I WOULD strongly support the suggestion for the re-establishment in secondary schools of the post of principal teacher ("‘Bring back principal teachers’ call to beat shortfall in maths and science trainees", The Herald, March 14). The restructuring of promoted posts over the last few years in secondary schools has seen principal teachers, the key subject specialists, replaced by faculty heads. It is quite clear that this restructuring was carried through on the grounds of financial savings; it certainly was not as a consequence of an analysis of the relative educational merits of the respective posts.
We now have faculty heads with responsibility for a group of subject departments – for the members of these departments, the quality of their teaching, the strength of the different curricula, staff development needs, discipline, pupil welfare, parental links, assessment, the required resources, the internal and external exam requirements and SQA arrangements. The faculty heads meanwhile may only be qualified to teach one of the subjects for which they are responsible. This has meant a loss of crucial subject expertise and experience.
In addition, the principal teachers, as key middle managers, played an absolutely vital part in the effective running of the school. I know from experience the value of the advice and guidance of the school’s principal teachers. I feel strongly that the loss of these posts cannot be helping the academic performance of Scotland’s secondary schools.
Furthermore, as suggested in your article, the marked reduction in promoted posts in secondary schools seriously restricts career development for teachers and must be a disincentive for recruitment. When I started teaching there was a clear career structure for teachers as they moved from being a class teacher to a principal teacher, with assistant principal teacher posts created for the larger subject departments. For those teachers who wished to move into school leadership, the progression was from principal teacher to assistant head teacher, then to deputy head teacher before becoming a head teacher. This was a long apprenticeship which was a thorough preparation for the demanding job of head teacher. Compare this to the present structure where a teacher moves to the position of faculty head and then a deputy before being promoted to head teacher. This represents a significant loss of opportunities for promotion as well as key stages in the preparation for headship.
Eric Melvin, Edinburgh.
GREEN INVESTMENT IS NOT A RACKET
BRIAN Wilson ("'Green laird’ racket shows we need radical action on land", The Herald, March 9) attempts to make the case against current land ownership in Scotland suggesting that the term "laird" should be confined to soap operas set in big houses awash with tartan. On that point we are in complete agreement. Laird is a hopelessly anachronistic term and does not reflect that the vast majority of landowners are today running rural businesses which strive to make a positive social, economic and environmental contribution to Scotland. Where we unfortunately part company is over the suggestion that investment in natural capital, or green investment, is some kind of "racket". To portray green investment as a "racket" being perpetrated by so-called ‘green lairds’ (another ridiculous shorthand) fails to reflect reality on the ground.
Private owners, whether they are families who have been around for generations or are an investment company new to landownership, are helping government to tackle climate change by increasing forestry cover, providing clean energy and restore peatlands to lock up carbon, as well as continuing to supply affordable rural housing, local jobs and produce world-class food and drink and tourism experiences.
We should not fall into the trap of pitting one land use against another. Tackling climate change is of paramount importance and can be addressed in combination with other land uses.
Mr Wilson is right, though, to point to the soaring price of land, which is an issue not just in Scotland.
The foremost reason for land price inflation is the Chancellor’s response to the global financial crisis and the pandemic, which was to pump money into an economy which was in recession. This produced a spike in asset prices across the world, not just in land but pretty much across all asset classes.
If we are to reach net zero, Scotland will necessarily see some new types of landowners, hopefully communities but also financial institutions. I hope that these institutions will all become members of Scottish Land & Estates and follow the standards of best practice in responsible landowning which our members practice across Scotland.
Mark Tennant, Chairman, Scottish Land & Estates, Musselburgh.
Could Queen Mary sink Waverley?
YOU report the possible return of TS Queen Mary to sailing again on the Clyde ("Full steam ahead as royal ship to sail the Clyde again", The Herald, March 12).
One wonders if the potential market is sufficiently strong to successfully sustain two large pleasure craft at this location. PS Waverley struggles to maintain viability even with large subsidies from public organisations and many private donations. With two such vessels targeting the same market might this lead to potential commercial failure of both?
Robin M Brown, Milngavie.
A HAPPY TRAIN OF THOUGHT
DAVID Waters (Letters, March 11) informed us that James Clerk Maxwell solved a problem which his professor had not managed.
Prior to receiving his knighthood, Lord Kelvin was Professor W Thomson. In a letter to a friend, Maxwell writes: “I set Professor W Thomson a problem which I had been working with for a long time. He sent me an 18-page letter of suggestions about it, none of which would work; but on January 3, 1865 in the railway carriage from Largs he got the way of it, which is all right; so we are jolly, having stormed the citadel, when we only hoped to solve it by approximations."
Iain MacInnes, Glasgow.
* LETTERS on precocious classroom talent (March 11 & 12), brought to mind a fellow student in secondary school, clearly with a basic understanding of physics, but perhaps less versed in orthography, who responded to “Why are there holes in a brazier?” with “So that ladies wouldn’t sweat”.
R Russell Smith, Largs.
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