Category Archives: Education

Testing times demand a grown-up debate about measuring P1 progress

Has John Swinney done a good job of selling standardised testing? Clearly not. Will data gathered from P1 assessments be of limited value? Perhaps. But if the attainment gap isn’t properly measured, how will we ever know if it’s been closed?

Are John Swinney’s education reforms really empowering?

One person’s “empowering schools” is another’s passing the buck. A one-size-fits-all approach may not be the answer, but does every school in Scotland really require its own bespoke curriculum, its own recruitment process, its own procurement policies?

Is it really the job of schools to pump out work-ready youngsters?

WERE you “work-ready” when you left school? Did you hit the ground running in your career of choice, or did it take you a while to find your niche, build up skills and confidence, and figure out what you really wanted to do? If you went on to college or university – the route chosenContinue reading “Is it really the job of schools to pump out work-ready youngsters?”

The best way to tackle domestic abuse is to fight sexism – starting in schools

School discipline may have moved on from the dunce’s cap and the tawse, but that doesn’t mean punishments are always fair and never have an element of shaming. The arbitrary enforcement of rules is one of the hallmarks of coercive control.

Getting in a flap about primary school testing won’t help P1s

AS the latest intake of primary ones toddle along to their first day at school next week, the littlest ones dwarfed by their jazzy new rucsacks, they’ll have another weight on their shoulders too. The weight of expectations added by the Scottish Government’s dastardly plan to make them sit tests. Not for these five-year-olds aContinue reading “Getting in a flap about primary school testing won’t help P1s”

If John Swinney won’t listen to teachers, how will he learn?

IF history, theology and Spider-Man comics have taught us anything, it’s that with great power comes great responsibility. Unless, of course, you delegate some of that responsibility to someone else. Then, when being held to account, you can simply point in the direction of that other person and, when everyone turns to look, leap outContinue reading “If John Swinney won’t listen to teachers, how will he learn?”