Changes in Scottish education have made staff rooms either a rarity or a relic

Beyond his Ken?

Lack of toilets and staff rooms in new schools built using Private Finance Initiative (PFI) reminds me of the situation in schools in the mid 1970s when I started on my teaching career (your report, 26 December).

In those days the staff room was well used during what were then called “free” periods when teaching staff had noncontact time. In those days of almost universal 40-minute, eight-period days with a 40-period teaching week, most staff (if they were lucky) had one “free” period per day. The staff room was a place of escape where many of the older dominies could be found completing their crossword or enjoying a “fag” and where a newly qualified probationary teacher could pick up some sound advice on dealing with their pupils. At lunchtime the place would be full with at least two bridge schools in full swing amid a fug of tobacco smoke.

Oh how times changed over the next 40 years! Non-contact time or “free” periods were renamed “preparation time”. Individual subject and latterly faculty bases were where staff completed their preparation or snatched a quick cup of coffee before returning to their classroom to log on to their laptops to update even more reports. The staff room fell into disuse. The only time I visited was to use the staff

Kenny Macaskill is back in the SNP fold and no doubt a thorn in the side of Nicola Sturgeon. As she, Ian Blackford and the other hapless SNP MPS and MSPS cannot provide credible economic figures to support an independent Scotland, could he be the person to provide these elusive facts which are never mentioned? On the other hand, he was the architect of Police Scotland, the politically engineered police force, established to save facilities and there were only the ghosts of teachers past to remind me of the once-thriving atmosphere. By the time I retired, teachers were regularly at their desks before 8am and still there at 5pm, in addition to all the catch-up work to be done at home. The staff room was well and truly an educational relic. In the seven

money and provide efficiency. Based on the debacle the SNP police force has become, lurching from crisis to crisis and with a financial black hole, he might not be the best person to provide the evidence we desperately need.

SNP supporters seem not to be concerned about the financial credibility of an independent Scotland, happy to endure austerity, tax increases, reduction in public services and redundancies to achieve some sort of “freedom”. It is unbelievable.

DOUGLAS COWE

Alexander Avenue Kingseat, Newmachar years since I can only imagine the situation with CFE has made things even worse. I only hope sea mus sears on, general secretary, can lead the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association in winning improved conditions for teachers in the new schools being planned.

PAUL BIRRELL Laverock Park, Linlithgow