Tes Scotland

Scotland’s last all-girls state school started taking in boys in 2021-22. Emma Seith visited to find out how the first year of co-ed education went – and to weigh up the pros and cons of single-sex schooling.

She speaks to Henry Hepburn, Scotland editor for Tes, about her latest long read and whether single-sex schooling – in Scotland and beyond – is becoming a thing of the past.

A bold move to cut teachers’ weekly class-contact time by 90 minutes emerged just over a year ago – although it was hardly announced with a fanfare.

But when will it happen, what obstacles need to be overcome and what impact might it have? Henry Hepburn has explored all these questions in the latest Tes Scotland long read.

He talks to Oban High School headteacher Peter Bain – the new chair of the BOCSH group of heads –to get a view from inside schools about just how big a deal it will be to cut contact time.

What happens if you bring primary and secondary schools together under one headteacher? Recruitment difficulties and cost pressures are persuading Scottish councils to consider that very idea. Their proposals have fuelled all sorts of concerns, but local authorities insist they are built on a sound pedagogical basis.

Tes Scotland’s Emma Seith speaks about her latest long read, which also looks at the increasing demands on heads that may be deterring teachers from venturing onto the path to school leadership.

Today marks exactly two years since schools throughout Scotland fell silent. Tes Scotland’s Henry Hepburn and Emma Seith speak about their long read marking the anniversary of that seismic moment, when Covid forced previously unthinkable decisions.

They interviewed 10 educators who share remarkable stories about what they have faced and their insight into how education has changed amid the turmoil and trauma of the pandemic. And – as a podcast extra – we also hear from three pupils about their experience of two years of Covid.

Many countries have difficulty recruiting teachers to schools away from the largest population centres, but Scotland came up with what looked like a clever solution: pay new teachers thousands of pounds on top of their salary, if they agree to be sent anywhere the country.

The so-called preference waiver scheme has been around for nearly 20 years now, but what is it like being sent somewhere you might struggle to find on a map? Does it boost or blight careers? And does the scheme actually work?

The late Saroj Lal was a pioneering teacher in Edinburgh in the early 1970s, as one of the Scottish capital’s first BAME teachers. Her son, Vineet Lal, talks about a remarkable career, the challenges she faced, the progress (or lack of it) made in the half century after she entered teaching, and the campaign to leave a lasting legacy to Saroj’s life.

Fair Isle Primary can lay claim to being the UK’s most remote school. Headteacher Ruth Stout talks to us about the joy and unique challenges of a long career on island halfway between Orkney and Shetland in the North Atlantic – and the essential qualities for whoever replaces her later this year.

Headteacher Billy Burke speaks to us the day after an SQA results day like no other. He talks about how the assessment process differed this year – for better and worse – and what the changes brought about by the Covid pandemic might mean for Scottish education in the longer term.

Teacher Adam Black tells us about being awarded a British Empire Medal for raising awareness of stammering, why his stammer makes him a better teacher, his love of the unpredictability of working in a school, and why his favourite fictional teacher would – you’d hope – never be found in a real school.

Henry Hepburn, Emma Seith and Julia Belgutay chat about the 10 Tes Scotland people of the year. The full list was revealed today – and, with Covid-19 casting a shadow over every last aspect of Scottish education, there could only be one choice for person of the year.