pupil support assistants will be recruited this year to work with children with additional support needs.
This week the First Minister announced £15 million for councils to expand on the 13,636 pupil support assistants already working in Scotland’s classrooms – but the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition say greater investment yet is still required.
Visiting West End Campus in Dundee, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Every child should have the support they need to reach their full learning potential.
Through listening to the experiences of children and young people with additional support needs, their families and those who support them, we recognise we need to do more to enhance their experience at school.
“Working in partnership with local authorities we will invest an extra £15 million in the coming year to increase frontline staff to support learners with additional support needs.
“This will make an significant impact in our classrooms and will help to ensure our young people and their families get the right help at the right time.”
COSLA Spokesperson Councillor Stephen McCabe said: “Additional resource for Local Government is always welcomed and this funding will make a positive difference to children and young people in classrooms across Scotland, helping those with additional support needs to reach their full potential on their school journey.
“Core Local Government services like education are vital to all of Scotland’s communities and COSLA will work hard in the coming months to ensure that Councils across Scotland continue to have the resources they need to support every child, young person, citizen and community.”
Responding to the Scottish Government announcement, a spokesperson for the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition commented: “This increase in investment to expand the number of pupil support assistants working in Scotland’s schools is to be greatly welcomed.
“However, what is also vital is boost in the number of ASN teachers, who have seen their numbers slashed over the last few years, as well as specialist support staff.
“Between 2012 and 2018 the number of specialist teachers supporting those with ASN has decreased from 3,840 to 3,437, a decline of 403, representing a new low.
“There has also been a fall in the number of specialist support staff in key categories such as behaviour support staff, where the number has dropped by 58 from 2012 (from 180 to 122) and by 43 in the number of educational psychologists (from 411 to 368).
“This fall is against the background of an overall increase by 68.7 per cent since 2012 in the number of pupils identified with ASN, from 118,034 to 199,065 in 2018, representing just over a quarter of all pupils (28.7 per cent).
“Figures reveal that per pupil spend on those with ASN has slumped from £4,276 in 2012/13 to £3,387 in 2017/18. This amounts to a cut of £889 per pupil, representing a 26.1 per cent drop in real terms (20.8 per cent in cash terms).
“It is vital that those with ASN get the care and support they need, which is also key if we are to genuinely close the educational attainment gap. Any increase in support, which this Scottish Government announcement does, is to be welcomed, but this is clearly challenging in an environment of austerity and evidence of cuts in sspending per pupil with ASN.”
NSPCC Scotland’s ‘Speak Out Stay Safe’ (SOSS) service which helps children to learn how to recognise abuse, has now been delivered in all mainstream primary schools in Edinburgh. Continue reading NSPCC Scotland’s School Service delivered to all schools in Edinburgh
Edinburgh Tory councillor Cameron Rose told school student climate strikers yesterday that he was “sceptical” about the science of climate emergency.
This is despite overwhelming and compelling scientific evidence recognised by almost all environmental scientists and the United Nations. Continue reading Tory councillor schooled on climate breakdown
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined Portobello High School students from S1-S3 yesterday to launch a new app, Bookzilla, at Portobello Library.
Developed by Scottish Book Trust, the national charity transforming lives through reading and writing, and digital agency Dubit, Bookzilla is aimed at early secondary school students in Scotland. The app encourages pupils to read for pleasure, whether they are already regular readers or just embarking on their reading journey. Continue reading First Minister launches new app for teen readers
75% of Parents value traditional subjects over creativity
OUT OF TOUCH parents are trying to steer their children away from pursuing lucrative 21st century careers, because they don’t understand the opportunities, a study shows.
Three quarters of mums and dads believe that conventional academic subjects such as Maths and English taught at school and beyond, are more valuable than creative and new technology subjects.
New research has revealed that despite the creative industries being one of the fastest growing sectors, with an estimated 2 million jobs available, there is still a sentiment from parents that they wouldn’t be happy if their child chose to pursue a creative career.
Parents appear to have overlooked the opportunities available within expanding fields such as game development, visual effects, art, music and social media, according to a poll of 1,000 parents of under 18 year olds, commissioned by Escape Studios.
When asked which degrees would be most valuable from a lifelong career perspective – parents identified as their top three choices – Computing (13%), Medicine (12%) and Engineering (11%). The arts ranked last at 2%. These findings showcase the importance of educating parents in the growth of the creative sector, as the future workforce will help to build our growing creative industries, which as of 2018 contributes £101.5 billion to the economy[2].
Due to parents’ lack of understanding of the career options available within the creative industries, almost half said they would try to influence the degree their teenager chooses to study at university. Dads (49%) are more likely to influence this than mums (39%).
Parents stated that they would be happier if their children opted for career paths such as training to become an Engineer (29%), a Doctor (37%) or a Scientist (23%), while the most disliked future career paths were identified as Social Media Influencer (35%), Bloggers (31%) and Gamers (27%).
Only 8% of parents wanted their child to pursue being a Visual Effects Artist or Animator, even though the creative industries can offer many lucrative job opportunities. Forecasts predict the UK could create up to 1 million new jobs in the sector by 2030[3].
Parents believe that the most important subjects for their children to study in school are Maths (67%), English (62%) and Computing (54%). Crafts, Music, Art and Design each received less than 20%.
Parents need more support when it comes to understanding the opportunities available within the creative industries. The classical boundaries between industries are also rapidly becoming blurred, due to advancements in technology; as a result, there is a need for digital skills in more conventional roles too. Indeed, recruiters within the creative industries are sourcing talent from varied backgrounds, such as science, art and engineering.
The parents participating in the poll acknowledged that allowing their children to play video games offered some benefits, including the development of theirproblem-solving skills (53%), logic skills (51%) and communication skills (25%).
Commenting on these abilities, Director of Escape Studios Dr. Ian Palmer, said: “Skills such as problem-solving, decision making, risk-taking, and communication can all be used in jobs across the creative industries. Alongside storytelling and imagination.
“Children that adopt to technology at an early age learn skills that offer them a better chance of getting a job in the digital sectors. We know there is a wealth of opportunity in terms of roles that are also future-proof. It’s predicted that 87% of creative jobs are resistant to automation, creating a very resilient creative workforce.”
Despite this, nearly half of parents (47%) think that smartphones shouldn’t be allowed in school, as a tool for learning. However, 71% admit that allowing their children to use technology from an early age, is beneficial for their development.
The top 5 jobs that parents would ideally like their children to pursue, are:
Doctor (27%)
Scientist (23%)
Lawyer (18%)
Architect (16%)
The top 5 jobs that parents ideally don’t want their children to pursue, are:
Blogger (31%)
Gamer (27%)
Stockbroker (15%)
Banker (13%)
Dr. Ian Palmer, Director of Escape Studios added: “The creative industries continue to grow at a substantial rate; despite this, not enough parents are aware of the opportunities available to their children within this sector.
“At Escape Studios, we offer courses in Game Art, Animation, Visual Effects, and Motion Graphics. We have a wealth of alumni who have gone on to have successful careers working on everything from Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,Guardians of The Galaxy: Vol 2, and the Oscar winning film, The Jungle Book. This is a rapidly growing industry that’s ready to welcome talent from all backgrounds and with a wealth of skill sets.”
EDINBURGH Napier University has welcomed the first intake of students on to its newly-launched Professional Graduate Diploma in Education programme. Continue reading New teacher training programme gets under way
Education, Children and Families Convener Councillor Ian Perry writes about the positive progress being made in meeting the increased 1140 hours early learning and childcare in a year’s time:
Last week heralded one year to go before we have to meet the ambitious target of providing an additional 1140 hours funded early learning and childcare in Edinburgh. Providing double the number of hours for three and four-year-olds plus eligible two-year-olds is a huge undertaking.
It presents many challenges but thanks to innovative thinking by the Council and early years staff and full Scottish Government funding we are making positive progress towards meeting this ambitious target.
Our exciting and forward-thinking plans, underpinned by four key themes of quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability, are transforming the early years learning and childcare landscape in the Capital.
Unlike some other local authorities Edinburgh started implementing the additional hours two years ago giving us plenty of time to take on board any lessons learnt and adapt our plans going forward.
We already have over 3,000 children benefitting from the extra hours and our proactive approach to taking our partner providers with us on this journey has resulted in 79 of them coming on board and five forest kindergartens up and running by late October to add to the mix.
There’s no doubt that two of the biggest challenges are recruiting staff and providing the necessary infrastructure.
Through our recent national recruitment drive we have an additional 360 staff already in place ranging from senior early officers and practitioners to modern apprentice trainees. Add to this our own Early Learning and Childcare Academy which is helping grow and develop our workforce by delivering training and upskilling staff.
Our new state-of-the-art early years settings are all designed on sector-leading research to support children’s learning and development and aim to be nurturing environments which are homely, inviting and calming.
New buildings have already opened at Corstorphine, Davidson’s Mains, Ferryhill and Leith primary schools with early years centres also opening at Granton and Tynecastle.
We are currently on site building five more nurseries this coming year at Craigentinny, Granton, Nether Currie, St John Vianney and St Mark’s primary schools. Each of these will provide between 64 and 137 places and are expected to open their doors in Spring 2020.
Other innovative ideas to meet the additional hours include our partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association and our successful Forest Kindergarten project which is going from strength to strength.
We now have three fully operational forest kindergartens sites at Laurieston Castle, Cammo and Cliftonhall and a further two sites will be ready in October at Craigmillar and Newbattle providing a blended model of early learning and childcare for around 200 children.
There are now 11 local authority settings open from 8am to 6pm all year round and we are considering proposals to open more settings for 50 weeks a year.
Obviously, we will continue to engage with the community as our plans progress and are always wanting to hear innovative and new ideas.
This is an exciting time for early learning and childcare in Edinburgh. We and our partners are grasping this opportunity with both hands to ensure our children get the best possible start in life on their journey to becoming successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.
The University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Open Learning’s Short Courses partnered with Edinburgh’s Royston Wardieburn Community Centre to offer a daytime archaeology course for the local community.
The ‘Making Connections’ course, taught by Archaeology Teaching Fellow Kristian L.R.
The University of Edinburgh
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You don’t have to study for a degree to learn with us. We have a huge range of options that allow you to study at a time and pace that suits you.
With our short courses, you can learn during the day, in the evening, at weekends or at a Summer School. Courses range from Jewellery Making and Elementary Norwegian to those where you can earn credit towards a qualification. You may also be eligible for support ranging from a Personal Tutor to academic and sometimes financial support. If your company or organisation would benefit from a team-building or training course, the Business School can tailor a bespoke course to meet your needs.
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The Centre for Open Learning offers short courses in subjects from Archaeology, Art and Design and Creative Writing through to History, Psychology and Politics. No prior knowledge of the subject is usually required.
If you can’t commit to a weekly slot over five or 10 weeks, then you can try a Saturday taster session, a weekend course or one of our Summer Schools. We may also be able to provide financial assistance such as discounts for alumni or help with fees for those on certain kinds of benefit.
Find a short course to suit you
Learn a language
Courses are available in more than 20 languages from Arabic to Welsh, British Sign Language, Japanese and Swahili. If you just want to brush up on your French or Italian for a holiday, or take a serious interest in Chinese Advanced, we’ve got just the course for you.
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Credit Plus courses are short courses with study and essay-writing skills built in. They are designed for students who want to study for credit at university level for the first time, or in a subject they haven’t studied before. This type of course includes subjects such as Film Studies, How Art Works and Introducing Scottish Social History.
These credits count towards a Certificate of Higher Education, a national qualification recognised by employers and other universities. Everyone who takes this route has support from a Personal Tutor who helps you with academic guidance and support.
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This part-time programme is primarily for adult students who are returning to learning after a break from study. It has been carefully designed to prepare students with few or no prior qualifications to study for a degree in Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences.
If you are accepted onto the course, you will be a fully matriculated student at the University with access to all the facilities available to other students, including extensive academic and pastoral support.
The programme will be run from late summer 2018 and finish in June 2019, and we will announce the process for applying in early 2018. For further information about the Part-time Access Programme, please email the Centre for Open Learning.
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Our triple-accredited Business School delivers bespoke options for Executive Education which are designed to challenge, inspire and transform your thinking and that of your company. A range of courses is available from two-day Masterclasses to accredited MBA level courses and customised programmes tailored to your company’s needs.
