Stephen Clackson

20mph—20mph—20mph—20mph—20mph—20mph

Work is now underway to install the new 20mph speed limits at Sanday School.  Gradually, my long struggle for road safety for our island children is coming to fruition.  It is anticipated that the installation of 20mph limits will be completed at all the Isles schools by this summer.

I was able to attend the meeting of Stronsay Parent Council in person.  After the meeting, we had an interesting tour of the Stronsay Junior High School’s facilities for play pedagogy.  (This is not a new pedagogical approach, with play being an essential component of A.S. Neil’s educational philosophy, as practised at Summerhill School in Suffolk for over a century now.)  I am a qualified teacher myself, and I maintain my registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, even though, as a councillor, I am not permitted to teach in Orkney Islands Council’s schools.  Formerly, I did supply work at Sanday Community School, teaching predominantly science and mathematics.  I have an abiding interest in education, and I am not alone in being profoundly disturbed by the direction our SNP/Green Scottish Government is steering education in Scotland.  The latest results published by PISA (the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment) confirm that something is going awry, with scores in Scotland in all three categories (reading, science, maths) falling to record lows.  The “Curriculum for Excellence” clearly isn’t excellent under this government, and even the First Minister has conceded that this is “not good enough”.  I agree with him !  Persistent political meddling should be pushed out of education, and the bulk of bureaucracy banished.

Teachers need to be alert to creeping Americanisation, largely due to the Internet and wrongly-set spell-checkers.  I’ve noticed a few school-produced carol sheets with Noah Webster’s spellings of certain words, such as “Savior” instead of “Saviour”.

Remaining on the education theme, I attended an entirely virtual public meeting of the University of the Highlands & Islands Foundation (on which I’ve been OIC’s representative since 2012—one of the longest serving Foundation members).  The UHI Strategic Plan 2030 has now been published, and I was pleased to see in print my changes to the University’s “mission”, approved by Foundation at the 1^st June meeting (Issue 125).  The mission reads: “To have a transformational impact on the people, communities and economy of our regions.”  Unlike any other university, the UHI has a commitment to our region, to the Highlands and the islands, indeed, this is why it was established in the first place.  Orkney College (rebranded UHI Orkney for consistency throughout the partnership) is now uniquely the only local-authority-owned partner in the UHI, and OIC has a special responsibility to nurture it and grow it as a fully tertiary institution.  An alternative model was presented at the Foundation meeting by way of the example of the newly created, combined UHI North, West and Hebrides.  This new institution results from the merger of North Highland College, Lews Castle College and West Highland College, and its strategic aims include growing research and knowledge exchange, and enhancing the standing and experience of its staff—admirable aims that we should be adopting at UHI Orkney, too.

After the night in Stronsay, I spent the rest of that week in Kirkwall, attending a special meeting of the Monitoring & Audit Committee, and two lengthy meetings of the Policy & Resources Committee, before managing to get home to Sanday in time for its Christmas tree lighting event.

Robert Burns wrote “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley,” and this applied to my attendance at a meeting of another external body on which I am OIC’s representative, the Dounreay Stakeholder Group.  The meeting was to be held (as is customary) in the ballroom of the Pentland Hotel in Thurso.  Then, owing to the weather forecast, this meeting, which I was booked to attend in person, was cancelled at very short notice.  It was transformed into a virtual “Teams” meeting, to which, in the event, I was unable to gain access, despite numerous attempts.  So frustrating, so computer technology. 

Other meetings I’ve attended this month include some confidential members’ sessions, a (“blended”) meeting of the Orkney & Shetland Valuation Joint Board, and a General Meeting at which I was one of the minority of seven sensible councillors who supported installing temporary toilets at the Ring of Brodgar carpark while a longer-term solution is being sought.  

The festive period is a good time to catch up on reading.  Thinking of something appropriate to the season, I cannot make up my mind whether to tackle finishing The Bible, read The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, or embark on The Works of Flavius Josephus.  My favourite Christmas film is The Shining.