Tag: teachers

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Wrong! There are 6 505 fewer pupils yet 63 more teachers to keep Scotland’s pupil/teacher ratio the best by far in the UK

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON Rehashing a story from one of their December 2025 front pages, the Herald’s Garrett Stell (‘Originally from North Carolina’), has the above headline based on an apparent fall in teacher numbers from 2022 to 2025. I’m not going to check. It’s not important. Much more important, he doesn’t seem to know about the ratio between teacher and pupil numbers. I’ll resist the temptation to do my Appalachian accent. You’ll see above, in the official figures, that pupil numbers … Continue reading Wrong! There are 6 505 fewer pupils yet 63 more teachers to keep Scotland’s pupil/teacher ratio the best by far in the UK

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Scotsman ‘newspaper’ front pages incompetent, mendacious, self-important, sub-standard researchers to undermine Scottish schools

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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 The above is on the front page of the Scotsman, based on a report by the far from ‘independent‘, pompously self-styled Commission on School Reform (neither royal nor government just invented) and fronted by the notorious Carole Ford with, as always, party-affiliation hidden, and at the end evidence of Pisa-data which no respectable published educationist will ever use. Note – I’ve put all my ‘stuff’ there … Continue reading Scotsman ‘newspaper’ front pages incompetent, mendacious, self-important, sub-standard researchers to undermine Scottish schools

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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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‘Teachers to vote on strike action over workload’ despite Scotland maintaining the lowest PTRs overall, reflecting higher per-pupil spending and policy priorities on smaller classes

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Professor John Robertson OBA It’s impossible to escape the conclusion that if teacher workload is the issue in Scottish schools then there is a failure here of management in schools to apply the clearly superior funding made available by the Scottish Government and maintained over decades now. The facts from Grok AI with sources below are above and: Sources: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2024 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2023 There’s more: By JB The headline above is from Teachers Education Supplement magazine 2019 in an article about a teacher from England who came to work in Scotland. “Teachers have a far better time of it north of the border, says … Continue reading ‘Teachers to vote on strike action over workload’ despite Scotland maintaining the lowest PTRs overall, reflecting higher per-pupil spending and policy priorities on smaller classes

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News you won’t hear anywhere else – More than 90% of Scottish schools pass inspection on their performance regarding learning, teaching and assessment and raising attainment and achievement

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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 – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA From Primary and secondary school inspections in 2024/25: FOI release, published today and answering these questions: we can see on the key questions of standards of Learning, teaching and assessment and Raising attainment and achievement, on which all 168 Primary and Secondary schools were assessed, the following results: On the third question, the response was: Education Scotland does not hold the information you have requested, and therefore, we are applying … Continue reading News you won’t hear anywhere else – More than 90% of Scottish schools pass inspection on their performance regarding learning, teaching and assessment and raising attainment and achievement

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‘I’d rather be a teacher in Scotland than England’ – research review confirms the sense in this

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By JB The headline above is from Teachers Education Supplement magazine 2019 in an article about a teacher from England who came to work in Scotland. “Teachers have a far better time of it north of the border, says this educator who has experienced school life in both countries”  He goes on to say that “On balance, I think teaching in the Scottish state- education system is better than in the English one. It seems foolish now that I never considered there would be differences; it’s just that my English-centric view had me assume that the two systems would be identical. Believe me, … Continue reading ‘I’d rather be a teacher in Scotland than England’ – research review confirms the sense in this

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Not so much driven out of the classroom by bad behaviour as seeing a lucrative business opportunity seven years ago?

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stewartb June 18, 2025 at 3:59 pm Edit The BBC Scotland’s Education Correspondent today (June 18) has an article on the BBC News website headlined: ‘Will new school rules help cut violence in the classroom?’ The context is publication of new guidance from the Scottish Government on how schools should deal with violent and aggressive behaviour from pupils. The BBC Scotland piece claims that pupil behaviour is causing teachers to leave the profession. Of course some teachers do opt to leave and no doubt the stresses and strains of dealing with unacceptable classroom behaviour will be the trigger for some. Of course this … Continue reading Not so much driven out of the classroom by bad behaviour as seeing a lucrative business opportunity seven years ago?

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‘I’d rather be a teacher in Scotland than England’ – research review confirms the sense in this

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‘I’d rather be a teacher in Scotland than England’ By JB The headline above is from Teachers Education Supplement magazine 2019 in an article about a teacher from England who came to work in Scotland. “Teachers have a far better time of it north of the border, says this educator who has experienced school life in both countries”  He goes on to say that “On balance, I think teaching in the Scottish state- education system is better than in the English one. It seems foolish now that I never considered there would be differences; it’s just that my English-centric view had … Continue reading ‘I’d rather be a teacher in Scotland than England’ – research review confirms the sense in this

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Labour’s pledge to hire 6,500 extra teachers in England will be a ‘challenge’ will only add 1.4% to the total and still not affect their nearly 40%, per head, higher teaching load than in Scotland

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and: A key government pledge to appoint 6,500 extra teachers in England by the end of this parliament will be difficult to achieve and is likely to fall short of demand, the UK’s public spending watchdog has warned. The education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s promise to recruit thousands of extra teachers in state schools, which has been funded by adding VAT to private school fees, forms one of the cornerstones of the government’s education policy. However, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO), published on Wednesday, warned that a projected increase in … Continue reading Labour’s pledge to hire 6,500 extra teachers in England will be a ‘challenge’ will only add 1.4% to the total and still not affect their nearly 40%, per head, higher teaching load than in Scotland