Education and Gaelic Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Official Report 460KB pdf

Interests

Good morning, and welcome to the first meeting in session 7 of the Education and Gaelic Committee. I take this opportunity to welcome all members—I look forward to working with you in this committee.

Our first item of business is for each of us to declare any interests that are relevant to the committee’s work. Background information is provided in paper 1, which is on declarations of interest.

I have no interests to declare. I will now go to each member in alphabetical order.

I have no interests to declare, other than that I have four grandchildren who are going through the education system, which I may mention during proceedings.

For transparency, I declare that I worked in the children’s care experience sector. I ran Who Cares? Scotland for nearly nine years until mid-2020, and I did a lot of work on setting up the care review, which led to the Promise.

I have nothing to declare other than being an English teacher for 25 years. My membership of the General Teaching Council for Scotland is still active, but it is on the verge of lapsing.

Thank you. Laura Moodie, who is a member of the committee, sends her apologies; she will be attending later.

I have a postgraduate certificate in education in primary school teaching with a specialism in geography. I taught in England under the English curriculum for about two years and then did supply teaching. I am also a shareholder, director and a person with significant control in an e-learning company that has existed for the past eight years. Prior to that, I was an instructional designer, which was about educating large organisations globally, mainly at the corporate level. My work also covered some academic areas, including teaching doctors at postgraduate level, and teaching for some schools, including things like maths in America in a Texas maths programme.

I have no interests to declare. However, like George Adam, I put on the record that I have four children, two of whom are still in the education system.

Thank you. Maybe I should declare that I have six children, just to trump everyone. I also have two grandchildren who are in school.