They should always ask me why are artists still signed to record labels and as someone who works with a lot of artists on labels The answer is when I don't see all the tiktokers on here mentioning. It's actually the labels contacts list The fact is major labels have things like brand relations departments where they're teaming with brands to do deals across a few of their Artists which is often big money and makes a huge difference in the artist's life Then there's things like when you're doing well and you want your shirt in hot topic Let's say getting the buyer for hot topics numbered an intro from the label where there are buyers Actually going to take your call often comes from that label and those are some of the hardest hurdles to get over on your own Even when you have momentum


Hey everybody, I'm Lance Goyke. Today we're discussing the rep ranges for muscular endurance. And so in our previous two videos, we talked about strength and we talked about hypertrophy. We talked about building muscle. In those, in my strength range, do you remember your strength range? About one to six reps of challenging reps in a set. And then if I'm trying to get some more muscle hypertrophy, I'm usually gonna get into more of a six to 12 rep range, though that's kind of fluid, as long as I'm really pushing myself and as long as my body isn't already really good at it, then I can continue to build up, I can continue to adapt and build up my weaknesses and then build muscle upon that in those ranges. Now, if we're looking for how many reps can I do in a row, then we start to get into this muscular endurance kind of thing. And so if I look at it from the perspective of a gym, imagine two scenarios.   Now, converse that, let's look at another scenario. What if I do another 20 reps set of squats, but I'm allowed to stop and rest at the top, take a couple of breaths if I need them and kind of re-equilibrate, let some of the fatigue work its way out of the muscle. Now, those two scenarios are physiologically very, very different. If I can pause at the top, I'm gonna be able to use a lot more weight, but I'm not gonna get the same nauseating levels of fatigue. I mean, I'm gonna get a lot of systemic fatigue, so it's still gonna be nauseating and it's still gonna be very, very challenging, especially if I do increase the weight, right? But if I'm looking for purely muscular endurance, I probably don't wanna take that many rests between my reps, right? I want to challenge the ability for these muscles to continuously contract. You can only see my shoulders, so I keep bench pressing for this. Also, it's more fun to bench press, right? It's something like that. But my general rule here is anything above 12 reps, okay? That's kind of the accepted rep range for muscular endurance. Now, you're gonna hit a ceiling where you can't keep going anymore and you have to pause and then it becomes a different type of endurance, which we're gonna talk about tomorrow, but in general, if I am really getting a lot of fatigue in the muscle, a lot of burn in the muscle, I could be, you know, you'll feel that in your hypertrophy ranges, like six to 12 reps, but you're also gonna feel that in your 12 plus kind of sets. So keep that in mind. Make that kind of the goal here. If you're searching for muscular endurance, if you're doing a muscular endurance training blog, you've gotta do at least 10 reps, right? It depends on how trained you are. Like those rules are a little bit malleable, but you wanna do at least 10 reps and you want to continuously move and you probably don't wanna recover all the way either, but we've talked about that previously in our rest periods videos. Okay, that's all I got for you.


You know, it's nonsensical. Well, when you're short like me and your legs are dangling for an hour, it's not pleasant. Does that sound pleasant at all? Where this is placed, do you have a question? How you been? I'm okay. That's right. If I get the center, I kind of feel important right now. I kind of feel important in the middle here. You are important. You are important. It's not just to be great. You've been there before. I have. So thank you so much for being here in person and also for watching today's forum. My name is Deidre Martinez. I'm the CEO of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. And I also want to just do a quick thank you to our annual governmental affairs and advocacy sponsor for the Chamber, which is Prevea Health. And of course, to our friends at WSDS for being with us here today and filming this so that all have access to the information. With our spring election just a couple of weeks away, we wanted an opportunity to learn more from some of our candidates. So today we are pleased to welcome Travis Gross, who is running against incumbent Paul Gruber for District 2. Robert Siblebauer running against incumbent Suzanne Spell 12. And also Michael Vogel up against incumbent Carl Nonhoff in District 20. We did extend an invitation to several others who were not able to join us for this conversation. So thank you guys for being here and taking the time to chat with us today. We certainly appreciate it. So just real quick, we'll go over the ground rules. First, I will give everybody two minutes to just do an introduction of yourself. Tell the viewers what you would like them to know about you. I will then begin asking questions. Each person will have two minutes to respond. We will keep time. We do have a timekeeper here, so please pay attention so that we may state on track. So any questions before we get started? Nope. Okay, perfect. So let's just take some time to learn about the candidates. So Travis, would you like to kick us off? Sure. My name is Travis Gross, born and raised here in the city of Sheboygan. I've spent 11 years as the executive director of Sheboygan County Historical Society, now known as Sheboygan County Museum. And through that time, you know, I learned a lot of important issues that are going on in the county and I feel that I can make some positive contributions to the county board and help make sure the county stays on track with its fiscal responsibility and also doing all the great things that it's doing. I am married. I have one daughter currently a third year college student and I look forward to meeting everybody in district two. Thank you so much, Travis. My name is Robert Zigglebauer. I am a lifelong resident of Sheboygan County. I was a former county board supervisor with eight years experience. I served on transportation, finance, executive law and property. I know this job well. I'd like to return to it. It's my way of contributing to my community. I've got 33 years of experience of involvement in my community. We stand head and shoulders above anybody else in this state and I'd like to continue to move towards that direction and work towards living up to our mission statement of bringing pertinent things to the county board again. Thank you. My name is Mike Vogel. I live in Kohler. My wife went to seventh grade through twelfth grade, graduated from Kohler High School. She then went to the Chicago suburbs. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and we met there. I spent 24 years in the local government in Illinois, 24 years in the Bloomingdale Park District, six years as president of that board and then 11 years at the state association on the board of the state association and I was chairman of the Illinois Association of Park Districts in 2021. So with that 24 years of experience, what I've learned is that local government works best when everybody is pulling in the same direction and that's what I intend to do here and that is to keep partisan politics out of local government. You want to make sure I'm addressing you by name. It's comfortable for you. So wonderful. Thank you so much for the introduction. So first question and we'll start with you, Robert. Why you? What made you decide to run for this position again? Because as you mentioned, you formerly were county board supervisor and why do you feel you are the most qualified for this position now? I focused on everybody would be in a non-partisan fashion is what the job requires. I will bring that there. Currently, I don't feel I'm being represented at all. I'm being represented by somebody's personal political views and religious views and they don't belong here. They bring non-pertinent business to the table and I don't understand what the goal is. It sure is not anything related to county business. I want to return to pertinent county business. Something I'm proud of. I exceeded my own expectations when I was here. I'm a very humble man. I'm not a chess pounder but our record is stellar in this county. Financially, we are looked to by other counties for what we do here. We should be very proud of it. To me, this is a character of our community and I don't believe I'm getting represented at all and I know that the towns aren't being represented correctly and there's not a working relationship there. I would like to restore that. I'm good at this job. I'm very proud of my record. I've exceeded my own expectations. It's some way of giving back to my community that I can do well at and I want to return to it or at least I offer representation to all of us. Property owners come from every slice of life. This isn't about your politics or your religion. This is about property ownership and the needs we all need to deserve. I need my roadsplow just the same as everybody else.  I'd like to return that to this position. Thank you. Go ahead. I can read. Repeat the question? Absolutely. What made you decide to run for public office and why do you feel you are the best person for this role? When my wife and I moved here in August of 2022 and we voted in the fall election we noticed that there were a lot of positions that people were running unopposed and we found that to be very surprising. When it came time for this election coming up rather than have this person run unopposed again I decided to run having spent 24 years in the local government politics don't belong. President politics do not belong in local government and the incumbent seems to think otherwise. Sherboykin is a great county and from what I hear Robert can attest to this the staff there is excellent and we need to maintain that staff. I'm running because I've always had an interest in local politics I've run twice before for city aldermanic seat in my district one was sidetracked by wonderful COVID in 2020 hard to knock on doors when you can't be physically with people but I think my 11 years at the museum put me in direct contact with the county government all aspects of it I've worked with those staff members that are doing the work on the streets all the way up the county administrator I really see how the county works how it functions and like my two other friends up here I agree that partisan politics should stay out of local government it really doesn't have a place there we should be focusing on how our government can work best for the people in our city and county and if it doesn't if it means that you don't necessarily agree with us that's fine but we should have this dialogue we should have an open conversation about what makes it best we shouldn't be concerned about these other issues other topics that maybe at the state level or the federal level matter a bit more I think that having that experience of seeing the county through a wide range of different departments different levels of employees within the county really gives me an opportunity to see how things are interconnected and use that to make it a better place I too believe in a democratic system and one of the things that gets me and my friends and family members can attest to it if you have one candidate running for a position you're not utilizing the democratic system so there's a large part of me that's also running for the fact that a choice is good and I think both for me would be the better choice in our district demographics are changing in our area and I think we can do a better job representing our community members thank you thanks so much and Mike we'll start with you this round aside from employment can you share with us what activities and organizations you've participated in over the years whether here or Illinois in what capacity sure so I spent 10 or 11 years I think coaching my kids and their colleagues in basketball, softball, baseball I spent three years as the president of the local baseball softball association before getting into the park district the local government there here in Sheboygan County I've been a member of the colder police athletic league and volunteered it there in Octoberfest last fall and that's about it I should mention a lot of time on committees in Illinois the Illinois Association of Park Districts has a number of different committees and it was really rewarding spending time with my colleagues throughout the state on those committees yeah so I've been pretty active as well city and state level I served with the Wisconsin council for local history for six years as our state regional representative that eventually put me into the position of president of the Wisconsin council for local history for two years and that's a council that is statewide every county has or every region there's 21 regions has a representative and we serve local history organizations across the state so that, you know being on the state level is a whole different animal but I learned a lot from that as well within the city of Sheboygan I served as the chairperson for the historic preservation commission I sat as a committee member on the parks forestry and marina committee among some other subcommittees and things like that within the city I've also served on other local history mostly historical organizations within the county within our area as well as a board member advisory or other capacities there that's pretty active I guess that is pretty active thank you so much Robert repeat the question sure aside from employment what activities and or organizations have you been involved in if any and in what capacity aside from employment in 91 I started a career at the highway department of 20 years and during that time I was actively involved in the highway department both as a union leader and I was a foreman on a bridge crew also I've been a working man all my life after that I joined the board for eight years I was a director at LCAP I was a director on the museum board for eight years with Travis I currently am on board of the community clinic Lakeshore community clinic LCAP was a great experience I think our county does well with LCAP and other counties need far more needs our people do a really good job and again are looked to we have people that are looked to here I've been on a lot of subcommittees the most one that stands out to me was the courthouse security thing that happened before COVID hit and it was a long process of 15 years before they decided what to do but the employees that reach out to me in regards to that were it was an astounding I'm deeply involved in it I decided to sue something I have a passion about it I have a passion for my community and I will join and I always have joined subcommittees to get things done even with the ARPA dollars I joined on that and that's where the difference is those dollars are meant to be a bridge to help us and they have and they have helped every community throughout the state and nation and I believe it should be able to help us too and I'm in favor of that thank you and thank you for your grace in leadership positions especially in public office there will be times when you are expected to make decisions with limited or zero information tell us how do you make decisions about topics that you're not familiar with what steps do you take when faced with this challenge well if it's a hastily I don't like that I generally like to inform myself on the topic or the issue at hand I don't like making decisions willy-nilly I like to make sure that any decision I'm a part of or I have to make I have an understanding of what those what the ramification can be with that decision so on a hastily you know I mean you don't want to say you go on gut but there's a little bit of that but I think you know with experience not only in nonprofit world but managerial roles in for-profit world you do have to make those and I spent 20 years in the restaurant industry and there's a lot of decisions that had to be made without really thinking about it so when it comes to that situation really what I do is you know if I have a few moments I have to think what's the best what's the best decision to make in this situation I may not be but you have to understand you know what's the follow-up from it what are the what will be the ramification I guess so I always just kind of go off of the experiences I've had base it on that if I have no time to think about it base it on past experiences that may be similar to this situation and you know think about how those decisions have to be made but again I'm generally not real comfortable in hasty decisions which sounds weird working in a kitchen when things are flying past and you have to sometimes but you have a goal in place and the decisions have to you know best achieve those goals and you know hopefully you know hasty decisions can do that more so than not especially based on experience thank you Roberts please repeat the question absolutely in leadership positions especially in public office there will be times when you are expected to make decisions with limited or zero information can you tell us how do you make decisions about topics that you may not be familiar with what steps do you take when faced with this challenge well I've been a stone mason all my life and I preach this in a little bit the turtle wins the race you're never going to get me to make a hasty decision I'm going to keep the flow going if I have to make an immediate decision but there's going to be flexibility and if I know what really needs to be done I do not do things hastily I didn't decide to run for this hastily I'm not a haste makes waste and that's a very true statement I am just not a hasty man sometimes you need to be and I've done very well in that crisis time and I always leave room to I don't want to make a solid commitment in a hasty situation you need room to backpedal and find out what all the facts are before you commit especially money to things that you don't understand you need to understand things I'm not a hasty man yeah I I'm not sure that it's true that we have to make hasty decisions the first thing that I would do if it's something that I know nothing about is consult with the professional staff because they've got their feet on the ground they know what they're doing another avenue is talk to colleagues either throughout Sheboygan County or neighboring counties when I was with the state of Illinois we regularly got on the phone with park district commissioners at neighboring park districts or phone the state to talk to people at the state association because they really know what they're doing and that's what I would continue to rely on staff colleagues and professionals at the state level Robert, so the election has passed and you've been elected tell us what do you hope to tackle within the first week, month, couple of months what's the first thing you hope to do? the first thing I would do is reach out to my town chairmen and get the ball rolling and reestablish a working relationship that makes sense that's the first thing I would do because it's lacking right now then I'd return to my colleagues and I already have been in preparation for winning I have solid relationships that I can build off and restore and I don't really need to restore I've made friends throughout the county through this endeavor and the relationships I have are solid and I'm grateful for them those are the people you go to when you have hard decisions in your department heads you know what I mean? the doers I want to get back into getting things done that are pertinent to this county the first thing that I would do is learn there's a lot to learn from all of the things in the committee meetings that I've attended in the past month virtually there's a lot that goes on in county government there is a whole lot to learn so I would be reaching out to my experienced colleagues like Mr. Siegelbauer and others currently on the county board in fact I have I've talked to a couple of county board members to kind of get their input but it's all about learning keep my mouth shut for the first six months and figure out really what's going on first thing I would do again is get people to reconnect like I said I've had some strong connections within county government through the museum reconnect with some of those people and I know some of the department chairs have turned over so get to know the new people within those positions and really figure out what are those main issues that they're dealing with through the museum I worked a lot with those county staff employees that were out doing the work you get to know a lot from listening to the people out there that are actually doing the work and I think making sure that there's a good communication between those staff members their superiors and all the way up the chain in the county is a positive and from there then really just try and reestablish or establish some of those connections I think I'm a bit unique with my other colleagues up here in the sense that I'm coming from a district that represents the city so I have to really get to know probably talk with the other county supervisors that represent city districts city shabuigan districts and see what are the issues if there are any I know there's a lot of shared services between the county and the city I'm sure there's headaches and problems with some of those let's figure those out because again if we're not running efficiently we're not really doing the best that we can be doing Thank you Mike so in looking at our county government as it stands right now what do you believe is the most effective and why what element or what piece of our county government do you feel is the most effective and why currently I've been impressed with a number of the different committees but I think a study was done I think about a year ago by the state of Wisconsin on what are the needs of shabuigan county and there were a number of things mentioned transportation affordable housing broadband internet and I've noticed that they've already started working on the broadband internet thing and just the I've been impressed with the department heads that I've seen at these committee meetings retaining that staff I think is probably and I've heard this from a couple of other county board members retaining staff is really going to be important because we are losing staff apparently from what I've heard in these committee meetings to other counties and to the private sector and we need to retain that staff from what I gather they're excellent I agree with Mr. Bogle the staffing again getting that first hand experience working with people on the ground and hearing what they're having to say I don't know if that message is necessarily getting up the department chairs and if it is is it being worked on I think that's a key element to it you need everyone to be happy to be proud of what the work they're doing because they're out in the county they're doing the work they're representing the county to other people and you want that representation to be positive whenever they do come in contact so continuing the focus making sure that's strong you know I know transportation I've been following that a little and I know there's some issues there not really up on that topic so much but definitely can always learn more about these things for me personally I just like learning and so when I any new thing I just like to jump into figure out what it is what the problem is and then let's start working on a solution but I do think our county is working well obviously nothing's perfect but we definitely need to retain the people that are within the county right now and I think that's a for me that's a top subject sure it's a really long question but could you repeat it please what what element of our county's government do you believe is most effective and why what element of our what's working what's working the whole team the department heads the consolidation and funding for transportation over the last eight years has been excellent our road program is probably second to none in the state we build our own roads we bought a brand new black top plant that was opposed I am not opposed to that the changes at the airport were opposed I am not opposed to those those changes at the airport now with the new FBO could probably be and I believe it will be probably the best financial move we've ever made it provides a consolidation it opens up economic doors and it unites the user community that has not been united for a very long time I think that's the best program we've had in my whole time there it comes down to your employees they are most invaluable asset no matter where you go it is hard to retain people because of the opportunities in the world right now but we have retained our employees and we have stepped up to the plate and I have always voted for the employee when it makes sense I was one I was a leader of a group of them that is your most valuable asset is your doers it's your department heads and your employees you follow their lead they know what they are doing I will say that to the end of my days I am a working man and I will support any working man that has passion for task I lost track of the question because I am so passionate about our employees and keeping them that is being voted against right now because of a view of funding and it is wrong and that is why I am here I can't let this be unopposed this is wrong our employees are the best and our most valuable asset thank you we have been together today we are going to start with Mike how about that I have that effect on people what do you see as some of the most pressing needs for infrastructure or capital projects in the county currently so one of the committee meetings that I attended they talked about broadband and there is areas of the county that are broadband desert and that is one of the reasons why hiring employees both public and private in the county is difficult because people can't work from home they don't have access to broadband and the county has been working on that and I think that is it was a very impressive presentation at the committee meeting this month so I am looking forward to that public transportation is probably another area that needs to be looked at that is okay what do you see as some of the most pressing needs for infrastructure or capital projects in the county I think we are doing really well and some of the road expansions they get out and drive in the county quite a bit and seeing some of the road projects going making some of these roads and streets safer for the users populations growing here that means more people on those roads some of the long term residents can recall the old highway 23 that was Haley and Kirby and narrow a four lane highway that is county working with the state I think that is still continue to focus on that transportation is key I think too with changing demographics in our county we have to look at other ways to develop wreck trails walking, biking other vehicles that maybe really aren't suitable for highways or interstate systems and developing that connecting the communities a little bit more physically obviously broadband that need to keep focusing on that the world we live in you can't really be a part of modern world if you don't have connection to all those little things floating around in the air that we walk through but that is important and we need to keep focusing on that as well one more time what do you see as the most pressing needs for infrastructure or capital projects in the county we're just getting through the most pressing one I'm going to go back to the airport and the future is broadband in the towns town of mozo I'll use that example they put aside a million dollars if they can find matching grant money and slowly these programs are starting to combine where these towns can find matching grant money but if they don't find it by a certain date they're going to pull that request there's a wariness out there we need to get groups together to get this grant money to these rural needs I believe our rural needs are being overlooked I'm more of a rural person but my district is really split there I'm a farmland preservation guy I want to preserve the community that I grew up in and leave it to my grandchildren and I think that's rural needs are most important and broadband is at the top of that list I have grandchildren that want need it and we have very poor access to it right now I'm more of a rural guy than a city fella and so there's a clash but there's always a compromise and there's always a way to figure it out and there always has been and sheboygan county is stellar at producing that and there's always expectations and right now my area of the world is not participating in that question perfectly what could the county do or do more of to ensure equitable resources throughout the county in both rural and urban areas impossible I'm a person who believes in equity and I believe a system works and that equity can be achieved we just have to work together so those who have have to be willing to give a little bit those who don't have and if we can bring that balance up in my mind things will run smoother it will be more efficient and efficiency is always a thing for me I think it just goes back to the careers I've worked and efficient work efficient manner is the way to do it but I would obviously have to educate myself a little bit more on what are some opportunities or options that we can do to do this but I don't know what it's like not having access to broadband I have friends that do have that issue and it's not the year is 2024 I don't understand why we can achieve this and I think like I said if it comes down to an issue of those who have it just don't want to play nicely with those who don't have it we can break those barriers we're not going to move forward unless everyone is moving forward together and that's key Robert what could the county do or do more to ensure equitable resources throughout the county in both rural and urban areas what should they do more of you know this position is about taxes property owners pay for their needs and those needs are required by the state of Wisconsin for your services and that's the burden of being a property owner you pay taxes for the needs for all of us that's why it's a nonpartisan position some people need need things more than others in certain moments of their life but the job is the requirements of the state need to be fulfilled and so do your your county's required services by their people like Rocky Noel that we don't have to do but we do because our people want it and like it and enjoy it but we're not required to do that so there's an instance where it's beyond the state you know there's so many different ways we can find efficiencies like at the airport to be more self sustaining and even in the clerk of courts can be a self sustaining program right now it's lopsided the state takes two thirds of its revenue if it only took a third it would be self sustaining it would save the county taxpayers over a million dollars off the lobby those things are so important to me and that's an avenue I'd like to go down it's not a sexy endeavor but it's a cost savings endeavor and a self sufficiency that I believe county government should be more self sufficient I believe it can be I believe we strive towards that my whole tenure here and we've had great results going back to that study that the state of Wisconsin did last year to identify the areas that are in need I would need to get educated myself to learn what is the county doing what are they doing to address those areas because the study was just done I think it was revised in June of last year and I would need to get up to speed to find out what is the county doing to address those needs and if there is an area that is not being addressed then let's start addressing it excuse me securing an authorizing budget well out of that budget I think it's 57 million would be come from tax levy the rest comes from grant money throughout the state and different other programs and I want to reduce that 57 million and get some more grant money I want to use all the funds available to us that were not just some of them because of political beliefs I'm getting lost in my questions but our finance in this county is second to none to preserve and maintain and grow that and your long range financial responsibility and a plan moving forward is so important and critical to maintain this we are already at the top of the list in this state as far as counties and financial responsibility I want to maintain that I have been a part of it I'm grateful I have it's a tremendous learning experience we just need to work together and get this done I did not know the budget was 192 I thought it was a little lower but it's really growing then over the last several years I remember being 158 not too long ago but it's the levy part that we're after that's what we're paying the property tax is in the levy end of it and that's where we need to focus on more self-sufficiencies and I hope I did document that correctly and if I'm wrong I apologize but I believe that's what I researched I'm sure you were right somebody else corrected me the other day I was off a year thank you Mike in the 24 years that I spent at the Bloomingdale Park District we prepared a budget every year and it was about half property tax levy and half revenue from the services that we provided the fees that the residents paid now obviously here in the county it's going to be property taxes and grant money apparently so I have had a lot of experience in traveling from Illinois and to Washington DC in pursuit of grant money I was able to locate a grant in Washington that gave us $450,000 to build a new facility there's a grant program in Illinois that we regularly are lobbying our legislators to not take away because it's just an outstanding program we have gotten grants from that program I think on three different occasions it's about $100,000 a pop so I do have experience in approaching legislators and encouraging them to come our way with grant money so running the county historical society I was one of the primaries in developing budgets for the historical society every year and we've met and achieved those I always showed some good growth above and beyond what we were hoping to do and still end up in the black so I think when it comes to budgeting you have your big picture you have to whittle that down a little bit and realize what can be achievable what can't be achievable and kind of find that middle line and if you find that middle line then you can show consistent regular growth if you're trying to shoot for the moon right away chances are you're not going to make that goal if you your goal is nice steady growth to support whatever those new cost expenses are you should be able to maintain a solid budget every year working with the Wisconsin council for local history again part of the team that developed budgets for that organization every year that's where that's where broadband comes in because for me to do that job it was all online I'm meeting with people from Ashland and Superior La Crosse all over the state so the importance of broadband that's it right there we could not have been able to do that as efficiently as we did without everyone having that access I also ran my own business for a few years so again I think it just comes down to I'm not a business person by any means I just believe in the basic of it is you want more coming in than it's going out and that's the root of it in my mind it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that although it is but that's really the key and that's kind of always what I followed when I was making budgets thank you I alluded to this a little bit earlier actually it is no secret that our course has been a struggle in our county state of Wisconsin probably most of the US when managing public agencies do you feel it's better to have more employees at a modest wage or a few employees at a higher wage to attract quality candidates I think fewer employees at a higher wage that way you get the best quality people and get the best work done I would agree again I think I made the point earlier if you feel like you're being respected in your position you're being listened to and ideas are being heard that's going to mean the world to that employee in all of my capacities that involved hiring and maintaining staff it was always a longevity that was the key if I'm spending so much time having to train new people every 10 or 12 months something else has to give and you're not moving forward when you can get good employees the key is to keep them and then eventually you have that good team and that team will help push forward those goals will come much quicker you'll achieve those goals much quicker with a good team in place definitely fewer that said we can't be on a skeleton crew and then making it there's still a lot of work that has to be done and you need hands on that to do it so finding that finding that balance you hear so many people maybe not so much anymore but back in the day you always heard look at that county worker there's four guys standing around the whole and one person with a shovel they all have a role that doesn't mean they're not doing anything so we just have to find that balance but definitely it makes sense to me fewer good quality employees than having many that are not as quality I would have loved to have 24 people at the museum but I may do with 10 we did pretty well I appreciate that I loved to have 24 people at the chamber I don't think that's going to happen any time in my life Robert I am without a doubt the largest fan of our employees that there is I was one of them I've been a working man all my life it depends on the situation I do believe in people and their abilities and passion of tasks sometimes a smarter individual in a department can do the task of more than one and then when you're building a road you need a crew so it's all different to me but I'm always going to go down to the lowest man on the pole and support him and keep him and train him and nurture that person so that you do retain them so you do have a good work environment and I think Sheboyin County provided that in a stellar fashion coming from the nonprofit sector any funds that come my way I want to use it it's a struggle and when you're constantly looking for funds because you have goals that you want to achieve it takes a lot of time and energy and if there's that opportunity to use what would be ARPA funds absolutely there was when I was at the museum I had a conversation with the county administrator at the time about ARPA funds for me at the museum to increase salaries and wages for the staff at the museum I was adamantly for it because again my goal as the director was to keep a good team in place and if I could increase salaries and wages that would help unfortunately the board of directors didn't think it was such a great idea so we didn't accept that funding the main concern was what are we going to do when that funding runs out in two years I always look at it as like two years is a long time to find the compensating amounts that is coming from those ARPA funds and if someone's offering dollars to be used to help your situation I kind of yeah, let's do it we have time to figure out if we have to cover that or not Robert this might be a loaded question yeah sometimes a lord needs to give me the strength to be quiet I believe that the ARPA dollars are a funding avenue of great value to every community as it was intended to be to me is a bridge to gap an unforeseen trouble times that we were in I believe every community used it to their best advantage I think Sheboygan stood out head and shoulders on how they approached it they went to the community and business leadership like this to get their input and our community stood up in the highest fashion I have ever witnessed in my life and I believe that these funds should be used and have been used in a stellar fashion I also believe that they should be used I'm going to go towards the rural needs any residues any unused amount of these dollars in my view should be funneled towards needs our local volunteer fire departments and such things like that so that we use this money in the way that we all work together to figure out how to use it the best to get through the worst times that we've all went through economically it bridged a gap it maintained our good financial situation through a trouble times and now we can move forward in a stellar fashion like we have these funds are critical to maintaining our financial situation and I believe they should be spent like we all decide how to spend them and I believe we did it in a stellar fashion in my 24 years in local government I can say that I never met a grant I didn't like I just don't understand when grant money is offered to you why you don't accept it even property tax revenue can be suspended by the state anytime in Illinois they try to do it every year so if the state is giving us money we're using it we have to we're getting close to the end here I know we've got a couple of folks in the room and typically we don't have extra time but did you guys have any questions and if you do let me know or I can give you a piece of paper I can dial and we can continue to talk so any questions from anybody in the group? No? Okay. Alright that must mean I'm asking all of the perfect questions that you always do I was trying not to make it too racy so I think I did okay there and so my last question for each of you is a vision of Fort Sheboygan County moving forward and what changes would you advocate for and why? Changes for my district I would like to have a stronger working relationship with the towns than currently exists and focus on our rural needs and a vote for them countywide I'd really like to explore and I I don't know how much I bet I missed only a handful of legislative breakfast in the eight years I was on the board my big thing is the clicker carts and making it self sufficient and saving our large chunk of money off of our our our levy to me that's a valuable thing not only for this county for every other county in the state verse 50 years of lopsided legislation where the fees go to the state instead of paying our needs and to me we're getting double taxed on that and with the coffers that we built for this state I think that they could be used for that and we could save our county a million dollars in tax levy that's what I'd like to see happen and I'd like to maintain our financial stability and our firm financial strength that we currently enjoy I think that can be improved or protected could you repeat the question sure what is your vision for the future of sheboygan county and what changes would you advocate for and why sheboygan county is really a great place to be and I'll go back to that that state of wisconsin study that was done and those are the key improvements that can be made here but what I really need to do as I mentioned earlier is learn what's going on in the county what's being done to address those concerns and just become more of a an informed legislator yeah the vision for the future the things that we're doing really well right now let's keep working hard to maintain that you know the changes you know I'm a bit of an environmentalist and you know the county owns a lot of really good quality environmental land I think in some cases we're utilizing it very well like a broken county marsh I think in some areas we're not doing so well like estlian park I don't think many people know that it's a county property and estlian park is arguably where the european settlement in shiboyne county began I think knowing where you've come from helps you know where you're going so that vision for the future let's utilize some of this let's open up this land really push and promote that we are concerned about our environment and you know our area around here amsterdam dunes is a fantastic place I would argue that there are the vast majority of people in our county have never even been why not let's see if there's something we can do to use this land to promote our county to you know give our citizens a nice place to go let them know it's there I think too and it comes back to making sure the future you know working to maintain a good quality staff across the board I had a lot of experience with that and it was a little concerning at times but I think as long as we're constantly looking to the future but not dismissing what the past has given us we should continue to be in the great place we are as a county thank you and last I'll give you an opportunity to maybe share with voters why they should vote for you early voting started today I believe today is Tuesday so Mike if you'd like to share any last thoughts before we close up today just that the difference between myself and my opponent really is partisan politics I don't think partisan politics belongs in local government local government as I mentioned earlier everybody's on the same page and that's my position that's why I'm running for this office I agree with that statement as well and now that I said that I go to space my answer any additional last minute thoughts you would like voters to oh yeah yeah that's it so I think my experience working as kind of part of the county but not part of the county really gave me some quality insights to how the county functions what are the needs how can we work to keep it a great place or I mean quite honestly let's make it better I think that's possible and just continue to strive for that I guess is really my experience is there I have no qualms of committees, no qualms of making budgets no qualms of having discussions maybe even a debate or two about the topic but it's always coming to find that common ground and I think and I genuinely believe local politics we don't get asked what party we belong to because it is nonpartisan let's keep the partisan politics out of local government because out of all the government levels that we have in this country the government that affects you the most is the government from the community you live in that's what affects you the most and we shouldn't be having just kind of unvaluable discussions let's make it work for everybody thank you Robert why am I running I'm running because I don't feel I'm being represented at all neither is my community some of them are but not all of them and I couldn't stand to see it unopposed I value the time I spent here I'm grateful for and for my community and everybody in it that's what makes it up I'm running to restore sensibility to this job and to do the job and focus on the job I'm as independent as they come life brought me to center and I'm very comfortable there there is we have such a great community and I care about all of them not some of them this job is so important and it is so overlooked very few people pay attention to county board proceedings unless there is trouble in the world but when they do I can brag about it we are a stellar community we are looked to by the state and I'm running to be a part of that our three candidates here with us today thank you for just being encouraged to serve in that capacity because in many respects these positions are very thankless positions very strong people that are willing to step up and put themselves out there in that space so thank you for your willingness to do that and of course best of luck in the next couple of weeks and with that I just want to say thank you thanks to those who came into the room with us thanks to those who are watching this is three of our county board candidates and we hope that this encourages you to get out and vote in your local elections thank you so much and see you all again soon thanks Steve I love to am I good now Scott I appreciate you doing this


Now, Biasa state Muslims there have advised Nigerians never to forget the sacrifices made by ex-servicemen in keeping the nation together. At especially Jumat prayer held at the Biasa State Central Mosque in Yanogua, the Muslims also advised the federal government to prioritize the welfare of those who have served the country as well as families of fallen heroes. Our correspondent, Jesse Essay, completes this report. Muslims faithful often pray for ex-servicemen of the country. They desire and enter terrorism and want better packages for families of fallen heroes. The federal government must, as a matter of fact, make deliberate and curious effort to end banditry and terrorism and do so minimizing how much of our military personnel that go down the drain at the war front. At the state level, we call on the security agency to collaborate with the state government to get rid of security challenges on the waterways and the state in general.  We do this celebration in this reason, we like to be peace, a one Nigeria and the world as a whole. And like this afternoon, every place is calm and peace. So as Nigerians, we pray for those who fought for the war. The step is described as one in the right direction. But you people devoted the prayer for the veterans, it's a good thing, we pray that it's an annual event so we continue to be alive to see this kind of days, God will multiply our years. Today some of them are no more, some of them are maimed, some of them are incapacitated. So the Muslim faith was having a Jumat prayer in the mocks for the fallen heroes is laudable. The special Jumat prayer is part of activities to mark the 2022 and


That concludes topical questions. The next item of business is a statement by Shirley-Anne Somerville on improving the education and life chances of all children and young people. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Shirley-Anne Somerville up to 10 minutes, cabinet secretary. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to provide this statement to Parliament today and it's a timely opportunity to take stock of our work to recover from the pandemic and accelerate progress on attainment. Before I do so, however, I would like to directly address the issue of the current industrial action. As I've said before, the teachers' strikes are in no one's interest, including pupils, parents and carers, who have faced significant disruption over the past three years. We are continuing to work closely with our union and local government partners to try and reach a deal that is fair and affordable for all concerned. As part of that, I spoke again to the general secretaries of the teaching unions over the past few days. Tops will continue over this week, and we will continue to focus on areas of compromise. While those constructive talks are on-going, we would continue to urge education unions to suspend their industrial action. However, while we work through that, it is also important that we maintain our work on excellence and equity. In December, we published the latest achievement of curriculum for excellence levels, ASAL stats, the 2020 national improvement framework and plan, and the stretch aims that each local authority has now put in place for closing the poverty-related detainment gap. Together, we set out the latest evidence for progress and our plans, shared with local government, for substantially eliminating the poverty-related detainment gap by 2026. There is much to be proud of and to celebrate in our early learning and childcare settings, our schools, community learning and development colleges and universities. That is demonstrated by young people achieving qualifications and awards, recognising their knowledge and skills, moving on to employment and starting new apprenticeships or courses in our colleges and universities. They are a credit to themselves and to those who have supported them through an extremely challenging period, and their resilience is an inspiration to us all. I also want to pay tribute to the dedication, commitment and hard work of our early years practitioners, our teachers, our community learning and development practitioners, our college and university lecturers and all those who work alongside them. The challenges of the pandemic are not yet over, and I recognise that we need to continue to support and nurture children and young people. Pre-pandemic, the poverty-related detainment gap was closing, but the negative impact of the pandemic cannot be ignored. Lost learning as a result of the pandemic was not unique to Scotland, and the attainment gap remains wider than pre-pandemic in other parts of the UK. For example, the Department for Education within the UK Government has said of the attainment gap in England that it was the largest since 2012, and I quote suggesting that disruption to learning during the Covid pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils. It is reassuring therefore that the latest ASOL data published on 30 December demonstrates that the approaches to Covid recovery and education in Scotland are working. As 2023 begins, we are in a strong position to make further headway. The percentage of pupils achieving the expected CFE levels in 2021-22 is higher than in 2021 for all primary school stages, with the largest single-year increase in primary school literacy and numeracy since 2016-17, the first year for which comparable data is available. There are also promising signs that the attainment gap is once again narrowing, with the biggest single-year decrease in the gap between primary numeracy and literacy levels since records began in 2016-17. For example, the gaps between the proportion of primary pupils from the most and least deprived areas who achieve their expected level have narrowed in both literacy and numeracy compared to 2021 and are now more similar to those seen before the Covid pandemic. However, there is no room for complacency. Atainment levels are still largely below pre-pandemic levels, and the attainment gap at S3 has widened since data was last collected in 2018-19. That will, of course, be monitored carefully. Although it is important to note that this is the first year that the impact of the pandemic has been visible at this level as no data was collected at this level last year, so any improvements made in the last year are not yet visible. There is still work to do to support education recovery and accelerate progress in closing the attainment gap, and that is why we have implemented a new accelerated approach for the Scottish attainment challenge programme, which includes a record investment of £1 billion over this parliamentary term. Those figures show that local authorities are well placed to make further progress in the coming year. As I set out in the local government stretch aims for tackling the attainment gap that I announced on 8 December, alongside health and wellbeing, literacy and numeracy are the recognised responsibility of all involved in education and are priority areas for the attainment challenge and our national improvement framework. The national response to improving mathematics partnership board is identifying opportunities to improve leadership and enhance professional learning of teachers to improve the learning experiences of children and young people. A parallel national response to improving literacy is at an early stage of development with the aim of implementing similar improvements for literacy. There is also an established network team of attainment advisers across local authorities providing improvement, support and numeracy literacy, health and wellbeing in every local authority. There is a strong focus on parental engagement via the Scottish attainment challenge and the Read, Write, Count initiative in early primary. Regional improvement collaboratives, supported by dedicated education Scotland staff, are focused on improving literacy and numeracy through collaborative work, which empowers the system at school, authority and regional level. Nevertheless, I recognise that, while we can see progress on some measures, we are not yet where we need to be on all indicators. I am the first to acknowledge that there is still work to do. That is why we have implemented a new accelerated approach for the Scottish attainment challenge, including that record investment of £1 billion. As we set out in 2016, the Government is committed to closing the poverty-related attainment gap and substantially eliminating that gap by 2026. I stand by that. That remains the policy and the objectives of the Government, and we are seeing progress. I have set out the details of our refreshed approach to the challenge previously to this chamber. Just last month, I also published the local stretch aims that local authorities have now put in place for the coming year. With ASL figures now published as well, we can see evidence that local authorities and schools are already making progress and are well placed to go further. We know that a ground-up approach works best in embedding improvements, so the stretch aims have been developed by local authorities using local knowledge, data and expertise, and they express each local authority's own ambitions for their learners. Ultimately, what matters in progress in schools is the implementation of the local plans that are supported through strategic equity funding that underpins those stretch aims. That is a shared responsibility. I do not expect teachers to achieve the progress that we need on their own. Schools and education services must collaborate across services and local partners to make progress. By introducing a requirement for local stretch aims, we are ensuring clear local ownership of progress, creating opportunities for learning and partnership working, and helping to address variation in attainment and progress, including the poverty-related attainment gap between schools and local authorities. Collectively, the core stretch aims set by local authorities show a great deal of ambition for both recovery and accelerating progress, and I welcome that level of ambition. Achieving those local stretch aims will require local government, central government and Education Scotland working together to ensure progress on attainment and outcomes continues and accelerates. The national discussion on Scottish education has provided an unprecedented opportunity for young people, parents, carers, teachers and practitioners to contribute to setting a long-term vision for Scotland education. I am delighted by the positive response from the public and stakeholders to that consultation, which ran from September to December last year. The views of those who take part will help us to develop a compelling and, I hope, consensual 20-year vision for education, and it will provide a further opportunity to enforce our shared endeavour to close the poverty-related attainment gap. Our vision for Scottish education will be launched in the spring and it will be accompanied by a call to action setting out short, medium and long-term goals that will build on the areas in which we are performing well and make the changes that we will be required to make to prepare learners for the economy, society and culture of the future. The national discussion will also help to inform Professor Hayward's independent review on qualifications and assessments. Her final report in May will pave the way for future reform to the qualifications and assessment system in Scotland to ensure that it meets the needs of learners and society in the 21st century. We will continue to ensure that the development of the new national education body supports our vision for a world-class education system that continues to adapt and change on its base in equity and excellence. Improving the education and life chances of all our children and young people is an ambition that is shared across the education system and remains central to our improvement agenda. The attainment challenge, a significant commitment with much bigger programme of investment and our spending plans for our 23-24 allocates £4.85 billion of funding across the education and skills portfolio, including measures to address the cost of living crisis and support for a range of measures to help children, parents and carers with the cost of the school day. In conclusion, I am committed to ensuring that every child and young person in Scotland has the same opportunities through their education. We know that we have the right curriculum in place for Scotland's children and young people. In their 21 report, the OECD found wide support for the curriculum for excellence, highlighting that it continues to be a bold and widely supported initiative and that its designs offer the flexibility needed to improve student learning further. In PISA's global competence assessment in 2018, which measures knowledge of international and sustainability issues and ability to apply knowledge, Scotland's average score was higher than the average of all participating countries. Police's evidence is encouraging. It shows that we are on the right track. Statistics published in December showed that the gap between school learners' levers from the most and least deprived areas entering a positive destination fell to 7.5 percentage points in 2021, the smallest gap on record showing the excellent progress that has already been made in terms of outcomes for school leavers. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. I will be grateful to all members who wish to ask a question that could press their request-to-speak buttons now. I know that the Opposition parties had requested this statement before Christmas in relation to the latest set of data that had been released. I am afraid that I do wish that we could feel some more sense of passion, some more sense of energy or urgency from the cabinet secretary, but that might be too much to ask because what we have had in the statement, I am afraid, is an exercise in spin. That is what we have had. We have had an example, we have had an exemplary demonstration of cherry picking and straw clutching, but the reality is that this is just spin, because, frankly, if this is what success looks like in the eyes of the cabinet secretary and this SNP Government, heaven help us. What would failure look like? The truth of the matter is, the more data we get, the more we can see that the cabinet secretary and this SNP Government are failing Scotland's children and young people, their parents and carers, and it just won't wash. Central to improving the education and life chances of children should be ensuring first-class learning environments in schools. Teachers are at the front line in all of this, and such is the inaction of this cabinet secretary. Teachers have been led to do something that is against all of their natures as professionals, to take strike action for the first time in 40 years. The cabinet secretary said last week that she was, quote, exceptionally disappointed to see a reduction in teacher numbers, because that is what these statistics show, but being disappointed, frankly, does not cut it. What action is the cabinet secretary going to take to increase the number of teachers, to increase the number of teachers on permanent contracts, to increase the number of classroom assistants and to reduce class sizes? Please, cabinet secretary, in answering this question—I put my comments through you, Presiding Officer—please don't pass the buck to the local authorities. Is the Government really not bothered any more about teacher numbers and classroom sizes? If they are bothered, where is the energy and where is the urgency? Not for the first time, we hear a critique about my delivery in the chamber and the way I preside over those things. It would appear to me that Stephen Kerr wants me to be more like him in the way that I am. I will politely decline the offer of being as passionate and energetic as Stephen Kerr is, because, quite frankly, what you do not see is much development of the opportunity to actually take this discussion forward. I have went over in my statement how the ASL data does show the impact of the pandemic, but it also shows signs of recovery. That is very important, and the impact of the pandemic is not just in Scotland, but, as I said in my statement, not just in the rest of the UK but indeed further afield as well. It is not surprising, although it is exceptionally disappointing, that we have seen a reduction in attainment and indeed a widening of the attainment gap during the pandemic, but, very importantly, what we see in the ASL statistics in December was signs of recovery and, importantly, also within the stretch aims of real determination within local authorities to carry that through for another year. Both the Scottish Government and Education Scotland will also ensure that we deliver our support to them. On teacher numbers, can I point to the context that we are in? Research by the education policy of institutes found at Scotland has more teachers per pupil than anywhere else in the UK. The overall pupil-teacher ratio remains at 13.2. It is the lowest since 2019. I am exceptionally disappointed that, despite the baselining of further additional funding to local government and an agreement with local government that money would be used for additional teachers, we did not see that happening. Mr Kerr talks about passing the buck. It is not about passing the buck, it is about accepting, realising and moving forward the fact that local authorities are the employers. I will be meeting with COSLA to ensure that what we have to do in the coming years is to use the funding that is given to local government to ensure that we are seeing additional teachers and, particularly, an improvement on the number of teachers that are on permanent contracts. I would hope that local authorities, as the employers, use that funding accordingly. Michael Marra The cabinet secretary is right to begin with a focus on the first national teacher strike in 40 years. Frankly, the huge disruption that is given to pupils and families right across Scotland—the teachers do not want to be out on strike—is now eight weeks since the last offer, and there have just been 22 more days of strike action announced. What is the cabinet secretary going to do to change her approach to the negotiations to get the breakthrough that we need? More of the same is clearly not going to cut it. I will be specific about the attainment gap at S3. The cabinet secretary will be very aware, given the conversations that I have in secondary schools when I travel across Scotland, speaking to teachers, speaking to headteachers and speaking to pupils, of the very particular problem that S3 cohort has. I have raised that previously with the cabinet secretary, given the huge disruption that he had in transition from primary school into secondary school. It is one thing to say that this will be monitored closely, as it states. It is not good enough. What is going to be done? What action? What help? What assistance? What resource? Or will those children, this cohort, just be another regrettable statistic for the rest of their lives? Can I address the point on the industrial action to begin with? I have said in recent media reports that we are some distance apart between what is affordable to the Scottish Government and local governments and what is acceptable to the unions in terms of what they wish to see. I have been clear all along that a 10 per cent pay increase, as has been requested by the unions, is simply unaffordable for the Government. If COSLA has made four offers now to the unions, I have totally accepted that those have been rejected. However, we need to see compromise on all sides on that. That is the only way to get to a resolution that is compromise, not just within the Scottish Government or indeed local government, but also from our union colleagues as well. That is the type of discussions that we are in over the past couple of weeks in particular. I look forward to those continuing in that manner. On the S3 cohort, Michael Mann is quite right to point to the particular concerns around the S3 cohort. We have discussed that before as well. I have mentioned the billion pounds worth of Scottish attainment challenge funding—that is an increase from £750 million in the previous Parliament—but we are also looking very carefully at what can be done through the stretch aims, the local government, the network of attainment advisers in Education Scotland, the universal support that is provided in Education Scotland and the specific targeted report where that is required. It is very important that we look to ensure that through everything that we are providing through our agencies—that is the best way that national government through our agencies can support the challenges that are happening within the S3 cohort—that we ensure that that targeted approach where it is necessary that we work with our agency and local government to ensure that we are delivering that awareness. Before we go on to the next question, it has taken eight minutes to get through the first two questions. I have 10 members who would still like to ask a question. I would be very grateful if we could pick up the pace here. I call Graham Day to be followed by Megan Gallacher. Thank you. Contrary to Stephen Kerr's spinning, of course, local authorities are the bodies responsible for school-age education and therefore have a pivotal role to play and tackle in the attainment gap in our schools. Across the country there is a variation in performance both in terms of overall attainment and the poverty-related attainment gap. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what work has been taken forward to address such variation, how, for example, is best practice being shared with those councils whose performance might benefit from that? I have already mentioned the local authority stretch aims, which are set by local authorities, but Education Scotland is working closely with local authorities to provide support on that. There is also a collaborative improvement work that is going on through Education Scotland and ADES to look at what more can be done to tackle that variation. I have also discussed the work again through Education Scotland that has been universal, targeted and intensive support where that is needed. I hope that that gives some examples of how we are attempting to tackle variation and assisting local authority colleagues to do so. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's Groundhog Day, yet another statement where data is stacked against this Government that has no meaningful solutions to improve education and the life chances of all children and young people. In questions must be asked over education reform funding. Gillian Hamilton warned that Education Scotland does not have the capacity and or capability to carry out that additional and very important work, and that will have significant and detrimental impact on some key policy areas, including the Government's flagship policy to close the poverty related attainment gap. Cabinet Secretary, how serious is this Government about education reform? I have to say, Presiding Officer, that this is one of the areas where I find it quite incredulous that I am being attacked by Opposition parties. Previously, I have always been criticised that too much has been done by staff within the SQA and Education Scotland. Now it would appear and I am being criticised for not giving those agencies more money to allow more staff to be responsible for the reform package. We will continue to ensure that there are resources within the agencies to carry out the necessary work in here, but we will also continue to ensure that the reform process is driven because I am responsible for it by the Scottish Government and by the decisions that I will take to include the reform process that I want to see, which will be radical. I welcome the latest achievement of Curriculum for Excellence. The level statistics show a positive improvement in achievement for pupils with the recorded additional support need, but there is clearly much to do. It is essential that children and young people with neurodiverse conditions go through an education system that is responsive to the needs of their conditions. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how the Scottish Government is going to ensure that children and young people with neurodiverse conditions are included and that their unique perspective is front and centre when planning for any progressive improvements? Carim Adam does raise a very important point in the work that we are doing. We are working closely with the young ambassadors for inclusion, including those who are neurodiverse, and they are closely involved in the delivery of the additional support for learning action plan. Those ambassadors will, of course, be consulted on the national discussion on the future of education in Scotland, because it is important that, as we look to that national discussion and we look to see further progress, everyone is involved in that and that includes our children and young people who are neurodiverse. Martin Whitfield, to be followed by Fulton MacGregor. I agree with the cabinet secretary about her commitment to ensure that every child and young person in Scotland has the same opportunities through their education. There are 15,324 school-aged children and young people identified as having additional support needs. However, on figures from 2020 to 2021, 17.4 per cent of pupils with learning disabilities did not achieve national qualification at level 2 or better, compared with 0.9 per cent of pupils without learning disabilities. I thank Enable Scotland for the figures. What will the cabinet secretary do to narrow that gap by 2026? Again, that follows in part at least from the question from Carim Adam. I would point Martin Whitfield to the work that is on going within the additional support for learning action plan. The work within that to recognise that success and achievements for those with additional support needs may be different and may vary. It is important that we work with those children and young people to ensure that we are setting our actions in the right way to ensure that they are achieving what they can deliver within Scottish education. I hope that the work that is going on within that action plan gives him some reassurance, but I certainly would be happy to meet him and to work with him. There is an area of concern to ensure that we are including the thoughts of children and young people and their requirements to see their success being recognised in a suitable way. Fulton MacGregor, to be followed by Willie Rennie. As the cabinet secretary said, all local authorities have set their straight aims for the years ahead, outlining their local ambition for tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. Should those local ambitions be realised and the rate of progress that we have seen in recent years continues, what impact will that have on the poverty-related attainment gap in areas such as my constituency of Coatbridge and Crescent and across Scotland generally? Collectively, local authorities' straight aims indicate significant ambition to drive accelerated progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap. For example, for literacy and numeracy in primary schools, collective local ambitions are to close the gap by more than seven percentage points compared to 2021, with 2022 data showing real progress towards those. I welcome that level ambition. I look forward to seeing progress towards those straight aims, recognising that the delivery of that is more important than, of course, the setting of the straight aims. We will certainly do everything that we can within national government and through our agencies to continue to support local authorities to do that work. Willie Rennie, to be followed by Emma Roddick. Before Christmas in response to me, the education secretary said, we will be on track to substantially eliminate the poverty-related attainment gap in primary schools. She failed to mention secondary schools, so will the election manifesto promise for secondary schools be met or not? Cabinet secretary, there has been absolutely no change in the extent of our determination over primary and secondary. I point yes to the success that we are having within primary schools. I have also recognised in the statement that there is more to do within the secondary schools aspect of it, but there has nothing that has changed in our determination to ensure that we deliver a substantial reduction in the poverty-related attainment gap by 2026, as exactly how we set out in that programme for government. Emma Roddick, to be followed by Ross Greer. The poverty-related attainment gap, and I think that it is important to give it its full name, obviously cannot be tackled by schools on their own. Could the cabinet secretary outline what steps are being taken by the Scottish Government to tackle the cause at its root, the drivers of poverty, and to mitigate the damaging actions of the Tories in Westminster? The member points quite rightly to the fact that tackling the poverty-related attainment gap is best done at source, and that is about the drivers of poverty. It is, quite frankly, exceptionally frustrating and disappointing that we continue to try and do this with one hand tied behind our back because of the changes that the UK Government has made to welfare and the continuation of those changes about pushing more and more children into poverty over the coming years. We will continue to do what we can through the Scottish child payment, through the Scottish welfare fund, but it is exceptionally difficult when you have the UK Government making life harder, rather than easier, for our children and young people. Ross Greer, to be followed by Natalie Dawn. We now have two sets of national qualifications results from years where exams did not take place and where pupils were graded based on continuous assessment and the professional judgment of their teachers. In those two years, the attainment gap was considerably narrower than in years where grades were based on high-stakes end-of-term exams, without pre-empting Professor Hayward's independent review. I wonder if the cabinet secretary could reflect on the difference in the attainment gap in particular on those two models of grading. Mr Greer is quite right that I will not pre-empt the work that Professor Hayward is continuing. I am sure that she will be looking at not just what has happened when we have had exams, but the fact that our experience over Covid has shown that there are different ways in which we can measure attainment and achievement within our schools. All of them are credible, as agreed by universities and employers. That presents us with opportunities for change should that be the right thing to do. I look forward to seeing Professor Hayward's report and her recommendations in due course. I welcome the Government's mission to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap at all levels of our education system. Can the cabinet secretary set out some detail on what measures are being taken by the Scottish Government to widen access to universities? We have recently announced the appointment of the new commissioner for fair access. Professor John McKendrick and I would welcome him to expose his experience in tackling poverty inequality in Scotland. I look forward to seeing what he has to say. I will point to some of the parting words of the previous fair access commissioner, who said that Scotland is continuing to set the pace when it comes to widening access to university, describing the Scottish Government's approach as an unambiguous success. Central to improving the educational life chances of children and young people should be ensuring first-class learning environments in schools. In the last academic year, there were over 20,000 physical or verbal attacks against school teachers and other members of staff. The former EIS president, Heather Hughes, said that teachers often feel unsupported when reporting those issues, and all too often they are made to feel the blame lies with them. It is therefore disappointing that there was no mention of such a serious issue in this statement. This Parliament has enough evidence to show that teachers are not reporting those attacks and disruption, and therefore the scale is unknown. Will the cabinet secretary commit to mandatory reporting of violence in the classroom so that that issue can be dealt with once and for all? The statement was that, as I think Opposition parties wished, mainly based on the statistics that came out in December, and that is where I focused many of my remarks. However, the member is quite right to point to the important issue of violence against staff. There is absolutely no excuse for violence, intimidation and threats for our staff in schools. We are working very closely with local authorities as the employers to ensure that we are doing everything that we can, and there are a variety of ways that we can see whether we can strengthen them. I am more than happy to look at any proposals to see what can be done and do so in conjunction with local authorities as the employers to take the issue as we do very seriously. I have spoken in the chamber previously about the importance of educating children on Scotland's ties with colonialism and the role BME people have had in Scotland's colonial past. It is currently not compulsory for schools in Scotland to educate students of any age on Scotland's colonial past and role in British empire and transatlantic slave trade. Mandatory primary education on such matters would ensure that, from young age, children have a realistic understanding of Scotland's history, what has been done to overcome this and how we can strive to improve this in the future. Does the cabinet secretary agree that a mandatory primary curriculum on Scotland's history with colonisation, slavery and empire is essential to ensure that all children receive an education that redresses historical inequality and supports the growth of our progressive and diverse nation? I think that the member will forgive me if this is not correct, but we have been trying to get some time in the diary and I have kept missing each other a little bit to discuss the issue in particular. I am more than happy to make sure that we do get that time to discuss it in greater detail than I can today. We do not have a compulsory curriculum within Scotland nor do I think that we should. We are, of course, working very consciously with our anti-racism in schools works to ensure that we are looking at how the curriculum can be changed and what changes can be done so that the issues that the member raises are dealt with. I hope that we will get the chance to have this proper conversation soon to see that we can explore that in further detail. Thank you. That concludes the ministerial statement. There will be a brief pause before we move on to the next item.


Welcome to Unit 9 of PRDV301, Introduction to Paralegal Studies. We hope this journey so far has been informative and that you're getting excited for the end. As you might have gathered from this course, the legal profession is highly regulated. This means that not just anyone can provide legal services to the public. Both lawyers and paralegals need to follow strict codes of conduct and ethics in their daily lives to avoid serious consequences. The American Bar Association could even ban you from practicing law entirely. This unit will teach you about these codes of conduct and common pitfalls that folks in the legal profession can run into. We'll also talk a little bit about what conflict of interest and zealous representation mean. Even though the lawyer and paralegal are supposed to fight hard for their clients, there are also limits to how far they can go in their defense. You will also read about some strategies to help maintain your client's confidentiality. By the end of this unit, you should have all the knowledge and basic skills necessary to start your paralegal journey. So congratulations! After this unit, one more important area remains to be covered, what in practical terms it takes to become a working paralegal. Good luck!