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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 20 May 2025
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Displaying 1324 contributions

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Education, Children and Young People Committee

Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry: Post-Inquiry Scrutiny

Meeting date: 5 February 2025

Miles Briggs

Do you have the same model?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry: Post-Inquiry Scrutiny

Meeting date: 5 February 2025

Miles Briggs

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today.

I will carry on some of the conversation that Neil Cowie started in relation to post-16 learning and the pre-16 opportunity. How can schools and colleges further develop their relationships in order to improve effectiveness and those partnerships? I recently visited Barnardo’s Works here in the capital, which I know has been working with Edinburgh College, especially around 14 and 15-year-old pupils who are not going to school and are disengaged from the school system, like the pupils Neil Cowie mentioned. How can those relationships be improved in terms of both pre-16 and post-16 education?

I will bring in Audrey Cumberford, as I mentioned Edinburgh College.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry: Post-Inquiry Scrutiny

Meeting date: 5 February 2025

Miles Briggs

My final question is about college student associations. In its inquiry report, the committee called for minimum standards for funding and the independence of college student associations. To date, what progress, if any, has been made in relation to that call?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry: Post-Inquiry Scrutiny

Meeting date: 5 February 2025

Miles Briggs

Thank you, convener.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry: Post-Inquiry Scrutiny

Meeting date: 5 February 2025

Miles Briggs

What struck me when I met some of the young people involved in the school-college partnership was the fact that they still hated going to school and were ready for college. Given your expertise, what is your view on that? One of them told me that they would go to school only because they were forced to, and that they were still completely disconnected from the school setting. They felt as though they were being told, “Until you’re 16, we can’t do anything with you, except that you can go to college and do some of the things that you want to do now.” What reforms should be made in that regard?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Youth Parliament

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Miles Briggs

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. Ellie Craig mentioned the Promise champions. The Promise was set out by the independent care review in 2020 and is meant to be kept by 2030. How are Scottish Youth Parliament members involved in progressing that agenda and implementing the Promise?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

“Higher History Review 2024”

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Miles Briggs

I want to touch on literacy, because there has been a claim that the outcomes that we saw in the 2024 history exam results reflected falling literacy standards. We cannot see the performance of candidates across the subjects but, anecdotally, would the English teachers in your schools say that the same pupils who did not perform well in that history exam also did not perform well in English? Have you had conversations with them about that? The fact that we cannot benchmark those pupils’ performance means that that sort of anecdotal evidence is all that we have to go on.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Youth Parliament

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Miles Briggs

That is an important point. On the engagement, it has not been easy to ensure that those people’s voices are heard.

In your opening statement, you mentioned the UNCRC. What impact has the incorporation of the UNCRC had on children and young people so far? You mentioned the Right Way project. I do not know a huge amount about that or about what people are asking for with regard to a framework for the delivery of the UNCRC. Could you say more about what that includes?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

“Higher History Review 2024”

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Miles Briggs

In your experience, has this happened in other representative volunteer organisations for other subjects? Are you the canary in the mine, and is it the collapse in the results that have identified the issue and created this conversation? An adversarial culture has been allowed to develop.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

“Higher History Review 2024”

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Miles Briggs

Publication of the survey might present more evidence on the issue, if it was part of the questioning that you took up with your fellow teachers.

What you have said today is quite depressing. This episode has been depressing. I cannot imagine what it is doing to motivation, apart from making people not want to be markers or have a positive relationship with the SQA. I hope that the Education (Scotland) Bill’s direction of travel can rebuild that confidence.

Have the Scottish Government and SQA listened to your concerns? From what you have outlined, it does not feel like that; it feels more like they want to move on and want the issue to go away. I do not think that that is good enough. From the conversations that you have had and communications that you are having with SQA and Scottish Government, where do you think things now stand? I asked the cabinet secretary whether she would look at doing a wider investigation if other teachers came forward with issues, and she did not rule that out, but we have not seen any progress on that to date.