Chamber and committees

Curriculum for Excellence provides opportunities for all young people, at all ages and stages, in both primary and secondary schools, to develop their understanding and skills in computing science, including coding.

Education Scotland are working to improve the teaching of computing science in the curriculum through the revision of national guidance and through practical support for the teaching of computing science in the classroom.

This includes the Plan C project which has been supported by the government since summer 2013. Led by Computing at Schools Scotland, it is bringing innovative techniques to the teaching and learning of computing science, taking in best practice from academia and overseas.

Education Scotland also have programmes in place to increase the confidence and capacity of primary teachers in computing science and to increase extra-curricular digital and computing science activities in schools.

In January 2016 Education Scotland gathered information on the number of primary schools in each local authority area participating in the Daily Mile. The following table summarises the responses received although it should be noted that not all local authorities responded.

Council Area	Number of schools Participating in the Daily Mile
Aberdeen City	0
Aberdeenshire	19
Angus	11
Argyll and Bute	22
Clackmannanshire	6
Dumfries and Galloway	24
Dundee	7
East Ayrshire	11
East Dunbartonshire	6
East Lothian	18
East Renfrewshire	4
Edinburgh	0
Falkirk	11
Fife	38
Glasgow	50
Highland	7
Inverclyde	0
Midlothian	3
Moray	1
North Ayrshire	2
North Lanarkshire	0
Orkney	0
Perth and Kinross	16
Renfrewshire	5
Scottish Borders	20
Shetland	5
South Ayrshire	6
South Lanarkshire	9
Stirling	0
West Dunbartonshire	0
West Lothian	12
Western Isles	21
TOTAL	334

In November 2015, to support the Daily Mile, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, together with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, wrote to all Headteachers in Scotland to make them aware of the initiative and to encourage schools to adopt daily physical activity initiatives appropriate to their circumstances. We do not hold information on how many schools responded positively or negatively to that letter.

In December 2015, following issue of the letter promoting the Daily Mile, Education Scotland published their resource Approaches to Physical Activity in the Primary Year’ featuring case studies about implementing the Daily Mile, and other initiatives in primary schools.

The impact of the Daily Mile is currently being evaluated in a research study at the University of Stirling. Whilst there appears to be an effect on obesity and pupil performance from the Daily Mile implementation, it is important that we fully understand the evidence to help to inform what further work would be appropriate to support, develop and promote the Daily Mile.

All food and drink provided in education authority schools must meet the standards set out in relevant regulations. The standards are based on scientific evidence and designed to ensure that pupils are provided with a variety of balanced and nutritious food and drink. Guidance associated with the regulations contains advice on a wide range of food and drink including meat. Compliance with these standards is monitored by Education Scotland Health and Nutrition Inspectors.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate their total financial resources on the basis of local needs, circumstances and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations such as those relating to school food standards.

The Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages had a constructive meeting with the University of the West of Scotland Student President, Jack Douglas, on Thursday 17 March 2016, at which this report was discussed.

The higher education student loan, bursary and additional living-cost grants are 52 week allowances, already covering the full academic year. They are paid in monthly instalments (normally 9 or 10 instalments a year) to ensure students receive more support during term-time, when their capacity to work is reduced and their reliance on loan and bursary support is greater. Discretionary funds allocated to colleges and universities each year can also be used to provide additional support to students experiencing difficulty over summer months.

The latest figures demonstrate that retention has improved for full-time students in both college and university since 2008-09. The Scottish Funding Council also continue to invest strategic funds from the £14.7 million Widening Access and Retention Fund to support improvement.

We want to maintain this progress and we therefore commend the Students’ Association for their contribution to this important issue.

Our plans are to invest £475 million in train improvements: more trains, more seats and more services across Scotland.

By early 2018 the new longer, greener, quicker class 385 trains will serve communities in East Lothian. On peak services, when the new six car Hitachi class 385 trains are introduced, more than 40% extra seats will be provided. More immediately ScotRail are committed to ensuring they provide as much capacity as possible from their current rolling stock to meet passenger demand.

On ticketing, there have been some passengers queuing at Waverley after their journey to buy tickets. ScotRail will soon launch a “Buy Before You Board” campaign and I would encourage passengers to do so, particularly at the closest stations to Edinburgh, as train staff have limited time to sell tickets before arrival at Waverley.

Attainment Scotland Funding for schools from the seven challenge authorities is provided via a grant offer to their local authority. The amount schools in a challenge authority receives is a matter for the authority, as is the date they receive it.

Support through the Attainment Scotland Fund is also being provided to 57 schools via their local authorities by means of specific offer of grants for each school. Funding for the 14 authorities with one or more schools in the Attainment Scotland Fund Schools Programme was confirmed in January 2015, with grant claims expected before the end of the financial year. The Scottish Government have not received any draw down claims from authorities to date but expect the allocated funding to be drawn down by 31 March 2016.

CodeClan, Scotland's first digital skills academy, is a social enterprise with a remit to operate commercially. Its design and curriculum have been agreed by industry representatives, and are aimed at meeting the immediate need for software developers in businesses across Scotland. The Scottish Government has awarded £1.56 million through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership to support its start-up costs. CodeClan's business plan sets out a route to be fully self-sufficient, working in partnership with industry.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with CodeClan, and other digital skills academies as they are established, along with public sector partners and industry to ensure that Scotland’s digital skills issues and needs are tackled effectively.

Funding from the Attainment Scotland Fund is provided to local authorities by means of specific grant, which is drawn down quarterly. The final grant claims for the seven challenge authorities are expected by the end of the financial year, and so none of the authorities have yet claimed their full allocation from the fund. To date, the amount claimed per authority is set out in Table 1. This will increase substantially once final claims are submitted and processed.

Table 1

Challenge Authorities	Spend to 31 December 2015
Clackmannanshire Council	£265,436
Dundee City Council	£265,800
Glasgow City Council	£705,826
Inverclyde Council	£200,804
North Ayrshire Council	£210,081
North Lanarkshire Council	£308,790
West Dunbartonshire Council	£418,043

Funding for the 14 authorities with one or more schools in the Attainment Scotland Fund Schools programme was confirmed in January 2016, with grant claims expected by the end of the financial year and so none of these authorities have yet claimed their allocation from the fund.

The Scottish Government has made £6.6 million available to address digital skills shortages. We are working with key partners from Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council, Education Scotland, academia and industry to tackle the issues set out in 2014’s digital skills investment plan.

The measures taken to increase the number of software developers in Scotland include support for:

CodeClan; the industry-led digital skills academy.

The Digital World marketing campaign that targets both women and young people

An International Talent Attraction programme

Transition training in both Highland and Lowland Scotland

A digital skills partnership, creating a strong link between further education and higher education and industry needs

Funding for free nursery provision is included as part of the block grant within the overall local government finance settlement provided to local government by the Scottish Government.