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).

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.

TEACHERS, musicians and academics have warned that new Higher music courses are being “dumbed down” and could leave gifted pupils illequipped for a future career.

The revised exam programme will be introduced from next year, and jazz artists Tommy Smith and Cathie Rae have joined a growing chorus of concern about standards.

A row between education’s governing bodies in England and Scotland may mean Scottish pupils are losing out when competing for university places.

Experts believe English grade inflation is making comparisons between A levels and Scottish qualifications increasingly difficult, and the credit given to pupils who pass Advanced Highers in particular needs to be re-evaluated.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) has asked for a benchmarking exercise for the Advanced Higher, but the Department forEducation and Skills (DfES) and Scottish Executive education department (SEED) cannot agree on who should fund the process.

In grand houses, it was firmly below stairs and inhabited by servants. In more modest ones, it was often a sultry little room where the woman of the house was expected to spend up to 12 hours a day bent over a Belfast sink.

The once humble kitchen has long since outgrown its subordinate role. Today’s ideal homes are built around a hub of domestic industry, a functional space that combines the features of a well-equipped area for preparing food with a drawing/ dining room for entertaining and a family
room for chewing the fat and doing homework.

While modern architects can meet this demand relatively easily, it can be difficult for those adapting an older property. The boxy shape of a fitted kitchen looks ungainly when transplanted into a splendid high-ceilinged period room, more used to adornment with fine furniture and antique furniture is not usually suitable for a modern kitchen.

Fist published in the Herald, 2005.

Gemma means everything to me. I love her to bits.

She knows if I’m feeling rough or a bit ill. And I know that even if I shout at her, she’ll still be there the next day. She gives me 100% love and I give her the same, ” says Eric.

To the homeless man, the six year-old mongrel at his heel is more than a pet. And while trooping about the town at her master’s side may be not bad as a dog’s life goes, he worried about the toll homelessness would take on her health.

“What does it say to people about the importance of a school board, if you tell them ‘It doesn’t matter what you call it and you can set it up however you like?'” says Cathy McCulloch, chair of the school board at her son’s primary, St Mary’s in Leith, Edinburgh.

Her views are representative of many within the school boards community in Scotland, as the Executive consults on sweeping changes to the system for involving parents in education – which effectively mean the abolition of boards.

The new draft bill means schools will be able to decide for themselves how to set up their own body, how many people will be on it and what it will do and be called.

The draft legislation is too vague, according to McCulloch, who is also co-director of the children’s parliament.

They’re called by different names, some more acceptable than others. Child prodigies, gifted kids – in the USA they are simply nerds or geeks, and summer camps laid on for them are unashamedly known as “nerd camps”.

Whether you choose any of these terms or the more politically correct title of “able pupils”, things may be about to get better for children who have abilities beyond the normal range.

IT might have a Paisley postcode, but the island of Lismore, with its view of the west coast mountains of Morvern, is 150 miles from Glasgow. Home to just 160 people, it feels a world away from Scotland’s urban corridor; further still from Westminster. Policy wonks in the juice bars of Soho may be frothing about the coming general election, but from this distance their effervescence seems strangely flat. All the major parties are competing for the affections of a creature brought to life by today’s political myth-makers to encapsulate Britain in 2005. Where once they wooed Mondeo Man, now their quarry is Do-it-all Woman, who has a job, children and elderly relatives to care for. The election may not be the talk of Lismore’s one shop, but here, as everywhere else in Britain, there are many women – and men – whose lives are a patchwork of these different roles. So how does the prospect of a Labour third term affect them?