Teaching Clever

Teachers are one of the greatest assets of a nation.

Without them our education system would collapse and our youngsters would be deprived of the schooling that gives them increased choice and opportunity in life. It is a profession that should never be undervalued.

It is with this sentiment that I address the ongoing teacher shortage in the North East, and why I brought it up recently with Education Secretary Angela Constance. I asked her specifically about what is being done to address the fact that there are schools across Banffshire and Buchan Coast that are in desperate need of teachers that can either not be found, or fail to be retained in the area.

Ordiquhill School

I also wanted to know if there were ways to encourage local people to teach in the area that they grew up after they graduate. I was delighted when Ms Constance agreed that young people and new trainees should be given good reasons to stay within their communities in the North East – and that the Scottish Government supports this.

She said that the government is working with local authorities and universities to develop routes into teaching that help people stay within their local areas. The numbers of student places for initial teacher education have been increased at the universities of Aberdeen, Dundee and the West of Scotland to help facilitate this. The University of the Highlands and Islands has also been brought on board as an initial teacher education provider.

A summit was recently held in Aberdeen to look at the problems surrounding teacher recruitment in the North East, with representatives from six local authorities along with the Education Secretary there to discuss strategies.

The Government has been working on the problem – student teacher intake targets have been increased in each of the last four years, £51 million has been invested in safeguarding teacher posts, and a teacher recruitment campaign has been launched.

Funding has also been injected into Aberdeenshire via the University of Aberdeen for their part time distance learning PGDE course. This has been developed so that people can train as primary teachers while continuing in their jobs. The positive response that this has received from local authorities means that it is now being looked into for the secondary teaching sector.

But while all these irons are in the fire, no one is resting on their laurels - and I am very well aware that teachers are needed and we must do all that we can to encourage them to come north.

At the summit in Aberdeen, officials from the Granite City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, the Highlands, the Western Isles, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands joined forces to explore what can be done in the face of unprecedented low numbers of applicants and increased pupil numbers.

The councils involved have already tried to attract larger numbers of applicants by offering "Golden Hello" payments and free accommodation to new teachers, but vacancies remain across primary and secondary schools.

Ms Constance said at the summit that the ongoing national marketing campaign was specifically targeting subjects that have proved hard to fill, such as science, technology, engineering and maths.

She commended the work already being done across North East communities to ensure that high quality teachers are recruited and reiterated that these efforts were very much supported by the Government. The quest for realistic long-term solutions will be pursued so that schools and pupils in the North East are resourced to deal with the teacher shortage.

The six local authorities at the summit have spent about £1million altogether on advertising, and have launched a number of initiatives including innovative financial incentive packages and housing support.

I may be biased but I can personally recommend the North East as a fantastic place to live and work. I hope that teachers will be attracted to all that we have to offer, and to a way of life that is second to none. We will work to ensure that the generation growing up in our rural communities are not let down by a lack of resources and are inspired by the teachers who will start them on their educational journey.

Maths - a Formula for Success

Inspiring young people has been a challenge for teachers and educators for generations.

In a speech that I gave this month on Scotland’s educational success, I chose to speak about a teacher that had such an impact on my own education – he still makes it into my political speeches 55 years on!

When I was in school, our deputy head teacher was Doc Inglis – a Lancastrian and a mathematician. He saw it as his duty to inspire – and the first thing he did with each class was to send it round the school on a quest for infinity. We looked in the dustbins, we took the blackboards down, and we even went out to the sports field to contemplate where this could be found. This is still imprinted in my memory. In the sixth year, Mr Inglis brought his tax return into the class and went over it with us - either to tell us how little he got paid for imparting his mathematical knowledge, or to demonstrate the value of keeping an eye on your tax bill.

Doc Inglis is my example of an inspirational teacher. On the anniversary of our headteacher’s appointment, he would always come in wearing a black tie. He had gone for the job and been unsuccessful, and this was his way of marking the occasion. This quirk serves to instil Mr Inglis in my memory, but the quality of his teaching, teamed with his interesting character, also made me want to learn.

Maths was a subject that I felt drawn to as a youngster, and when I went to Aberdeen University I graduated with an MA in Mathematics, and a more advanced love of numbers. I am delighted that the Education Secretary Angela Constance has stated that there needs to be a greater public enthusiasm for maths – I couldn’t agree more.

Maths can be a subject that creates more fear than inspiration in both young and old - but this does not need to be the case. History can also be a good teacher.

The Indiana pi bill – or more specifically – the Indiana House Bill 246 of 1897 sought to define in law a value for pi. It wanted to fix that value at 3.2 rather than 3.1416 et cetera, that most will remember from their school days as a transcendental number which cannot be defined in the real number system. That bill was passed on 6 February 1897. Fortunately, the Indiana Senate had another look at it after it went to the temperance committee, and the matter never went any further.

Back in the present day, the Scottish Government has launched the Making Maths Count programme to ensure that pupils can see the stories behind the numbers, and the many uses that Maths has in everyday life – with the aim of improving attainment in primary and secondary schools in Scotland.

If we can make mathematics relevant to real life, we can make it a matter of enthusiasm for our kids.

Also with the emphasis in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence on cross curricular learning – Maths features, and adds to, many other subjects.

In literature for example, Dante’s ‘Inferno’ refers to one of the keepers of the gates of Hell as Belphegor. This character has his own special prime number which is named after him, is symmetrical, and is 31 digits in total.

Mathematics also takes a place within religion. In one example, Hindus are guided by the Vedic texts, which discuss what Hindus believe are the five types of infinity - the infinity of point, of line, of area, of volume and of time, and the concepts of 1 and 0 are introduced.

There are many areas in our culture and in our lives where mathematics is relevant and where it matters. To deter our young people in any way from discovering this world of knowledge would be detrimental to them and to society as a whole. Let us inspire the mathematicians, shop owners, librarians and religious leaders of the future and give them an education that truly adds up.