With only 3 days left, support Talking-up Scotland's work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method - John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421

Professor John Robertson OBA, former schoolteacher, education lecturer, head of department, Associate Dean (Quality Assurance), Research Professor, research methods tutor, Masters and PhD supervisor, multiple peer-reviewed international research author, Faculty Research Ethics Chair

I include, the above merely to compare with the ‘team’ at the Commission on School Reform, whose report forms the basis for the Herald’s piece today suggesting major problems in Scotland’s schools.

Here are the usual suspects:

• Keir Bloomer (Chair): Education Consultant and former Director of Education [Clackmannanshire!]
• Carole Ford: Former head teacher of Kilmarnock Academy and former president of School Leaders Scotland [candidate in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in Glasgow Kelvin and on the Glasgow regional list, coming fifth]
• Jim Goodall: Former Head of Education and Community Services at Clackmannanshire Council and former Lib Dem councillor at East Dunbartonshire Council
• Johann Lamont: Former teacher (1979-99) and retired Member of Scottish Parliament (1999-2022) Labour leader!
• Cllr Alix Mathieson: Conservative Councillor at East Dunbartonshire Council, member of education committee and Former Chairperson of a third sector nursery
• Lindsay Paterson: Professor emeritus of education policy in the School of Social and Political Science at Edinburgh University. [The only Scottish ‘academic’ who thinks Pisa scores are useful]

Only Paterson has published research on education and it’s just based on statistics he chooses to favour such as Pisa scores. He has never, taught in schools. His background is in agricultural research. Ford is a serial presence in anti-SNP media. Bloomer wouldn’t know a research method it it bit him in the bum. Lamont? FFS.

Their so-called research report – Behaviour in Schools – makes no pretence. It does not feature the word ‘method’ for the simple reason it has none – FAILED Research Methods 101!

The report, also does not have a review of literature upon which to base and to justify its research questions [NONE] – FAILED.

It offers only this:

However, in recent years public concern about pupils’ behaviour in schools has greatly increased [based on what evidence?]. Press coverage has highlighted a growth in serious violence against other young people and staff, while behaviour problems regularly disrupt classes and prevent the well-behaved majority from learning in peace. The NASUWT [minority union based in England] union claims that 44% of teachers responding [self-selecting survey – FAILED!] to its survey had experienced physical abuse and/or violence in the year 2024/25 and 90% had been verbally abused. A local report on Edinburgh schools suggested that the incidence of pupils making abusive sexist comments to teachers increased from 22 in 2020/21 to 142 in 2024/25. Tom Bennett, an independent behavioural adviser to UK [ENGLISH] Department of Education has stated that behavioural problems are much greater in Scotland than England. He makes a link with persistent absence, pointing out that 19.2% of pupils in England have an absence rate greater than 10%, compared with 31.4% of Scottish pupils. Furthermore, the SSTA union claims that 92% of all lessons are interrupted by mobile phones. This clearly links to a finding that 43% of teachers find pupils withdrawing from proper classroom interactions on a daily basis.

https://www.enlighten.scot/publication/commission-on-school-reform-behaviour-in-schools/

Anyone who knows anything, a first-year student, is choking on the aroma of BS in the above. It would fail straight away with the tutor able to justifiably stop there and read no more.

Here’s some real research on what is happening in schools:

Factcheck – School violence is in decline in Scotland

Like a playground crowd around a fight, our MSM have gathered frothily around some figures which seem to bear little relationship to those published above.

Looking at the above data, it is clear that all forms of bullying are decline from the 2018 level and that Scottish students feel significantly safer than in other nations, on average.

And in England? No such breakdown seems to have been done with only this offered:

The report also found that the majority of pupils in England reported feeling safe in their schools.

That it? Just ‘the majority’ is OK?

Why no percentage we might compared with Scotland?

This sort of thing?

Violence fears make children miss school [in England], youth survey suggests

Results from the survey of over 7,500 children [in England] indicate 16% of children aged 13-17 have been a victim of violence. The children’s commissioner [for England] said knife crime and violence was the “number one issue” raised with her by young people.

and:

Hundreds of children thrown out of school in English county lines hotspots

Sources:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-international-student-assessment-pisa-2022-highlights-scotlands-results/documents/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/england-among-highest-performing-western-countries-in-education

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/29/hundreds-of-children-thrown-out-of-school-in-english-county-lines-hotspots

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-67359254

The Commission on School Reform is the education wing of ‘thinktank‘ Enlighten, headed up by Rt Hon Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, Chris Deerin and Alison Payne – If you don’t know them well by now, have a wee Google on them.