Tag: education

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Scotland’s schools surging ahead of those in England in literacy and numeracy attainment

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2024-25 published today, we see that in Scotland’s schools there have been significant increases in the numbers of pupils achieving the expected levels in the four years since the pandemic.1 Remember these, at first sight, small percentage differences refer to around 50 000 pupils at each level so the 4% improvement in S3 literacy means 2 000 more pupils succeeded last year than in 2021/2022. Scotland’s media have yet to respond. It will be interesting if irritating to see how they try to spin this success down. The … Continue reading Scotland’s schools surging ahead of those in England in literacy and numeracy attainment

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Scotsman lies barefaced about pandemic lockdown effects on developmental delays in toddlers and fails to ask if UK Government austerity was a major factor

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Professor John Robertson OBA Above how BBC Scotland reported on developmental delays in toddlers during the pandemic. The Scotsman however, had: That’s a clear lie and it’s not qualified, and at that only very very slightly until the 7th paragraph when we see ‘associated with’ as opposed to ’caused: Unless the reporter is thick-as-a-brick, what is the Scotsman’s agenda here? To join the pile-on demonising of Nicola Sturgeon in the Covid inquiry process? Was it hard to understand the University of Edinburgh news release? Covid lockdown linked to child development issues – Lockdown and social distancing measures during the Covid-19 … Continue reading Scotsman lies barefaced about pandemic lockdown effects on developmental delays in toddlers and fails to ask if UK Government austerity was a major factor

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3.5 MILLION children could be lifted out of poverty if the Labour Party in England and Wales copied the Scottish Child Payment unique in Europe and in the long-term really costing nothing

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Professor John Robertson OBA From the Scottish Government yesterday: More than 300,000 children supported by Scottish Child Payment Social Security Scotland’s Scottish Child Payment is supporting 322,230 children across the country, newly published figures show.  Launched in February 2021, the Scotland-only benefit gives families with low incomes crucial financial support to help with the cost of raising children. The weekly payment of £27.15 is paid every four weeks for every eligible child under the age of 16 within a household.  https://www.gov.scot/news/more-than-300-000-children-supported-by-scottish-child-payment/ If Labour in England and Wales did the same, they’d lift around 3.5 million children out of poverty. Why … Continue reading 3.5 MILLION children could be lifted out of poverty if the Labour Party in England and Wales copied the Scottish Child Payment unique in Europe and in the long-term really costing nothing

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Scottish Government’s Funded Early Learning and Childcare project – 97% engagement, 72% increase in reported good health and greater benefits for those in deprived areas

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare: Phase 6 report, published today is a very sober, careful, modest piece of work giving no quick sign of success or failure. I’ve had to read in carefully to extract the good news. What is it all about? This report outlines findings from the 6th phase of the Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (SSELC), focusing on 3-year-olds who were accessing up to 1140 hours of funded ELC. The SSELC forms a major part of the strategy for the evaluation of the expansion of funded ELC in … Continue reading Scottish Government’s Funded Early Learning and Childcare project – 97% engagement, 72% increase in reported good health and greater benefits for those in deprived areas

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How dare SNP ministers responsible for already giving us the best pay and conditions in the UK, offer us even better working conditions before we can claim credit for negotiating it?

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald and the Scotsman and Scottish Labour just love the EIS. I was in education for nearly 4 decades. I never did a proper survey but it seemed like there was a lot of moaning going on. I’ve worked in chemical works, a power station, a psychiatric hospital laundry, sawmills and a parks department. It was often difficult – too cold, too hot, smelly, disgusting, too hard, scary – but in everyone of them, moaning all the time would just get you teased, sometimes cruelly, in often wickedly funny ways. In education, far too many … Continue reading How dare SNP ministers responsible for already giving us the best pay and conditions in the UK, offer us even better working conditions before we can claim credit for negotiating it?

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As Labour ‘generously’ keep prescriptions at just under £10 a go how SNP free prescriptions have saved uncounted thousands of asthmatics

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Professor John Robertson OBA Before we get into the often unreported benefits, let’s get rid of the myth that we cannot afford them. From Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis Financial year 2024 to 2025 published yesterday: The total (net) cost, which is the final cost to the Scottish Government once item costs, service remuneration, advance payments and patient charges are taken into account, for dispensing items and providing services in 2024/25 was £1.66 billion. This increased by 2.5% from £1.62 billion in 2023/24 and continues a period of largely rising cost, increasing by 29.8% over the last 10 years. The total number of … Continue reading As Labour ‘generously’ keep prescriptions at just under £10 a go how SNP free prescriptions have saved uncounted thousands of asthmatics

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As number of schools in England facing structural building failure surges, 92% in Scotland are safe – rated good or satisfactory – after inspection, up from only 62% under Labour

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By stewartb Evidence of Westminster governments allowing England’s deterioration, this time its school buildings. What follows comes in a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) published today, 21 October: ‘Departmental overview: Department for Education 2024-25’ (See https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Department-for-Education-Overview-2024-25.pdf ) It reports, in the ‘matter of fact style’ that is characteristic of the NAO, that: ‘DfE has reported the risk of school building failure resulting from structural safety issues as one of its top risks since 2021-22. Our 2025 report ‘Maintaining public service facilities’ identified a £13.8 billion maintenance backlog in schools – 28% of the government backlog. Cabinet Office estimated that deferring work to … Continue reading As number of schools in England facing structural building failure surges, 92% in Scotland are safe – rated good or satisfactory – after inspection, up from only 62% under Labour

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How Labour has failed Scotland’s young people

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Professor John Robertson OBA Labour Deputy Leader candidate, Phillipson, is in the Record today criticising the SNP for supposed failings with regard to the young. That takes nerve and the most shiny of brass necks. I’m going to have to be very selective and use a few examples of how Labour rather than the SNP, in the past and today regularly betrays the young. First, school exclusions plummet to just over a quarter of the level under Labour and full ‘expulsions’ to just one three-hundredth of the level then From School exclusion statistics published in April 2025, we can see that there … Continue reading How Labour has failed Scotland’s young people

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Why Scotland’s higher school violence is a myth now being pushed by Channel 4

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Channel 4 yesterday, the above and: Scotland has Britain’s highest rate of violent injuries to school staff reported to the safety watchdog, FactCheck can reveal. They include fractures, dislocations and even loss of consciousness, with the number of incidents logged at Scottish schools trebling in a decade. https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-violent-injuries-against-school-staff-most-common-in-scotland It’s a big myth. Here’s why, from Grok AI: You can support Talking-up Scotland at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Bernadette/John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Continue reading Why Scotland’s higher school violence is a myth now being pushed by Channel 4

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Private schools intake drop welcomed by education experts but clearly worries BBC Scotland, Herald, Scotsman and Reform UK

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From Alasdair Macdonald [former Head Teacher] this morning: The Herod and the Scotsperson both headline the fall in the number of children attending private schools in Scotland since the introduction of VAT on school fees. Both papers call the decision to charge VAT ‘vindictive’ and present the fall as a bad thing. Over 95% of children in Scotland attend local authority schools and this has been the level since education became compulsory in 1873. The monies raised by VAT are hypothecated to public education. This, according to two of our ‘papers of record’, is a bad thing for Scottish education. … Continue reading Private schools intake drop welcomed by education experts but clearly worries BBC Scotland, Herald, Scotsman and Reform UK