Love to know what mum's think of the Scottish Baby Box poem

[toomuchpink]

Love to know what mum's - especially those in Scotland - think of this poem. It is going into the Scottish Government's new baby box of freebies for parents of newborns.

Tempted to ask for alternative suggestions which truly capture the experience of having a baby. But perhaps for some people this is what it is like?

Jackie Kay
Welcome Wee One

O ma darlin wee one
At last you are here in the wurld
And wi’ aa your wisdom
Your een bricht as the stars,
You've filled this hoose with licht,
Yer trusty wee haun, your globe o' a heid,
My cherished yin, my hert's ain!

O my darlin wee one
The hale wurld welcomes ye:
The mune glowes; the hearth wairms.
Let your life hae luck, health, charm,
Ye are my bonny blessed bairn,
My small miraculous gift.
I never kent luve like this.

Scotland is facing a teacher crisis too I don't have enough words to describe the hell that the English education system which is seriously affecting the mental health of both teachers and pupils alike.

Huge spending cuts in Scottish schools:

www.scotsman.com/news/education/scottish-schools-spend-540-less-per-pupil-than-five-years-ago-1-4316075

Huge increase in Scottish teachers signed off with stress;

www.scotsman.com/news/politics/growing-number-of-teachers-absent-with-stress-and-anxiety-1-4326035

Quick question derxa but why are you having problems believing people who live in Scotland and more than likely have children in Scottish schools?

1 of my dds just missed C oE by a year she was the last year to do standard grades my friends with younger teens said the C oE was a shambles and kids were failing over core subjects which is a bloody shame

To be fair to derxa the English school system is more nightmarish than a nightmarish thing.

However, that's no reason not to criticise what the Scottish government has done (and continues to do) in Scotland.

Interesting derxa - I have friends and relatives in England and our experiences and views on the 2 education systems are quite similar. The difference is that their attainment levels across the piece are better than Scotland which has managed to slip down the league tables under the watchful eye of a party which has Scotland's best interests at heart. Apparently.

My eldest is currently doing his nat 5s and I can't properly describe the rage I feel at the utter fiasco it has been.

Many of my friends are teachers and they are all desperate to leave which is a bloody crying shame as they are all hard working and dedicated but the pressure and their total disgust with the omni-shambles that is CofE is driving them to despair.

The cybernats will be along in a minute to tell you that you are making up your eldest' experiences of the CoE because it is utterly beyond reproach in every possible way, didn't you know. In fact your dissatisfaction with it can only be a symptom of your utterly abhorrent stance on 'the constitutional question'.

Unless you're one of those imposters pretending to be Scots. Because actual Scottish people couldn't possibly want to criticise anything the Scottish government do. Ever.

Have you still got a local FE college* that your eldest could go to once he gets past his nat 5s and do A-Levels?

• I realise this may be unlikely given what the Scottish government have done to the FE sector.

It will be Highers and/or Advanced Highers here, rather than A levels. As you rightly say though, the number of places at FE colleges have been cut, as have the range of qualifications that you can study to Higher/AH level.

He'll probably just stay on at the same school to do his highers. I seriously wish we had the money to send him private.

I only ask because several of my school friends opted for A-levels at college rather than staying at school to do CSYSes (back in the day).

I was wondering if there were any colleges left that offered an opt out to the CoE.

Haven't really researched it but I know that the FE colleges have had their funding drained to pay for free university funding. I think we'll wait for his results and then make a plan.

Oh I definitely knew that they'd destroyed FE to try to pay for HE. I was working in a Scottish university when they decided upon that wonderfully progressive and helpful policy.

I also wonder if colleges that dared to offer non-Scottish qualifications might have felt the wrath of their tartan and shortbread overlords and had to join in with the CoE cult (with regular chanting sessions about how perfect it is in every way).

Derxa

No, I don't know what it's like in English schools at the moment. Presumably not good and you have my sympathies if you're working in it or educating your children.

I don't think it's on though for Scots to think 'well our schools are becoming crap, but I suppose they're not as crap as English schools.' No-one should be accepting that. I do know that Scottish schools are declining and it's happening under the SNP watch.

What I also know is that the Scottish Government has an agenda for independence that they prioritise above all else, and that money is consistently wasted on pushing this agenda either directly or via other means e.g. a poem written in Scots in a baby box, ever increasing Scottish culture and learning in the curriculum, money wasted on a recent national survey to check if there is an appetite for another referendum (there isn't.)

These are all political statements and the never ending campaign to remind us all that we are somehow being cheated by the Westminster Government is wearing incredibly thin.

We're currently being cheated by our own administration who hide behind token gestures and 'it wisnae us' politics while failing to address the very real concerns about education, health and other key services. It's massively frustrating.

People objecting to a baby box based on the Scots poem aren't politicising a good will gesture. There's already a political agenda. There always is.

It really sticks in the craw (see what I did there ) when resourcing appropriately could have a much bigger impact than a baby box for all. Yes it may only be 6 million but add to to the rest of the wasted money, the cost of the national survey, not to mention the annual underspend and you can see why people are annoyed.

The administration needs to wake up, grow up and put independence on the back burner while it sorts out the mess. It also needs to govern for the good of all its citizens whether they share its nationalist vision or not.

Well I think I understand what's going on now . Please don't shoot- I'm not responsible for baby boxes, crap poems or the Scottish Education system. I'm not a cybernat or any kind of nat. I'm an ex teacher who lives half the time in England and half in Scotland. I'm a simple farmer.
I can see why MN hates the SNP though if they're running down ed standards. However do you want your 10 and 11 year old kids spending years being drilled in made up grammar nomenclature? Teachers and children sick with worry over the results of KS2 SATs? Endless tinkering with the system started by Michael Gove who wanted every school to go back to the 1950s. He sent every school in England a huge copy of the King James Bible. What did that cost? Rant over.

Derxa: the English education system is unequivocally awful and the many years of political meddling have created an absolute monster. It is really, really tempting to think of Scotland as a utopia in comparison but that's just a hopeful fantasy.

But Derxa with respect this thread ISN'T about English schools! Even I can see that, and I'm not Scottish!

For Michael Gove we send our sincerest apologies.
He's an awful little man.

I don't know what the King James Bible is , but just so you know Nicola Sturgeon sent every Scottish school a box of Tunnock's teacakes, a Bay City Rollers album, a DVD of Take the High Road and a copy of The Broons (translated into Gaelic).

I know it's not about English schools. But people here in Scotland want 'standards' to rise and that can only come with tough changes and money of course. For example I believe the English SATs system and the National Curriculum brought great improvements but then it went too far.

Yes, schools in England might be a bit crap.

But the thread is about Scotland, Scottish baby boxes.

I have taught in both systems but have been in Scotland since 1998 so have seen the woeful shambles developing under the SNP.

My school can no longer offer HE, IT, a 2nd language or, quite soon, Art. We do everything we can to stop up the gaps and my own kids are lucky - we have enough money to plug gaps if we have to. And the teachers can be brilliant.

But, the curriculum is shit. Scottish Texts anyone? 6 poems for a year and the average mark on the N5 paper is 17/20, meaning it is much, much too easy. Shambolic numeracy. Higher Maths fiasco.

We have no LS teacher and I am teaching a class that is mixed ability but with 3 pupils with considerable (think p1) additional needs in an S2 class. One person supports them, occasionally, when not off sick.

We have had no janitor for over two years meaning we empty bins, clean up sick and find buckets for the leaky roof.

Lunches are more than £3.50 a day, and are shit - all the vegetables are frozen and butter is, apparently, worse than trans fat marge crap.

My budget for library books, for the whole year, is £1.50 per pupil. I am buying pens and paper. DVDs and paying for books for pupils who need them but can't afford them. I pretend they are mine from home but they come from Amazon and are needed so pupils can do dissertations at AH. There is no level playing field when pupils in cities have huge libraries and can use them.

Sport is shit. In fact, unless you play football, there is none.

At N5 pupils do 6 subjects, 5 at Higher the year after. Which means the BGE (broad general education) suddenly gets very fucking narrow. But then, given the very limited choice of subjects, there is not much choice anyway.

But, hey, they can learn Gaelic. Oh, and Jackie Kay poetry.

Schools in Scotland are getting standardised tests;

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/35237834?client=safari

Rose That is hideous

Rose That's awful 😕

Political reasons? Jackie Kay is the Scottish Makar, you think perhaps that might have been the reason she was asked to contribute? But, of course, I forget nothing is ever simple for some folk.

Honestly, the negativity some Scots have over being Scots is the reason my twin dts are looking to leave asap. Cringe indeed.

I only recently started back on Mumsnet at it was so anti-independence and very Labour in tone. If you didn't agree with it then you'd be shouted down. Back a few years later and I'm sad to see that nothing has changed.

Baby boxes are a positive thing, a great idea and I wish they had been around when I had my babies. The attitude against them is disgusting.