Social Affairs

Listening to the voice of reason

MADNESS is a creative way of dealing with pain, ” argues Rufus May, a recovered schizophrenic who used to hear voices urging him to kill himself. He and Dutch psychiatrist Dirk Corstens told a conference of mental health workers in Dundee recently that they need to explore more creative ways of dealing with voice-hearing.

Mental health professionals travelled from as far as Italy to hear about the “voice dialoguing” technique, in which, at its most extreme, the mental health professional engages with the voices themselves, in the first of a series of seminars on recovery.

Hearing voices – for instance after a bereavement – is a surprisingly common experience. Corstens says: “My aunt, who had lost her husband, used to sit on the bed and talk to him every evening. She could hear him talking back and that was a very reassuring and happy experience for her.”

Cuts at the Herald

I believe I speak for others at the Herald when I say I am utterly heartbroken and furious at the massacre of our once great newspaper. This whole issue is about far more than the fate of one group of newspapers. It affects us all in Scotland.” This cri de coeur posted anonymously on the allmediascotland website was prompted by news that one of Scotland’s two quality national newspapers is facing its third round of budget cuts in three years, this time to cut the annual budget by between £2m and £3m. One hundred jobs will also go from the three titles, the Herald, its Sunday sister and the Glasgow Evening Times. The Herald had been set a target of making 39p per pound for shareholders and, because it had fallen short, cost-cutting was deemed necessary – management had even asked staff for suggestions on how to save money.

Battle of a Wee Laddie’s Twix

While schools in some parts of the UK debate the issues surrounding burqas and niqabs in the classroom, Scottish educationists have their own human rights dilemma, centred on Twixes and Caramel Wafers. When a headteacher and school board attempted to ban sweets in packed lunches at an Edinburgh primary, some parents objected and the education authority forced the school to back down.

A new age in volunteering

INVOLVEMENT in volunteering is having a dramatic impact on young people, the voluntary sector and the unemployed, according to ProjectScotland. In just over 18 months the national volunteering scheme, which launched in 2005 and is based on the successful AmeriCorps programme, claims to have changed the perception of volunteering among the young.

It also claims significant benefits to businesses, participating charities and agencies, and the volunteers themselves.

According to figures revealed to Herald Society, involvement in ProjectScotland halves a young person’s chance of being unemployed, increases fundamental communication skills and enhances the ability of voluntary groups to make a difference.

Fair shares in funding?

“Captain, the engines cannae take much more” – the catchphrase of “Scottie” of Star Trek was based on the stereotypical, highly trained Scots mechanic. Albeit in a futuristic guise, this was the kind of chap that in days of yore Dundee Technical College prided itself on turning out. The college, founded in 1888 for the training of mechanics, as shown in the stone carvings on the front of its original home, moved on to navigation, which explains the ship’s bridge that stands on its roof. Now, reincarnated as the University of Abertay Dundee, it specialises in biotechnology and computer games. It was Abertay that trained the creator of Grand Theft Auto.

Why video games could be good for school pupils

IN THE pre-dawn darkness of a winter’s morning, I often hear bumps as my nineyear-old, having jack-knifed out of bed, gallops downstairs to enter Runescape, an internet game that mimics an alien world, complete with three religions, its own monsters, myths and quests.

For him, tapping on the keyboard is obviously the equivalent of the wardrobe route to Narnia as utilised by the Pevensie children.

In an effort to understand what I am dealing with here, I have tried playing it myself, but it doesn’t work as well for me; I fumble and stumble, unable to control my “avatar” (the screen image representing my character online), unable to complete the simplest quest.

I, you see, am a digital immigrant, and like a non English-speaking mother who gets her children to do the shopping, I have to ask for my son’s help with apparently simple tasks.

Confidence trick

Morag Henderson found her time at university very hard. A single parent of two, with no supportive ex-partner on the scene, no money and mild dyslexia, who left school with few formal qualifications, she says: “I thought about dropping out all the time.”

At times, the problems seemed to pile up endlessly, but despite debts mounting, a child being bullied at school, a dispute with the university about transcribing her exam papers to make them legible and struggles with aspects of the work, Henderson graduated with a 2.1 in archaeology from Edinburgh University this year.

The class friend

“When somebody makes you feel like a fool, when somebody is so terribly cruel, you can feel your anger down deep in your soul, you can hold on to the feeling or you can let go.”

Twenty eight children at Juniper Green primary, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, are singing along and doing the actions to their post-playtime “Fischy Music” favourite, including a few air guitars.

By the book

Verena, a German student serving delicious apple soup at Aberdeen University’s volunteer fair trade cafe, doesn’t do e-books. “Screens give me a headache. I love to read books and I write on paper.” Whether people like Verena are technophobes who will be left behind by the gradual evolution of the library into the “e-brary” is not yet clear.

‘Bush tucker kids’

A boy tries to light dry grass under a pyramid of twigs. Eventually, it catches and he lies on his side to blow the embers into crackling life. Tonight he and his friends will dine on a thin stew made of thistles and heather leaves, cooked over the fire. They will sleep in a makeshift bivouac on a bed of ferns.

‘Positive forces’

‘As an unusually sunny summer term winds to a close at Queen Victoria school in Stirlingshire, punctuated by band practice, sports days and preparation for a ceremony to be attended by Princess Anne, the only cloud on the horizon is the dangers facing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For all 280 boarders at this secluded spot, set in 45 acres of greenery, are the children of men and women in the services, many serving overseas.

‘Talking tough over class sizes’

School’s out for summer – but there is a lot of angry rhetoric still rumbling around the corridors. Scotland’s largest teaching union has threatened to ballot for a strike if the Scottish Executive fails to accept its demand for maximum class sizes of 20 across the board. Its members say this will lead to better attainment, especially for disadvantaged children.

And yet the Scottish Executive argues that research into the educational benefits of small classes is inconclusive and that it may not be the best use of resources.

‘End of history?’

‘History is more or less bunk, said Henry Ford. And that view appears to be gaining ground.

Not in St Augustine’s high school in Edinburgh, where it is one of the most popular subjects, with 65% of pupils taking it to exam level. There, the subject is compulsory until the third year. “History should be part of everyone’s secondary education,” says Andy Gray, the headteacher. “We have a right and a duty to pass on our story.”

However, at least four secondary schools in Scotland have now dropped the subject altogether in favour of other social science subjects that they say pupils find more relevant, and in which they do better.

‘Fourteen into three won’t go’

‘See that building over there?” My guide points down the road to a white monolith whose large windows dominate the surrounding landscape. “That’s the social work department. And, see, if you were a battered wife going in there to seek help, your man could stand here and see you going in and out and in every one o’ they rooms. You’d get the hiding of your life when you came out. It’s like a lot of things in Easterhouse, it’s not very well thought out.”

Residents of this sprawling Glasgow housing scheme, one of the most deprived in Europe, have their reasons for being sceptical of grand visions intended to improve their lives. But, in the case of a primary school reorganisation that is to shut 10 schools and four nurseries in the area, replacing them with three “campuses”, they are less sceptical than actively angry.

‘McSchools? Not in Scotland’

You don’t have to be an aunt Sally to see that this is exactly the kind of school the white paper in England is aimed at creating.” Gordon Smith, head of Jordanhill school in Glasgow’s West End, is describing why he has to be careful what he says just at the moment.

In his role as president of the Scottish Association of Headteachers, Smith describes why Scotland can’t have more schools like Jordanhill. While with his other hat on, he talks about how great it is. It is a difficult line to tread.

Thorough bread

IN France, “give us our daily bread” is a saying that still stands and the trip to the boulanger for a mouth-melting fresh baguette is a cherished part of life. The French like their bread fresh, traditionally made and free of preservatives, which means it goes stale very quickly. In Italy or Greece, the stuff is dipped straight into olive oil and eaten with every meal. In Arab countries, it comes flat and chewy while in some parts of Germany it is black and made with rye.

In contrast, British bread is mostly awful. As a result of our weekly supermarket shopping habits, it comes in stay-fresh foil packets. Bizarrely, it rarely goes stale but it can become mouldy and still feel soft thanks of to the crumb-softening enzymes within the mix.

Some parent-teacher associations raise huge amounts for school funds. Is it fair?

The class of eight-year-olds at Low Port school in Linlithgow are engrossed in the shapes on their interactive computer screen. They are touching frames to colour different fractions. This is a maths lesson, but it could be a game. The children at Low Port start using Smart Boards in primary one and continue throughout their time at the school. “The
internet is your oyster, explains Liz Greig, a teacher in primary 4. “I can go on to Google and get a map, say, and display it for the class. When we are reading, they can all follow the text on the screen. It’s much easier to keep them focused.”

The school spent several hundred pounds on these popular maths games last year and the pupil council is pushing for more. Where does the money come from? “We approach the trust fund,” explains the principal teacher, Anne Cook.

Kids’ plans ‘blocked’ by private finance

Ask pupils to propose changes to the design of their school and the response from some might be to ask for a quicker route to the exit. But in fact the kind of suggestions pupils come up with are often far more constructive – and unexpected. Synthetic grass, more pegs for coats and bags and even a soil-less garden are among ideas received by architects working with Scottish schoolchildren.

Pupils should be consulted over new school building design, claims the government. But a leading ecological architect warns that this risks being little more than a box-ticking exercise under the current system of public private partnership (PPP).

Higher music DVD hits wrong note for leading experts

A DVD costing tens of thousands of pounds produced to support Scotland’s new music syllabus has been criticised as “disappointing”, “crazy” and “a missed opportunity” by some of Scotland’s leading music educators. A new music syllabus is being introduced next year which is aimed at making Scotland’s music education more diverse and creative. However, a GBP65,000 supporting DVD released last month has been criticised as failing to meet these goals, and sticking too firmly to the western classical tradition.

Pupils still pay the price of poverty

Poverty remains the biggest single factor in determining how Scotland’s primary schools are likely to perform in tests, a Herald study has shown. Writing ability is particularly closely related to social deprivation, with the wealthiest schools doing twice as well as the poorest.

The numbers give a “desperately disappointing” picture of the first cohort to complete their primary school education under a Labour government, according to education experts who say an intense, society-wide effort is needed to eradicate the social deprivation that makes school tests an unfair contest, which the poorest are bound to lose.