trowie246

Sorry, I missed out my 7 year olds best friend who is an eight year old half-chinese girl.

What I would like to know is exactly what £35 million pounds is being spent on in education. Lets see the books. The costing for a school is a very complicated thing as things like admin costs are shared out equally between schools. Cullivoe parent council had great difficulty getting figures from Hayfield house for the costs of Cullivoe school. We are told if they close the school they will save in the region of £50,000 per year. We dispute this figure as we still don't know how they reached it. The chair of our parent council worked it out it is actually cheaper to teach a primary pupil at Cullivoe school than Mid-Yell school. This is because Mid-Yell is a junior high. He says that primary education is no more expensive in Shetland than the rest of Scotland and it is actually secondary education which is outrageously expensive here. As far as social skills go in small schools my 9 year old daughter is friends with a 13 year old boy who has Aspergers and an 11 year old girl. My 7 year old daughter is friends with a 7 year old boy an 8 year old boy and a 6 year old girl. I had to restrict their after school visits to a maximun of 3 times a week because they all practically lived here! Its lightsome!

Was anyone else annoyed at Gussie Angus's comments in the Shetland Times? "Services chairman Gussie Angus warned this week the community could no longer "have it all", leaving a stark choice; cut schools or care for the elderly or ferries". If things are really that bad what about closing a leisure centre which is heavily subsidised? Oh no couldn't do that - people would lose their jobs we better just make the old folks pay for their home-helps instead, close some small community schools and reduce the ferry runs to that isles that lie somewhere to the north. From a semi-literate housewife.

I've got myself photoshop elements 6 and I would like to get the house a present of an icecream maker but can't make up my mind - one that makes normal icecream or soft whippy icecream?

No, it doesn't sound like the same thing. There is a quesionnaire for secondary children and primary children. It is very similar to the "public" questionnaire but it is "dumbed"down for them. Our parent council chairman e-mailed them to me. I assumed he got them off the internet but I'm not sure.

Hi, I'm new to this but this is something I feel very strongly about being a parent of children at a small school which has been under threat of closure in the past. If you think this consultation questionnaire is bad have you read the one for the children? Our parent council had a meeting with Helen Budge last week regarding a separate subject and we asked who had written the questionnaire. She didn't give a straight answer and said that " councillors had modified the questions". When I asked our local councillor she said there input had been to change the wording on 2 questions. Please do not confuse the curriculum for excellence with the Blueprint. The first is from the Scottish government the second is local authority. The first question on the questionnaire states " curriculum for excellence recommends that pre-school settings and primary schools should be as near each other as possible to make the change easier for children." This is untrue. The curriculum for excellence does not recommend this. The curriculum is about working closely together it is not about buildings or distance. Unfortunately it looks like the education service is going to use the curriculum for excellence as a way of making savings and they could do some real damage to the education of youngsters preparing for exams. One of the questions in the chidrens questionnaires asked them if they want 3rd and 4th year to be more "like primary school." How do you think they will answer? P.S The childrens questionnaires will be completed at school so they can't be influenced by their parents.