By Dr Michael Gregson SO, the opposition parties got together, and the motion denouncing the SQA and Education Scotland was passed at Holyrood. Willie Rennie lambasted those monoliths for their pandemic inadequacies, citing the 75,000 pupils whose results were downgraded because the algorithm said so. He then urged the Scottish Government to publish the OECD Report on the flagship Curriculum for Excellence, alleging it was delaying bad news until after May’s elections. Other MSPs agreed. Iain Gray pointed to the diminished curriculum; failures in pupil support; and widespread multi-level teaching. But the purpose and culture of Scottish education need to be addressed. Asking for the OECD report to be published is fine; but it’s not as if the lessons of the last one have been taken on board. That 2015 OECD report set out major areas of weakness across the Scottish system. And the 2019 PISA testing of 15-year-olds worldwide saw Scotland emerge as “average”. The Scottish
HOSPITALITY
Pubs and restaurant bosses face a battle for survival after being told they cannot reopen until April 12.
Up to six people from separate households could be able to meet then in beer gardens with no need to order food. Alcohol takeaways will also be available.
But food and drink will not be served indoors until May 17.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said apart from a couple of weeks in December, the sector will have been closed for nearly 200 days since November.
She said: This delay in reopening will make the job of survival all the more difficult for businesses only just clinging on to existence.
Published:
7:00 AM February 15, 2021
Updated:
12:28 PM February 16, 2021
Daniel and Ashley Mason are doing a sponsored static bike ride to raise money for London s Air Ambulance.
- Credit: London s Air Ambulance
Two brothers with Down syndrome have taken on the challenge of cycling 30km on an indoor bike to raise money for London’s Air Ambulance.
Adopted brothers Daniel and Ashley Mason, who live in Bow, have been taking it in turns to clock up as much distance as they can over lockdown on their static bike. They had intended to reach 30km by February 15, but have surpassed their target.
Daniel and Ashley take turns on the static bike.
For Daniel Mason, there s a clear connection between psychiatry and literature.
As a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, Mason has spent much of his career researching the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature and culture on modern medical practices. And as an acclaimed novelist, the Palo Alto native has spent nearly two decades writing fiction and nonfiction inspired by his research.
Mason said his dual career took off unexpectedly when he was a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. Between college and medical school, Mason, then 26, decided to conduct infectious disease research in Southeast Asia for a year. That trip, he explained, inspired his debut novel, The Piano Tuner, the basis for a 2004 opera of the same name.