Chamber and committees

All student teachers in publicly funded places are guaranteed a one-year teaching post on the teacher induction scheme. This affords them the opportunity to reach full registration in one school year. We have also signed a concordat with local government that enables them to maintain teacher numbers at a time of falling school rolls and significant levels of retirement.

This information is not collated centrally. All depute head teacher posts are allocated a specific salary point on the common pay spine for both head teachers and deputes. Salaries for depute head teachers in all sectors of school education are determined on an individual basis in line with the responsibilities of the post.

This information is not collated centrally. All head teacher posts are allocated a specific salary point on the common pay spine for both head teachers and deputes. Salaries for head teachers in all sectors of school education are determined on an individual basis in line with the responsibilities of the post.

Teachers should have the appropriate professional skills and knowledge necessary to enable them to undertake the teaching duties allocated to them and this is reflected in the current Regulations.

Subject expertise is a strength of the Scottish Education system. Teachers with a sound knowledge of their subject provide exciting, engaging and relevant experiences for young people. Curriculum for Excellence will also require all teachers and other staff to make connections between areas of learning, including through interdisciplinary studies so that young people are taught with a broad understanding of the curriculum as a whole and can see the links between and the relevance of different aspects of learning. This means that the subject of history will continue to be taught by qualified teachers and that in addition to this for example, the history of Scottish science could also be taught in science.

Teachers should have the appropriate professional skills and knowledge necessary to enable them to undertake the teaching duties allocated to them and this is reflected in the current Regulations.

Subject expertise is a strength of the Scottish Education system. Teachers with a sound knowledge of their subject provide exciting, engaging and relevant experiences for young people. Curriculum for Excellence will also require all teachers and other staff to make connections between areas of learning, including through interdisciplinary studies so that young people are taught with a broad understanding of the curriculum as a whole and can see the links between and the relevance of different aspects of learning. This means that the subject of history will continue to be taught by qualified history teachers and that in addition to this for example, the history of Scottish science could also be taught in science.>

No. That would not be appropriate as this is a joint consultation issued on behalf of the Scottish Government and the UK Government.

The Department of Health in England issued this consultation paper across the UK, including on behalf of the Scottish Government. To supplement the Department of Health lists, we provided lists of Scottish consultees, including NHS boards, local authorities, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Parliament and members of the Scottish Groups currently taking forward the implementation in Scotland of the White Paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety: The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century. Scottish Implementation Group members were drawn from a wide spectrum of Scottish stakeholders, including the independent sector, following a series of stakeholder events on white paper policies for future regulation.

I understand the UK bodies on the Department of Health''s consultation list included the British Psychological Society and the Association of Educational Psychologists, both of which represent their respective interests across the whole of the UK.

Regulation has also been discussed with education officials at various meetings with Scottish educational psychologists. The consultation closes on 22 March.

The White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century, published in February 2007 and endorsed by all four UK countries, confirmed that, with the exception of the new pharmacy regulator, no new statutory regulators will be established. It also confirmed that psychologists will be regulated by the Health Professions Council.

Whether educational psychologists should be one of the domains of practitioner psychologist to be regulated by the Health Professions Council is a matter currently being consulted on across the UK, including on behalf of the Scottish ministers. The consultation paper on the draft Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Order 2008 confirms the seven domains considered to fit within the definition of practitioner psychologist, and asks whether all them should be statutorily regulated by the Health Professions Council and, if not, which domains should not. The consultation concludes on 22 March 2008, following which the responses will be considered for the final version of the draft Order to be laid for approval by resolution of both the Scottish Parliament and Westminster.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-9612 on 6 March 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The responsibility for the management and delivery of the Scottish curriculum is a matter for education authorities and head teachers, or in the case of independent schools, the boards of governors and head teachers. The Scottish Government's concordat with COSLA includes as a national outcome that our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and successful citizens. It is, therefore, the responsibility of each local authority and schools to consider the contribution that study opportunities such as Holocaust education will make to the national outcome and make them available to pupils within their own funding allocations.

We do not hold data on the number of schools which teach or do not teach pupils on the Holocaust. Currently, schools are encouraged to deliver education using the National 5-14 guidelines, published by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). These programmes offer a number of opportunities for young people to learn about citizenship education, which includes learning about the Holocaust. Curriculum for Excellence will provide opportunities for teachers to use the cross curricular theme of Citizenship education in a variety of different curriculum areas throughout the curriculum. There will also be rich opportunities through the social studies outcomes including the emphasis on the rights and responsibilities of individual and nations, and through the impending Religious Moral Education outcomes to foster the development of values, beliefs and attitudes.

There are no plans to update the Holocaust teaching packs prepared by LTS in 2000 and 2002. However, there are support materials and information on a number of LTS websites which support teaching about the events of the Holocaust. In particular, a key aspect of effective education for citizenship is developing the ability to recognise and respond thoughtfully to values and value judgements that are part of political, economic, social and cultural life.

Holocaust Memorial Day is included on the Enterprise wall planner which is sent to every school in Scotland. The date is also highlighted in e-bulletins which are sent to teachers and local authorities and The Times Educational Supplement Scotland and the LTS online service publicise good practice.