PLucky end to school that taught girls to live bravely
The Times July 1 2010. There were tears and a rousing final chorus of the school song as St Margaret’s pupils, staff and parents said goodbye. Photo Tom Main.
The Times July 1 2010. There were tears and a rousing final chorus of the school song as St Margaret’s pupils, staff and parents said goodbye. Photo Tom Main.
What should be in the curriculum? Thanks to a cutting-edge initiative at a Scottish school, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dr Who, The Titanic and Famous People are currently taking top billing in the classroom.
From the Education Guardian, June 15 2010 with added material which did not appear in the published article.
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian.
St Mary’s primary in Leith, Edinburgh, is taking advantage of wide freedoms under the new Scottish Curriculum for Excellence to allow the children to choose their own topics as a jumping-off point for learning.
The use of topics as Trojan horses for smuggling maths, literature and science into children’s heads has been popular since the 60s, but in the recent past much more detailed national curriculums both north and south of the border made it harder for schools to do this and gave them a more limited choice of themes.
From the Herald Saturday magazine, June 14.
A travel writer who, after 25 years of immersion in Asia has graduated to a historian, William Dalrymple is fired up about his next project. “It’s about the First Afghan War: 2,100 East India Company troops march into Afghanistan in 1839, one single Brit rides out three years later,” he says, with obvious relish. Dalrymple has recently returned to India from a month in Afghanistan where he is excited to have found five previously untranslated Dari chronicles about the war. This, he feels, will enable him to “give the Afghan perspective” on that forgotten imperial adventure.
Published on 8 Apr 2010. Dougie Campbell, who has died aged 65, was a businessman leading light of Glasgow’s folk music scene as the bandleader of The Last Tram tae Auchenshuggle, which played at the weddings of supermodel Kirsty Hume and actor John Hannah and twice won the world ceilidh band championship.
From The Herald, Friday April 2 2010
The Herald 23 Nov 2009. Excessive salaries in the public sector are wrong and help to exacerbate social problems such as obesity, drug-taking and violent crime, an academic and author has claimed.
Ask children instead of ignoring their feelings, says report. 20 November 2009 – From the Guardian Society Website.
Sportswomen step out with their Hobos – Herald Saturday mag. We all know about the Wags, but what about the men who stand behind successful sportswomen? First there was the unstoppable rise of the Wags, the smart, supportive and often glamorous women behind many a sporting success. But what about their counterparts on the opposite side of the gender divide? Meet the Hobos. Forget the sportsmen – the Wags wield the real power behind the thrones. From Coleen Rooney, the wife of England and Manchester United striker Wayne, or Amy Mickelson, spouse of US golfer Phil, to model Leah Shevlin, the fiancee of Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor, the wives and girlfriends often take centre stage.
The Times – October 23, 2009. A couple whose overweight children were taken into care by social workers are to be reunited with their newborn baby this week.
Agnes Houston, nurse-manager of a busy chiropractor’s clinic, lynchpin of her family and carer for her ailing father, thought of herself as the strong person, the one who organised others. Until things started to go wrong.
The Herald – 8 Oct 2009. The Scottish Government needs to find another £15 million a year for the next five years to fund the better management of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a Dementia Manifesto launched by Alzheimer’s Scotland this week. One-quarter of all deaths in Scotland are now due to the condition, which affects 70,000 people and their families – set to almost double in 20 years – and costs the country £1.7 billion a year, according to the charity. Yet it gets only two pence in every pound of medical research funding. One major demand of the manifesto, based on consultations with patients and their families, is for more to be done to help people when they are diagnosed. “No-one should be left to face this on their own,” says the document, which aims to influence Scotland’s first National Strategy on Alzheimer’s due next spring.Also this week, the Scottish government launches a national consultation which will include a face-to-face event to get input from sufferers and carers.
The Herald – 18 September 2009
ALZHEIMER’S is a ‘Cinderella’ condition which is stigmatised and hidden ‘the way cancer was 30 years ago’ according to the author of a report to be launched on World Alzheimer Day on Monday.
Nurses should be given special training to deal with the growing number of people who face a diagnosis of dementia in Scotland, according to nurse consultant Dot Weaks, whose report ‘There is much more to my practice than checking up on tablets’ is to be launched at the University of Abertay, Dundee. She found that nurses who were given training in helping patients to come to terms with the knowledge they have Alzheimer’s were significantly more effective in dealing with patients.
Reprinted in The Australian Age, 07/9/09, and the Buffalo News, USA, 03/9/09
Tuesday 1 September 2009
One day recently I heard an unearthly wailing coming from my 11-year-old son’s room. It was like no sound I’d ever heard from him before. He doesn’t normally cry at television or films but, curled up alone in his bed reading, when the fantasy character he identified with met a grim end, vanquished by the forces of darkness, he found it absolutely devastating.
Don’t use a tumble drier. For a family it can use as much C02 as driving an extra car. Instead get a Mull shieling drier, invented by my friends David and Moira Gracie.
Education Guardian – 3rd August 2009
“When I opened the envelope and saw my results, it was just – disappointment. I felt really, really bad. I threw them on the floor and went to my room in tears.”
An eminent expert witness told Jackie Kemp that paedophile cases in Scotland are being dropped due to flawed interview techniques. This is actually an addition I filed to the piece in the Herald below but it was too late to make the paper.