The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on education governance next steps. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on John Swinney, cabinet secretary, 15 minutes please. Presiding Officer, this government was elected last year on a platform of radical and bold action to make Scottish education world-class for all of our young people. That commitment has driven the changes that we have already made and it drives the reforms that we now propose. In particular, we pledge to give more power and resources direct to schools to put teachers, parents and communities in the driving seat of school improvement. Today with the publication of our next steps paper on school reform, we make good on that pledge. The aim is to deliver excellence and equity by raising the bar for all and closing the attainment gap. A simple, powerful premise sits at the heart of our proposals that the best decisions about a child's education are taken by the people who know that child best—their parents, their teachers, their school and their community. We are determined to build an education system from the classroom out. We will reform the system so that the key decisions in a child's education are taken by our schools. Schools will be free to improve learning and teaching, making decisions as they think best within a broad national framework. All other parts of the education system will share a collective responsibility and work within a strong framework to support schools to succeed. We have excellent teachers who are hard-working and committed to raising attainment for all. Many children and young people fulfil their potential. Exam results are very good and improving. The overwhelming majority of young people leave school to go into a job, training or continue their studies. We have a strong curriculum that has the needs of children and young people at its centre. Those strengths do not, however, mask the challenges that we face. There is still too much bureaucracy generating a necessary workload for our teachers. We remain committed to freeing teachers to teach and continue to work with their professional associations on further steps that we can take to achieve that. We fully recognise the message of PISA and the SSLN results. They reveal the significant hurdles to be overcome if we are to make progress on raising the bar and closing the attainment gap. We can and we must achieve more. That is why we embarked on a programme of reform. The national improvement framework and the attainment fund have laid the foundations for what I am setting out today. In particular, the people equity fund has put £120 million directly into the hands of our head teachers. When we launched the governance review last September, we set out to engage directly with teachers, practitioners, parents and professional bodies across Scotland. I would like to formally place on the parliamentary record how grateful I am to the many individuals who spoke to and for the written responses that we received. I am also publishing our analysis of those responses today. No-one will be surprised to hear that many of the responses from within the education system argued against change, but very few respondents expressed satisfaction with the status quo, and many respondents expressed real concern about elements of the current system. We also examined a wide range of evidence to inform our approach, including from the OECD, the International Council of Education Advisers and from children and young people in Scotland. Advice from the International Council has been clear. To improve our education system, we must tackle culture, capacity and structure, and I am taking a blended approach to address all three. The centrepiece of those reforms is a package of sweeping new powers for schools so that education is led by teachers, parents and communities. We will put the power to directly change lives into the hands of those with the expertise and the insight to target resources at the greatest need. Schools have the expertise and insight to target resources to greatest effect, so they will be responsible for attainment, delivering improvement and transforming children's lives. That will be supported by a new structure with three key pillars—enhanced career and development opportunities for teachers, improvement services delivered by new regional collaboratives and support services from councils. The evidence is clear that the strength and quality of leadership in our schools is crucial to delivering improvement. We know that head teachers want to focus on the delivery of learning and teaching, not to be chief administrators of their school. We will therefore give head teachers more power over decisions on learning and teaching, freeing them to make a real difference to the lives of children and young people. At the heart of that will be a statutory head teachers charter. Head teachers will be the leaders of learning in their schools, responsible for raising attainment and closing the attainment gap. They will be free to select and manage the teachers and staff in their school. They will be free to determine their own school management and staffing structure, to decide on curriculum content and to directly control a significantly increased proportion of school funding. International evidence shows that involving parents, families and communities fully in schools improves attainment, so that is what we will do. We will enhance parent councils and modernise and strengthen the legislation on parental involvement to enable all parents to play a role in their local school and particularly in their children's learning. To ensure that schools interact more effectively with families who find it difficult to engage, every school will have access to a home-to-school worker to make and to maintain such links. Children and young people must be at the heart of our education system, and we will strengthen their voice through more effective and consistent people participation. Parents should be involved in the wider running of schools, and we have seen an increased desire for autonomy in the proposals that have been put to us, including from St Joseph's Primary School in Moghau. As part of the governance review, we have carefully considered each application on its merits. I recognise what those parents are trying to achieve for their schools and their children, but I am acutely conscious that schools also need to support frameworks to function well. The reforms that I am setting out today will significantly increase the autonomy of our schools, the role of parents in school life and ensure that our schools are rooted in their communities. Crucially, however, our reforms deliver that with a clear national and local framework of policy and support. That collaborative approach is a key strength of the Scottish system and is critical to improving attainment and closing the attainment gap. I therefore cannot agree to pursue the specific proposals from parents at St Joseph's, and elsewhere, as they would remove schools from that crucial support structure. I consider, however, that we are delivering on the autonomy and increased parental involvement that lies behind many people's support for the plans that have been put forward in good faith by the parents of St Joseph's and other schools. The schools will lead, but they must have the support that they require to succeed, so we will back them with a new support structure around the three pillars that I mentioned earlier. The first pillar, enhanced professional development and career opportunities for teachers, will see teachers strongly supported throughout their careers. Professional learning and collaboration are key to that. We will streamline and enhance professional learning so that there is a coherent learning offer to teachers. Improved support through collaborative practice in new regional models and school clusters will also significantly build the capacity of teachers. We also know that some teachers have been frustrated at the lack of opportunities to progress in their careers, so we will work with the profession to design new career pathways to develop and to reward leadership skills, pedagogic expertise and subject specialities. We will undertake reforms to initial teacher education to ensure that new teachers are well prepared with consistently well developed skills to teach key areas such as literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. Finally, we will continue to develop new routes into teaching that attract a broader range of high quality graduates, including in priority areas and subjects. A formal procurement process will shortly begin for new routes into teaching, but I can be clear today that any new route into teaching will require to meet the GTCS tests, including a partnership with a university, to maintain credibility and academic rigor. This Government will not remove this crucial guarantee of the quality of teaching in Scotland. We recognise that the success of a school and teacher-led system rests on the availability of the right support, support that is not currently available consistently across the country. We must build the capacity for educational improvement within the system by putting in place the second pillar, a revolutionised offer of support and improvement. We will establish regional improvement collaboratives to pool and strengthen resources to support learning and teaching in Scotland's schools, led by a new regional director reporting to the chief inspector of education. Those collaboratives will provide educational improvement support through dedicated teams of professionals. Those teams will draw on Education Scotland staff, local authority staff and others. They will facilitate collaborative working, sharing best practice, supporting collaborative networks and partnership approaches tailored to their local area. I welcome the steps that have already been taken by some local authorities to embrace the approach, and we will work with local government to expand and to deepen this work. Those collaboratives will provide a coherent focus across all parts of the system through an annual regional plan for educational improvement, aligned with the national improvement framework. We know that our teachers want to constantly improve for the simple reason of wanting to do better for our children. That will help them to do that. The third pillar of support will be delivered exclusively by local government. Local authorities will retain a vital role in our education system, with responsibility for a wide range of education support services, including the number and catchment areas of schools in their area, the provision of denominational and Gallic medium schools, the administration of placing and admissions procedures, including for children with additional support needs, the provision of back office support services such as HR, and securing excellent head teachers for the schools in their area. Taken together, that is a crucial role for councils in ensuring schools have the support framework and services that they need. By retaining that important local accountability, we retain vital democratic accountability for the leadership of Scotland's schools. Councils will also have new statutory duties, a duty to collaborate to support improvement on a regional basis, to provide staff, including head teachers and teachers, to work within the regional improvement collaborative in partnership with other local authorities and national agencies. An empowered system, underpinned by collaborative working and a strong improvement function, will operate within a clear national framework. The Scottish Government and national bodies have a key role to play in this regard. As part of those reforms, Education Scotland will undergo significant change with strengthened inspection and improvement functions. Those functions will remain together with inspection, acting as a crucial tool that supports the system-wide goal of continuous improvement. We will give Education Scotland a renewed focus on professional learning and leadership, providing clarity and coherence to the national landscape. That will incorporate the functions of the Scottish College for Educational Leadership and will be delivered via the new regional improvement collaboratives. That will mean that hands-on advice, support and guidance can flow directly to more schools to support improvement. We know that current support can either feel inconsistent or distant and we must reverse that. As Parliament will be aware, Bill Maxx, while the chief executive of Education Scotland is retiring on 30 June, I can confirm that on an interim basis, Karen Reid, chief executive of the care inspectorate, will lead both organisations, supported by Graham Logan as interim chief inspector and chief education adviser. The process for the appointment of a permanent chief inspector of education, who will also lead Education Scotland and be my principal education adviser, will start in the summer. One of the strengths of our education system is that we have national teacher professional standards underpinned by a national registration scheme. We recognise that there are many other professionals such as education support staff who play a key role in educating our children and supporting our teachers but are not currently part of a national registration scheme. We will therefore consult on establishing an education workforce council for Scotland, which will take on the responsibilities of the GTCS, the Community Learning and Development Standards Council and register other educational professionals. To support those system-wide changes, we must have an approach to funding that ensures that control over resources for schools sits with schools. The consultation on fair funding that I am publishing today seeks views on how we can achieve that. As our proposals make clear, I have ruled out the development of a fixed national funding formula. It is clear that the reforms that I have set out today cannot be delivered by Government alone. They will require partnership working, shared effort and real focus on delivering change in every part of the system. I commit the Government to active engagement with our local authority partners, the professional associations and other stakeholders to take forward this agenda. I also acknowledge that the Government does not command a majority in this Parliament, so we will work with other parties to build agreement around those reforms. Some changes can be delivered without legislation and we will work with partners to deliver them quickly. For changes that need legislation, we will bring forward an education governance bill in 2018. At the heart of all our reforms is a simple plan. We will free our teachers to teach. We will put new powers in the hands of our head teachers. We will ensure that parents, families and communities play a bigger role in school life and in their children's learning. We will all support our schools to do what they do best and transform the life chances of our children. That must be the vision of all of us for the future of Scotland's schools. Thank you, cabinet secretary. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement and tend to around 30 minutes or so for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. It will be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question or to press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Liz Smith. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Parliament knows that, for several decades, the Scottish Conservatives have wanted to see a school system that gives real devolution to head teachers. With regard to the general principles of those reforms, we are very pleased to see that the SNP is now supporting that direction of travel. The cabinet secretary is quite right to say that the status quo is not an option, and how could anyone argue otherwise, since it is the incontrovertible evidence that shows Scotland's schools are facing so many fundamental challenges, especially over standards of literacy and numeracy? However, the cabinet secretary will not be surprised to hear that we do not believe that those reforms go far enough, particularly when it comes to extending choice and allowing schools to opt out of local authority control if that is what parents and teachers want. I ask him three specific questions. First, why is it that, within the spending of the pupil equity fund, head teachers will not receive full autonomy, but instead will have to abide by both local government and national government guidelines as to how the money should be spent? Secondly, and after all the evidence submitted to the education committee in recent months, does he really believe that it is credible to have the inspectorate remaining part of education Scotland when that body is also undertaking the development of the curriculum for excellence at a time when there are so many question marks over the delivery of it in our classrooms? Thirdly, is the introduction of regional education boards not completely counter to the Scottish Government's stated aim to devolve powers down to local communities? First of all, I welcome the comments that Liz Smith has made about empowering schools and head teachers. I believe that that is the right step to take to ensure that the decisions about the education of our young people can be taken by those that we entrust to lead that education process and who have the greatest opportunity to effect that approach. Let me deal with the three specific points that Liz Smith raised. First of all, pupil equity funding. I think that pupil equity funding has made a huge impact on Scottish education already because it has given head teachers and schools and communities because head teachers who are acting wisely in this respect will engage their schools and communities in determining how best to proceed with pupil equity funding. It has given them the flexibility to address the needs of young people within their care. I think that what I am trying to strike in the reforms that I am making here is the balance between providing the autonomy to schools to be able to take the decisions that matter to young people but by providing the support that enables head teachers to make wise decisions. Any guidelines that are available on PEF must be supportive guidelines, advisory guidelines and cannot be the type of restrictive instruments that prevent head teachers from exercising sensible educational judgment about how that money should be distributed. My conversations with head teachers value having guidance about how to utilise those resources, but they equally value having the freedom to spend the resources in the fashion that they can justify educationally why it should be the case. Secondly, on the question of Education Scotland, I recognise that this is an issue that has been debated extensively within Parliament. As I indicated in the debate that we had in this some months ago, I have considered substantially this question. If we were to separate the inspection and improvement functions and for there to be leadership of those functions held separately within our education system, we would be requiring schools to work out whether they should follow the signals of the inspectorate or follow the signals of the improvement organisations. What inspection to me is all about is about being part of the improvement function of education. That is the vision that we have for inspection. Inspection is a contributory factor in the design of improvement mechanisms within education. Thirdly, on the question of regional collaboratives, they are mandatory collaborations between local authorities and Education Scotland so that we pool together our combined resources to have more effect on improving education in individual schools. Why is that important? It is important because today, in not every part of our country, schools can rely on a strong, specialist and effective improvement function to be at their disposal. That is not good enough. Every school in our country must be able to rely on such a resource. What we intend to create by the joint working of local authorities, Education Scotland and experienced educationalists is regional education collaboratives that will fulfil that purpose. I know that the cabinet secretary will fully expect me to begin by welcoming something that he has done. I am delighted that he has dropped the idea of centralising school funding in a national funding formula—well done. I also welcome the end of his flirtation with the idea of opt-out schools. However, the first of the two funding options on which he is now consulting, the one called a national approach to devolution of funding, appears to suggest that he still wants to decide individual school budgets centrally and nationally. Can he explain how that is different from a national funding formula? I have always had an open mind on regional collaboration as long as that was aimed at providing pedagogical and subject-based support in the way that the old regional advisory services were used to. That could really support classroom teachers in their work. However, regional improvement collaboratives, centrally appointed regional directors and annual plans, can he explain how that is not just another layer of bureaucracy and how it will support the classroom teacher in that classroom? Finally, consultation responses to the governance review from teachers, parents, educationalists and councils all said the same thing, that the first reform that we need is more teachers, properly paid, properly supported and properly resourced. Why is his statement nothing to say about that? Let me welcome the first two points of welcome that Ian Gray gave. I think that Ian Gray would acknowledge that it is a duty of a minister to consider propositions that are put to him by members of the public. It is part of his fundamental duty as a minister, so it is not a case of my flirtation with particular concepts. It is me exercising the duty that Parliament would be rather surprised if I did not exercise in considering proposals put to me by organisations around the country. In relation to his three points, the first of them is on the funding mechanisms. The first option in the consultation document, and I stress that it is a consultation document, is an opportunity for members and for different interested parties to make their contribution to the process. What it does is take forward the opportunity of giving more control to individual schools within a framework of design of particular components of education expenditure, which would certainly flow through local government into particular schools, but it would do so with conditions attached to that process. It is not a national approach because we would not be deciding all of the elements of that process. On Mr Gray's second point, I hope that we can make some progress on the common ground here because the vision that Mr Gray outlines of a pedagogical and advisory support arrangement that is available to enhance the quality of learning and teaching is exactly what I want to create. However, I want to make sure that it has pace and drive about it to improve education in Scotland, which is why I want the regional directors to be accountable to the chief inspector of education who will have the responsibility to ensure that we are constantly pursuing improvement within Scottish education. However, the vision that Mr Gray talks about its purpose is exactly what I want to see in place, because I think that we need to have more specialist expertise available to enhance learning and teaching at local level within individual schools. Finally, on the question of the teaching profession, the Government has put in place the resources that are now leading to an increased number of teachers in the profession. We are putting in place, through the mechanisms that I have set out here, a strengthening of the educational development functions of the system to ensure that we enhance learning and teaching. Those are some of the elements that the teaching profession has been calling for and which I am responding to positively to enhance the pedagogical and advisory influence that is available to strengthen learning and teaching in Scotland. I am now moving on to further questions. I have 13 members wanting to ask questions. The clue is in the word question. I remind members that I am the parliamentary liaison officer to the cabinet secretary. Is the cabinet secretary aware of the report published by the National Parent Forum of Scotland that says that moves to engage parents in their children's education have been largely successful but need to go further? Can he outline what impact he expects strengthened parent councils to have on our children's learning? The National Parent Forum of Scotland undertook a very good and rigorous review of the legislation that is in place. It has made a number of recommendations that the Government will take forward as part of addressing the commitments that we have given in the governance review. There are two elements of response to Ms Galruth's point that I would make. The first is that parent councils are an opportunity for head teachers to engage in creating a real community of interest in advanced education. As I indicated in my response to Liz Smith, there is a lot of very good evidence already that parent councils have been heavily involved in the design of how pupil equity funding can be taken forward and how that can have the most impact within the system. The second point that I would make is as important as that. That is about the engagement of parents in their own children's learning. Again, active involvement in steps to ensure that parents are more actively involved in their children's learning has been proven by international studies, which we cite in the consultation document response, to have significantly enhanced the achievement and attainment of young people and has contributed to the development of stronger performance within education systems. I would like us to take action in both those respects. I thank the cabinet secretary for his statement. I ask for three clarifications. Will the head teacher have the power to employ and sack teachers in his or her school, or will that power lie? How many regional collaboratives will there be in Scotland, and will any councillors be part of that regional grouping? The first point is that head teachers under the charter will be responsible for the selection of staff within their schools, but they will not be the employers of their staff. The local authority will remain the employer. My judgment is that I do not want to go from having—if I think that 32 HR systems is enough or too many in Scotland, I do not want to move to 2,500, so the local authority will be the employer of teachers and will deal with HR matters, but head teachers will be free to select the teachers that teach in their schools. However, for any issues of performance in other matters, the local authority would have to be involved in those questions, but obviously at the instigation of the head teacher. Secondly, on regional collaboratives, I am not prescribing how many there should be within Scotland, but they will have to involve a number of local authorities. I will consult with local government on exactly that question. I have in my mind that there should probably be six or seven regional collaboratives in Scotland, but I am not wedded to those numbers. Thirdly, I do not envisage councillors being on those collaboratives. I envisage them being collaboratives of educational professionals who will work together to enhance the—exactly the—support that I talked about to Mr Gray—of pedagogical expertise to be available to schools. However, again, I am prepared to discuss those issues with our local authority partners. Cabinet Secretary, the Education and Skills Committee recently took evidence from teachers on what load was an occurring theme. Although I welcome the reassurance that the Cabinet Secretary has provided that teachers will continue to be the leaders of learning, can he expand a wee bit further on the support that will be available to teachers and how that will improve their current situation? First of all, let me say to Mr Donan that I remain very focused on reducing workload, because that is a necessary step to free up the space to enable teachers to enhance learning and teaching. That brings me on to the second point in response to Mr Donan, that the enhancement of learning and teaching is at the heart of the governance review, and it is why we are taking the steps to draw together the work of Education Scotland and the work of local authorities in the regional collaborations to make sure that classroom teachers have available to them a range of expertise and specialism that will enhance the quality of learning and teaching. We believe that that blend will significantly assist teachers in fulfilling their potential. Thank you, Daniel Johnson, followed by John Mason. Regarding the cabinet secretary's remarks about alternative routes to teaching, can he confirm what the minimum amount of time spent in lectures and on supervised placements respectfully will be under those plans? How will that compare with PGD and other current teaching qualifications? As that is following a procurement process model, can he advise us to what the criteria that will be used to assess those and award those bids? No, it is one question, not a whole sequence of them. With no disrespect to Mr Johnson, I suspect that we could have a long parliamentary committee session on exploding the detail of that question. Those are all valid points to raise, of course they are, but let me see two things to Mr Johnson. The first is that some of the questions that he raises are material to the composition of initial teacher education courses. He knows from my appearance at the education committee that I have a question in my mind about the variability in those components, and that is an issue that we need to explore with the colleges of education. Secondly, whatever steps we take on any of the detailed questions that Mr Johnson raises, we must have assurance on the quality of the propositions that are coming forward, which is why there has to be an academic partner and it is why there has to be GTCS assessment of those particular routes to satisfy us that the quality of the route into teaching is of a sufficient standard to give us confidence that in identifying a new route into teaching, which may be a shorter route into teaching, quality has not in any way been compromised. John Mason, followed by Ross Greer. To follow-up Jenny Gilruth's question, we have areas in Glasgow, certainly especially poorer areas, where there are no parent councils in the school, because parents have been very reluctant to get involved in a parent council. Can the cabinet secretary suggest how we deal with that? I think that the way to deal with that is about encouraging parents to be involved in the school as part of the learning process. I was in Thomas's primary school in the east end of Glasgow. Cabinet secretary, you are speaking away from your microphone. I know that it is out of politeness and courtesy to somebody at the back, but nobody can hear you. It is disrespectful to you, Presiding Officer, and my apologies. I was in Thomas's primary school in the east end of Glasgow at Smithycroft on Monday. I was visiting a marvellous project where the young people were articulating their understanding and experience of the Holocaust, both in the Second World War in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, but also in Darfur in recent periods. I saw, at first hand, magnificent learning and expression by the young people, but I also saw significant parental engagement in the project and the process, which I thought was one very good way of encouraging parents to be part of their involvement in the school through the learning process. It may be that the learning process encourages more parents to be involved in the development of the school, but I certainly saw a very good example of that at St Thomas's primary school on Monday. He began by saying that headteachers do not want to become chief administrators, but then announced new responsibilities that they will have to take on over the recruitment management of staff and of budgeting. Is that not an example of the wider problem? That being that this exercise is not one that was asked for and will not resolve the key issue in Scottish education, that over the past 10 years we have lost 4,000 teachers over a third of school librarians, over 500 additional support needs teachers and hundreds of support staff. I reiterate to Mr Greer that I have absolutely no intention of creating headteachers as chief administrators of their schools, but I want them to be leaders of learning. If they want to be leaders of learning—I do not meet a headteacher who does not want to be the leader of learning, they want to be the leader of learning instead of the chief administrator in the school—many of them say to me that they cannot be leaders of learning because they do not have sufficient control over what they are able to do in the school and in their selection of staff. I answered Mr Balfour by making it clear that I am not going to set up HR systems in individual schools. That is not what is envisaged here. Local authorities will continue to provide that support service to individual schools, but I want headteachers to be able to have the discretion to choose the staff that will work in their school so that they can design the most effective way to deliver an effective curriculum for the young people in their care. That, to me, is the sensible route that will enable headteachers to make a profound impact on the lives of young people in Scotland. Does the cabinet secretary accept that I agree with his direction of travel but not his logic on education Scotland? Will the cabinet secretary confirm that, under those proposals, education regions will have to follow the national improvement plan, as will schools, that the improvement plan is of course education secretaries and that the chief inspector of education, now to be the principal adviser to the education secretary, will be his educational policeman? Therefore, does he not accept that, instead of decisions being taken at a school level that I entirely agree with, many people see those proposals as a top-down structure where Scotland's educational future is determined by ministers here in Edinburgh? I do not accept that characterisation, and I am very happy to discuss those questions in some detail. I do not think that Mr Scott and I are in any way in disagreement about that. I want schools to be properly empowered to take the decisions that will shape the learning of young people in their care, but I want them to be well supported in undertaking those functions, which is why I am undertaking the reforms that I am undertaking at national and regional level to make sure that all of us, whether we are in local government or in education Scotland or in the Government, are supporting that process of reform. It is not to prescribe. I think that one of the really interesting issues that we wrestle with in education is the level to which issues should be prescribed. I do not want to be prescribing issues because that would be alien to curriculum for excellence, but I want schools to be able to take those decisions but to take those decisions well supported by the regional and national infrastructure that is in place. I have come to those conclusions on education Scotland and on the inspection and improvement activities. From good analysis and sound reason, I am very happy to discuss that at length with Mr Scott and anyone else to try to get to a point of agreement because I want to proceed on those reforms with as much agreement as I possibly can do. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that it moves by councils like the Labour Tory run North Lanarkshire to divert pupil equity funding from its intended purpose into core education funding? Will doing nothing to help to close the attainment gap of free up teachers' time? Does he share my anger at the decision-making administration and North Lanarkshire to cut hundreds of classroom accessions for girls? You have got your question, Mr McGregor, about diverting funds. Please sit down. Presiding Officer, pupil equity funding has been allocated to make what I hope to be a profound impact on the education of young people and it should be used for that purpose. The Government is in active discussion with all local authorities, many of whom have responded to this approach really effectively to make sure that we see pupil equity funding being used in the very effective way that it should be to enhance learning and teaching for young people and to close the attainment gap. Before I call Brian Whittle, can I say to Mr McGregor that when I tell you to stop, you stop, you do not keep speaking. That goes for all members in this chamber. I note that COSLA is committed to moving regional collaboration forward in co-production with the Scottish Government, building on existing collaboration that already occurs between local authorities. With that in mind, with reference to the new regional collaboratives, can I ask the cabinet secretary what relationship will those have with local authorities and what role will they play in deciding on school policy? I welcome the statements that have been made by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on regional collaboration. There is a very good example in the north of Scotland and Northern Alliance, which a number of members will be familiar with. Seven local authorities have come together in a voluntary collaboration, and what they are doing is pooling resources to ensure that, right across the seven authorities, they have access to resources that can enhance the quality of learning and teaching. It is not about replacing deciding policy, it is about how to provide support to individual school development. That is the key part of the reform agenda that I am putting forward to Parliament today, and one of the key elements of it, is to create that support that will enhance the quality of learning and teaching in our schools, so that pupils in classrooms are able to be on the receiving end of enhanced support in the delivery of education. If we can make progress on that swiftly, which I think that there is absolutely no reason why we cannot do that, I think that we will begin to see the fruits of that in Scottish education very quickly. I welcome what the cabinet secretary has said about children and young people being at the heart of their education system. Could he outline how the Scottish Government has ensured that their voice has been heard throughout this process and will continue to be heard? We had a number of sessions that I attended, and Mr MacDonald also attended some of them as well, with young people who were facilitated by young Scotland and children Scotland. The format of those events was conducive to understanding and appreciating some of the perspective of young people, which has been reflected in the governance announcements today. I intend to continue that type of dialogue, and I also gave a commitment to Mr Greer in earlier discussions that we will involve young people in some of our national deliberations on key questions to make sure that the perspective of young people is heard very directly on those points. I welcome recognition in the cabinet secretary's statement that international evidence shows that involving parents, families and communities fully in schools improves attainment. The proposal or the announcement that every school will have access to a homeschool worker sounds very positive. I do not hear a question. I am not waiting any longer. Can the cabinet secretary say how many of those workers we will have, what the cost will be, and why he is in the mood to look at evidence? Will he still consider the proposal for school-based counselling as well? Those are all questions that I am happy to explore as we move to the detailed implementation that we will take forward in partnership with our local authority colleagues and other stakeholders. There is very good evidence, and some schools have already done that through the attainment challenge of establishing home-to-school link workers. It overcomes that. I saw some very good evidence of how successful that had been on a visit to the NCVR primary school, which I think must be in my colleague's constituency. We are very good success, which has enhanced the access to learning for young people who had been taken for. We will explore those questions in detail with our local authority partners. Jamie Greene, followed by Richard Lyle. The cabinet secretary says that he cannot agree to proposals from St Joseph's and Mulguy and others, because it would remove such skills from crucial support structures. Does the cabinet secretary not accept that headteachers must have the freedoms that those proposals called for? Which support structures does he think that an autonomous school might lack? The point that I am making here is that I have looked carefully at the demands that have been made and the proposals that have been put forward. I do not understand exactly the motivation and I do not, in any way, question the motivation of anyone who is bringing forward those proposals. I totally understand it. However, what I am providing through this statement is a level of flexibility and autonomy within schools that substantively meets the aspirations that have been brought forward by the groups to which Mr Greene referred. However, what concerns me is that our system operates on the basis of, yes, there being an amount of discretion and flexibility within schools, but also schools being able to rely on quality support to enhance education, because we must be able to give a guarantee of effective education to children in all parts of our country. In that balance, where there are competing points of view, my judgment is that the amount of flexibility and autonomy that is being proposed under those reforms substantively addresses the issues that have been raised by the parents of pupils at St Joseph's primary school. On that basis, I have come to the conclusion that I have come to, to ensure that the schools that are in our system are able to rely on quality support from the reforms that I have set out today to Parliament. Richard Lyle, followed by Graham Simpson, will move on to the next item of business. In the speech that the cabinet secretary said, and I quote, the heart of this will be a statutory head teacher's charter. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that the head teacher's charter will be developed in partnership with the profession? If there were to be no councillors on the new regional bodies, can the cabinet secretary tell us who they will be accountable to? Will it be him? No, there will be collaborations between local authorities. It is about sharing expertise. It is not about top-down control, it is about sharing expertise, because the problem that we have today is that in some parts of the country our schools are not able to rely on a sufficiently strong pedagogical and educational support service. I cannot allow that to continue, so I am doing something about it and this is my solution. It is not about me controlling it, it is about me making sure that in every single part of the country every school can rely on strong expertise to support the delivery of education. That is the point of the reform. That concludes questions to the minister. Before we move on to the next item of business, allow a few minutes for the front benches to take their places.


Well, hi, I'm Mr. B. I'm a musician artist and teacher based in Seattle, Washington Maybe you see me at an assembly or your school library I get to collaborate with some of the finest musicians in the Pacific Northwest and now you Today's lesson you'll need a piece of paper or notebook and a pen or pencil Anyway to capture your ideas Welcome to making music with Mr. B. I'm Mr. B Today we will be writing a song inspired by the word strength. I Have two very special guests with me today a long-time friend Mr. Blake Lewis and a really wonderful piano player Christopher Jordan without any further ado. Let's get right into it For this first activity, you're gonna be mentally and physically active Try and keep up with Mr. B as he claps and slaps a rhythm Slappy clappy copy Slappers Clappers Copiers Let's kick it off Ben Ben Momo cats boots cats Boots cats and boots cats Let's get started Ready here we go pump up the tempo Level two ready here we go pump up the tempo level three Ready here we go pump up the tempo Pump up the tempo This is hi Today's song is inspired by the word strength Whenever I'm writing a song. I think of words or phrases that jump out at me that are connected to the topic I'm writing about on the top of your page write the word strength As you listen to our guests say what words and phrases come to their mind Write down any that stand out to you or any that you connect with the word strength So again, we're writing down words and phrases that connect to the word strength Perseverance believing Can sometimes hide being mighty Sturdy hearing words and phrases like you can do it conviction Personality can look differently than you think it's going to you're able strength in numbers fears and being a leader stability Oh man, I wish I could see what was on your page. I bet you have something really good Save those words and phrases for later for now. Let's move on to the instrumental we created This is what a keyboard sound like his track is inspired by the word strength Our guests instrumentalists is Christopher Jordan Hi, my name is Chris and I play keyboards and pianos Thanks, Chris Chris came up with four chords inspired by the word strength. Here's what he came up with For today's track. I stayed home and collected some sounds to add a little personal flavor Music is all around us. You just have to stop and listen As always I put the sounds into my sampler the MPC live and made them my own Here's what I got once I had all the sounds. I chopped them up and put them into the MPC. I Really liked the way the sticks and spoons sounded together like this and came up with this rhythm Which I changed to this for the chorus time for the free ride Write down words or phrases you think of when you hear the word strength Try to think of ideas that connect to you and your own life Remember, there's no right or wrong answers. So anything you come up with is perfect I'll give you just a minute to write some things down. Take your time now. Don't give up Okay, about 20 seconds left. Why don't you go ahead and wrap it up now? Get ready Because here comes the song Like to spend more time making music with mr. B you can find me at learning with style Dot-com that's learning with style. I host lessons every week. So we'd love it if you could join me Thanks again


Hey guys, so has anybody seen secret sodos? YouTube videos where she's painting feathers If you haven't I'll link her At least the first video to the description below. I'll try to see if there's a playlist for all of them Or I'll create one But what I did and watching her videos gave me idea So we're here on Monday with a Monday and deck of art and we're gonna paint a feather I have this feather here that was in my stash of stuff that I gessoed and I've got some deco art media fluid acrylics. I've got phthalo turquoise Titan buff titanium white cobalt teal Ultramarine blue primary cyan I've got pyrrole red cadmium orange primary yellow Hanse yellow medium cobalt turquoise Pains gray, although I don't know that we need it and sap green. I'm not sure I'm gonna use all these colors But those are the ones I pulled out.  What do you think? I think it'll be interesting. Let's do that I already gessoed my feather front and back And it you know made it a little bit smaller and squishier and you know That's okay, and then it's got the brakes in it, but I think it's gonna be interesting. All right I'm gonna zoom in just a little bit. There we go. So you can see what I'm doing I'm gonna have to hold it down like this while I'm painting which means I think that what I should do first Let's put a little bit of all of my paint colors on my on my plate So that I have this all ready to go. I don't think it's gonna take much paint. It's not that big a feather It would be really surprised so it took very much paint So I'm just gonna put a little drop of each one of these colors and whatever I don't use. I'll put in my year of my life journal or Rub it on my drop paper Which I can later use for collage something like that Okay, that had separated. So let's give that a shake. Let's grab a paper towel So I'm gonna just absorb that extra liquid that came out that's better So I was thinking we might do a sunset like seascape on the feather Which is why I have the yellows and oranges out and I told this is totally inspired by secrets channel I do recommend you go over and give her a watch She has some interesting Ideas about things and I love her Way that she kind of goes about stuff Put some paint gray on here. I don't know that I need it, but you never know. I might decide to put a bird on there All right, so we've got our palette Jumping to push this way. I've got three brushes I've got a filbert a flat and then I've got this one. I don't know what this is called No idea, but it's shaped like this Oops, why are you there? I like it because it's got this little point on it. So We're gonna start with the filbert And I'm gonna flatten my feather and make sure I make sure I'm in frame and we're gonna start with the Turquoise and I'm gonna put in my ocean Where I think I want it to be I'm gonna add some other cobalt teal. This is really dark Turquoise but a little bit of white I'm gonna put some white in there on them all right on the feather I'm gonna go back to the dark turquoise and I'm gonna just I'm gonna actually switch brushes Switch brushes. Let's switch to that one with a pointy end. I'm gonna put some little touches of dark Oceans not one flat color There's dark spots and light spots In it ocean this ocean nests. That's the new term ocean nests over here. We need some ocean nests That's pretty good. Let's Brush I need a rag Every time I've sat down to paint today. I haven't had a rag. What's with that? Alright, I Don't care if we get paint on the back. I only just sewed it for stability of the feather Hairs bristles whatever you want to call them. I don't know what you call them So I'm rinsing my brush off now Holding my feather down some more This time we're gonna do the sky and I think No, I'm gonna have to hold it this way. Normally I would turn it around but I need to hold it down and I'm right-handed so I'm going to start with This cyan color occasionally drop in some White a little bit of the darker blue The sky would be a little darker the further away. It was from the earth or the ocean And we want this to be Sort of realistic okay Let me go back to our angled brush and the dark turquoise color and I want to just clean up this line here Where the ocean meets the sky, which would normally be a pretty flat line Okay, let's give that a dry. Shall we but that's already looking interesting, isn't it? Now I don't know that you want to dry it too much or get it too hot Because I don't know what the heat will do to the bristle the hairs in the feather I just want to dry it enough that I can add other colors to this without making green or mud That's pretty dry. I think it's dry enough So let's put it back on our table and squish it flat I'm going to go back to our filbert brush. I'm going to try to rinse it pretty well I want to get all the blue off And I'm going to go into one of our yellows and I'm going to put in a sun hopefully Just a half moon shape Now whatever is above the water would be reflected in the water so Let's put a little bit of a distorted reflection of That shape In the water I'm not going to clean the brush off. I'm going to grab some orange I'm just going to use some water on the brush To aid me in some blending A little bit I'm going to grab a baby white Because I think that's a little bit too much orange And I think the baby might white might blend a little bit better. Yeah, it does Okay, let's grab some red We just want to hint it in the water I'm going to go back to my angled brush and add some turquoise back in over The paint we just put on here for the reflection I feel like I can stop holding it down so much. So I'm going to do that And it's acrylic paint. So this deco art media Fluid it's fluid acrylic. So you can just keep layering your colors on Right over the top of each other Until you get the look that you want and interesting marks It's just a little more challenging because we're working on a feather We're not working on something that's flat I'm going to see if I can mix up a little bit of purple. I'm going to take some of one of my blues And some of their red that's on here and I'm going to White and see what happens. It's a little bit gray for my taste So let's And it's probably just the shades of colors that I have here. It's actually probably the red Um, that's making it look kind of gray We'll work with it. We'll just keep mixing. I'm going to add my you just saw me add the Titan buffin I'm I actually know I'm kind of liking that color So it um looks like this It's kind of a grayish purple, but I'm kind of liking that so we're going to go with it I'm going to add some of that in here Just a little bit need some more white The sky got a little dark. I have this tendency to do dark stormy skies. Have I told you guys I am? I don't know why I just think I think I like them because there's just so many colors In a dark stormy sky that are it's more interesting than a bright sunny sky. I don't know That's what I try to tell myself anyway So long kind of streaks of white Can hint at clouds Or waves in the ocean. You're just being suggestive. You're not trying to be literal here We don't have enough space for one thing to be literal not to mention the fact that I don't really paint that way to begin with but We need a small detail brush Um, let's use this one. This is a really teeny small I don't even know what size it's just a little Um, and we're going to use that I'm going to I'm going to put some birds in the sky. Let's do that. That's nice and with the white titanium white caps Ones that aren't that messy. Holy moly I think my brush was a little bit too wet So that's all right. We're going to go in with it. We have the dark. Whoops Just try a brush off really well So we'll go in and we'll fix it again with my white draw my brush off better this time I'm going to find the light spots and the color we put down here for the ocean I'm going to just kind of tap in some White because we're working on a feather You don't want it to be too watery because what I'm noticing is the little hairs in the feather They wick the water the paint right up Like it would if it was watercolor Sticking with my detail brush. I'm going to go into my other yellow color Again, we're just we're putting in details little Small details. This is what's going to really make this painting pop On this feather I have some sap green here. I'm going to See if I could put some grass and Which is challenging over all the breaks in the feather. I gotta tell you I'm going to add some yellow to the sap green and lighten it up just a bit Add just some of the I think straight yellow Let's do it on the other side. Okay, and then lighter color and then some of the yellow I really like it. Holy cow Oh secret. This is all your fault. I think I want to put a little boat Let's put a little boat. We've got this paint gray on here Brushes too wet again There again, there would be a reflection in the water So pull some of that paint down And then I'm going to use Um one of my warmer blues Right into the wet paint's gray To give it the hint of where the you know sun is Landing on the boat and you've got all these blues Which generally speaking blue is a cool color But when you have these teally yellowy blues next to these cool these other blue blues or purpley blues That makes the teally blue a warm blue. Well, it's really nice There you go Monday with deco art paint a feather Thanks secret I hope you guys all enjoyed that and I hope you give it a try. It was a lot of fun The hardest part honestly was jessing the feather Give it a try and see what you think Um all of my contact information is in the description below if you have any questions comments or concerns, please let me know My Post office box is also down there if you'd like to Um Send me happy mail or you have a product. Uh, you're a company with a product You'd like me to try and review My contact information and links to my facebook group my amazon store The classes I teach everything is in the description below. Give it a good read if you will Um, if you have any comments, you can leave them right on the video. I do reply to all my comments Eventually, but I usually do them pretty quickly Um, I think that's it. Don't forget the most important thing Go out and have a great day Do something nice for yourself like paint a feather because you deserve it. All right. I'll see you later. Bye


What do you take away from your first outing of the spring? I'm feeling good. I hit the pitch count because I couldn't throw enough good pitches. And I thought we shaped some good breaking balls and executed some good pitches. So today was a good day. Was there something specifically you were working on heading into this outing that you really wanted to try out there? I mean, I think specifically just trying to stay within myself, you know, hidden and feel good when obviously health is major. So feeling good when you're coming out of the first one. Specifically, those two are important.  And today, you know, sacrificing a little bit of location certainly, but everything was moving the way it should. So that was good. So much was made last year about who is catching you. Gary Sanchez behind the plate today.  How's that relationship developing this year? I mean, just good. You know, he's got, got to catch me a few times and took me into this game. And, you know, I thought we worked well. We got some good feedback and we're both looking forward to taking the next step. Former teammate Jameson Tyon, current teammate, but former Pirates teammate and current teammate Jameson Tyon, followed you today. What do you think of his potential and really the potential of this Yankees rotation this season? Yeah, I'm excited. Today was a big day for him getting back on the mound in a, you know, competitive, competitive environment. Seeing his name in a box score is going to be exciting for him. It's always a big step for guys coming back off rehab to check this box. And, you know, I thought he threw the ball well. Again, he's, you know, been working with Matt and everybody on pitch shapes and, you know, trying to bring some more quality out. And he's been doing really well. And he was obviously very sharp today. So really, really good day for him and pretty happy, pretty happy for him as well. Did you enjoy hearing some fans in the stands this afternoon? Absolutely did. Yes, I did. I, I, yes. There was like a three to chant. There was some cheers as we took the field. Yeah, very, very happy to, very happy to hear that some Yankee fans. Hopefully there are even more fans in the future. Garrett, thanks for the time. Yep. Thanks, Meredith.