Here comes the Summer
With Schools and Parliament alike now in the summer break, we can look back on both a busy and productive year for Scottish education. As I have seen on many visits across the country, schools have been making fantastic progress on Curriculum for Excellence and I’m confident that this will continue from the new school year in August.
The summer period gives me and my ministerial colleagues the chance to get out and see what’s happening across Scotland. I will be making island visits to Orkney and the Western Isles, university visits in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as well as a string of other engagements that will take me from Ayrshire to Sutherland. As you may already have seen with my update on my day in Stirling, I’ll be keeping these pages updated regularly from around the country.
My primary focus throughout the summer will be to meet people and listen to their views. That’s why I’ll also be hosting three evening events taking Engage for Education on the road.
The events are taking place at Inverurie Academy in Aberdeenshire on August 10, Lornshill Academy in Alloa on August 26 and Balivanich School in Benbecula on August 31. If you live locally get in touch to RSVP your place and find out more.
It’s a challenging time for many young Scots with their futures to be decided, both for those leaving school this summer or completing studies at college or university. We’re in tough economic times, but one encouraging statistic released recently found that more young people are going on to further studies, training or employment. More than 85 per cent of those leaving school last summer did so, up on the previous year.
Finally, to pupils and teachers who are now on their summer holidays, I hope you enjoy the time off and come back refreshed and revitalised in August.
1 comment
Thank you for your best wishes during the summer holidays but as a teacher and parent of two I would like to draw your attention to the drawbacks of having such a long period off an established routine.
As published in 2008 from the Institute of Public Policy Research (http://www.ippr.org.uk/articles/index.asp?id=3138) many arguements are made highlighting the problems;
1 – Bored children and young people are a recipe for the higher levels of anti-social behaviour
2 – struggle to arrange childcare for their children over the break
3 – Regressing in skills and knowledge
4 – Uneven term lengths make curriculum planning more difficult for schools
5 – long winter term can be tiring for students and teachers
I second Sonia Sodha, joint author of the report and an IPPR research who, calls for five terms of eight weeks each, with two terms before Christmas and three after, separated by two-week breaks, with a shorter, four-week summer holiday.