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Technologies that will change how we live, work, play and learn (3 of 5): On-line translator tools

This is a third of five posts where I will talk about some technologies that may change how we live, work and play. They are personal opinion and I could very well be wrong. I mention them sometimes in conference presentations and workshops and wanted to describe my thinking more in this series of short posts.

The third technology that I think will change how we live, work, play and learn is on-line translator tools. I first talked about this in my keynote at the Aberdeenshire Glow Champion Event in May 2010. Let me explain my thinking.

Do you recognize this?

It’s a babel fish. You might remember it from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (I still think the original BBC radio show was best…. but I digress!). The babel fish was a fish that you could put into your ear and then when people spoke to you in a different language the fish would translate what ever they said into English (or your first language).

Anyway, software has been around for years that claims to translate between languages. But Google translate is a good example of a piece of free web based software that actually works and it works really well.

For example this is a screenshot of the Microsoft France website:


This is what it looks like when you run it though Google Translate:

It is almost 100% accurate. Now you might be thinking that Microsoft would just re-direct to their UK version of the page. So, I tried it again with an article on Julien Llanas blog that I was interested in reading (but it was in French).

The original article is here:

And the translated article is here:




Now I know that neither of the translations are perfect but they are good enough and they certainly make the text accessible to me as a non-French speaker (and reader!). It is not just Google who have on-line translator tools Bing Translate from Microsoft is also really good!

So where am I going with this? Well Google translate can translate English into 56 other languages (and this number continues to grow). The accuracy of the translations varies depending on the language but I would say that they are all at least 60% accurate. There will be some people that say that, ‘they are only 60% accurate’ but I would say that is still 60% of 56 languages that I couldn’t read or write before… It really is amazing when you think about it – what a tool!

But it doesn’t just stop there. What if you are in a restaurant in Germany and you want to find out what something is on the menu? Well from reading the above we know that you could type it into Google Translate but that takes a bit of time. If you had an Android powered phone you can take a picture of the menu and then using the Google Goggles App select the text on the photograph that you want to translate and Google will do the rest. It is very impressive and very quick.

Of course, if you read the second post in this series on voice input to text for the mobile you will already be thinking about what comes next.

We have the capacity to speak into a mobile device and for it to turn that into text, we have the capacity to turn the text into a near translation of (currently) 56 different languages, we have had screen reader software for years. How long will it be before I can speak into my mobile in English and you can listen to me in French?

The answer is not long. In fact you can already do it (see video from Microsoft Research Asia below) – its just a bit slow and not as accurate as it could be just yet. But, as I have tried to emphasize throughout this series the technology will get smaller, quicker and cheaper. The important thing about the technology is that as soon as it does become available and robust (6 – 18 months) everyone with a smart phone will have access to it for free.

What’s my point? Well first of all I am not trying to suggest that this will be the end to modern languages teaching in school. I still think there is a place for this and I still think that children should be given the opportunity to learn a different language if they want to. I am sure that some modern language teachers and other educators will agree on this point.

But what I do think we need to be thinking about is how will we explain to children that learning a second language is important? How will we motivate them when they can just pick up their phone and translate their own spoken word into a number of different languages? When does this technology become part of a business education or enterprise course?

Importantly, at what point will we start to use these wonderful tools in school to help get children and young people to not just learn another language but to learn about each other? At what point will we realize that conversation can reduce conflict for future generations and that language is currently a barrier to these important conversations, these important collaborations and probably solving some of the words most difficult problems.

As with the rest of this series – I may well be wrong.

What do you think?

Technologies that will change how we live, work, play and learn (2 of 5): Voice to text recognition (for mobile)

This is a second of five posts where I will talk about some technologies that may change how we live, work and play. They are personal opinion and I could very well be wrong. I mention them sometimes in conference presentations and workshops and wanted to describe my thinking more in this series of short posts.

The second technology that I think will change how we live, work, play and learn is voice to text software for mobile devices. I first talked about this in my Learning and Teaching Scotland Literacy Co-coordinators keynote presentation in February 2010. Let me explain my thinking.

If we consider the history of human communication it probably evolved something like this:

• We learned to communicate verbally
• We developed written language
• We developed electronic communication (with a keyboard)
• We developed smaller more ubiquitous forms of electronic communication with mobile (keyboard input changed)
• And now we are in a situation where mobile devices (computers) can be controlled by voice

Of course, technology manufacturers have been working on software that allows you to speak into a computer and then it turns your voice into text for years. I first started using it properly when I had my first Windows tablet PC back in 2005. I wrote a set of school reports by speaking into the software rather than typing them by hand. It took a long time because the software wasn’t particularly robust at the time – but in the end I eventually achieved my goal.

Speech to text software is not new to education it have been used in special educational needs for many years. The problem in the past with a lot of this software is that it is not always particularly reliable and it can also be very expensive. But like any technology it gets cheaper and more reliable over time.

For example, I first wrote about Google Voice Search for my iPhone back in November 2008 and now there are a number of apps that allow you to speak into your phone and they transcribe your words into text. Dragon Dictation for the iPhone (available in the US) is just one example of this.

Now, here is the interesting thing. Android powered mobile phones have voice to text recognition software already built in – this was first live demoed with the Nexus One mobile phone handset. Have a look at the video showing voice input for Android in action below:

Also, Android Powered Mobile phones outsold the iPhone OS in the US during the first quarter of 2010. One of the reasons for this is probably because Android phones are cheaper and they compare very well to the iPhone in terms of performance and functionality.

 

(Source)

I am quite sure that we will see a wide new range of Android mobile phones available for Christmas 2010 and all of them will have the built in voice input to text recognition.

 So what does this mean? Well, I’m not sure. But I know that very soon whether it is an android powered phone, an iPhone or a Windows phone most smart phones will have the capacity to translate the spoken word to text with a high degree of accuracy (in fact they can already do this).

If we accept that most mobile devices will be smart phones in the not to distant future and we also accept that most young people in Europe, North America, Australia, parts of Asia and a lots of other places in the world have mobile phones. Then we must also accept that it won’t be long until young people realize that they only have to speak into their devices to get them to write for them.

What’s my point – well if you’re a teacher and you currently struggle to get the children in your care to write with a pen or a pencil. Then it is going to be even harder post Christmas 2010 when lots more children have devices like I have described above and will be even less motivated to write with a pen or a pencil.

Technology like 'voice input' adds to the debate of why we get children to write with a pen or pencil in the first place. One of the reasons that we do in the United Kingdom, whether we like it or not, is because that is how we test children at the end of high school. They sit down and do written exams – but why else do we teach the process of writing with a pen or pencil and is this still as important as it once was?

What seems clear to me is that never before in the history of communication during the last 100 years has it been even more important than ever to make sure children have a real grasp of the spoken language. This is one of the reasons why I am delighted that our radical new curriculum in Scotland includes the spoken word as a type of ‘text’. Thank goodness it does as it is the only way, that I can think of, to really future proof language.

As with all of the posts in this series, I could be wrong about the above. I don’t know what the answer is and I don't think we can stop or should even want to stop this evolution in technology. But I do think we should, as educators, be thinking about how technology such as voice to text smart phones may impact on teaching and learning (in both a positive and negative way).

I think this will be a significant paradigm shift in the way children engage with text and we are within 12 months of the tipping point for secondary / high school students and maybe 24 – 36 months away from the tipping point for elementary / primary school children. Teachers and leaders in schools need to be ready embrace change and not be reactive to it or fight it (you will loose). Soon most children will have one of these devices and we can't stop it. Things are about to move very quickly, are you, your school and your authority ready?

What do you think?

Reflections from the 2010 #EducationShow (4 of 10) – Stephen Heppell’s Cool Schools

This is the forth in a series of ten posts about my recent visit to the 2010 Education Show in Birmingham. They document some of the products that I saw, liked and enjoyed from the exhibition.

I admit to being a huge fan of Stephen Heppell’s work and I really admire all of the interesting things that he is doing at the moment around school design. Stephen had a exhibition space in the middle of the 2010 Education Show titled ‘Cool Schools’ – the space was used to showcase some interesting furniture, for a series of presentations on school design and to listen to students present from a variety of schools.

I went to see the second presentation on school design on the Thursday and really enjoyed looking at some of the great pictures of schools buildings of projects that Stephen has been involved in over recent years. A lot of the thinking is incredibly practical, sustainable and innovative and puts many Scottish new builds to shame.

Some of the examples he showed included:

Hellerup School, Copenhagen, Denmark

Key design characteristics: Lack of corridors, lots of open space, wide stairway doubles up as a lecture theatre and a skateboard track around the outside of the school!

TK Park, Bangkok, Thailand

Key design characteristics: The Thai Knowledge (TK) Park sits on the top floor of a shopping mall in Bangkok and is open for all ages whenever the shops are open. The library area (shown above) has proved a hit with young readers who need to climb up to access the books they want to read. The tough books are at the top, crash mats are at the bottom!

Saltire Centre, Caledonian University, Glasgow

Not a school but the Salture centre in Glasgow also got a mention. If you are Scottish education and you have not been to visit the Saltire Centre you must go and have a look at it. It really is a fabulous space to learn in and just be in really! Like some other learning spaces that Stephen showed it sometimes makes use of inflatable rooms to which can quickly and cheaply turn larger spaces into more intimate places for project work and quiet discussion.
The above images come from the postcards that Stephen produced for the 2007 BETT Show you can find more examples of innovative school design and details of these projects over on Heppell.net

After his talk I managed to get an opportunity to chat with Stephen and we talked about schools design, his new Portland Academy and possible models of future teacher education.

We finished our conversation by both enthusiastically agreeing on one very important thing. The next ten years is going to be more exciting than ever for UK education and learning!

Wikipedia, schools and the BBC - a response to tonight’s BBC Scotland Radio Broadcast

My thoughts on Wikipedia and its use in schools has been getting some in interesting press just recently. My original thoughts were posted here after the Handheld Learning Conference in London.
This article together with my presentation at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Annual Conference in October resulted in a nice piece in the Times Educational Supplement Scotland. I made some comments about the TESS piece just so I could clarify a couple of points. Overall I was very happy with it and I did say the things that were highlighted.

The TESS article was then used by Cara Sulieman to write a piece for Deadline Scotland. Unfortunately, I felt this piece missed the point. I’ve contacted Deadline and explained to them that I would be willing to do an extended interview – but they haven’t got back to me yet!

Anyway, I had just got back home tonight when I picked up a ‘tweet’ that said they were talking about me on BBC Radio Scotland. I tuned in but missed all but the last minute or so. I’ve now had a chance to re-listen to the piece on iPlayer.

The BBC didn’t mention me by name – but I’m well known enough for people to join up the dots. I think it’s a real shame and unprofesional of the BBC that they didn’t contact me for my opinion because actually they have completely missed the point in what I consider to be a poor piece of journalism. You can listen to it here and tell me what you think

I have written a rough transcript from the programme below. It may be slightly inaccurate as I just typed it as I was listening. I have also then inserted my own comments.

Anyway, it went something like this:


BBC: "Depute Head teacher from Musselburgh says that pupils should be encouraged to use the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia despite its inaccuracies".

OB Comment: That is actually not quite what I said. You can read the extended piece here.

The BBC Introduce Oliver Kamm (Times columnist) who recently defined Wikipedia as 'vain, glorious amateurism'. They ask him what he thinks is wrong with Wikipedia.

NOTE: for the record - I enjoy Oliver Kamm's articles on the Times on-line (although he would probably argue that the on-line version is not as good as the printed version :-)) . But I think he was misinformed and badly briefed by the BBC.

Carrying on:

Kamm: "What’s so wrong with it is not so much the balance between accurate articles and articles that are self- promoting rubbish. Wikipedia makes no distinction between someone who has knowledge and are competent to comment or if you are just someone off the street".

OB Comment: This gets us back to age old debate of knowledge, what is knowledge and who has the expertise to write articles? The person ‘off the street’ might actually write a really good Wikipedia article – particularly if it was about their street. You see Wikipedia caters for niche markets as well as the big issues and articles. That is one of the reasons why it is so big.

Kamm: "The problem is that knowledge is democratic in the sense that no one has the last word. But its not democratic in the sense that anyone can join in".

OB Comment: Depends of your definition of knowledge. Why can’t anyone join in? The more people that join in, the larger the debate we have and the more conversation we share with each other, the more we contribute to the growth and understanding of knowledge.

Kamm: "Wikipedia doesn’t encourage people with real competence to express their expertise".

OB Comment: Yes it does Wikipedia encourages anyone to comment – even people with errrmmm….’knowledge?’

Kamm: "It’s [Wikipedia] certainly fresh in the sense that it doesn’t distinguish between total rubbish and genuine expertise. But that doesn’t contribute to the sum of knowledge".

OB Comment: Do the disclaimers that are littered all over Wikipedia not contribute to this?

Surely it flags up when something might be ‘rubbish’ with text boxes saying things like "The factual accuracy is disputed' - 'This article contradicts another article' - 'This article contradicts itself' - 'This article reads like an advertisement' -'This article needs additional citation for verification"

Anyway, if you find something that is not actuate in your opinion, why don’t you have a look at the discussion tab, collaborate with the on-line community and then edit the article?

Kamm: "If the teacher, the Deputy Head Master (that’s me by the way!) who is encouraging his pupils to look at Wikipedia is unconcerned about that distinction then I’m slightly worried about it".

OB Comment: Really sorry you were poorly briefed by the BBC about my original article. My point is that because children use Wikipedia and because we can’t make it go away, WE SHOULD be teaching them to use it responsibly, rather than giving no guidance at all on its use. If we give no guidance at all they are likely to believe anything that they read. I actually think we probably agree on this point?

Kamm: "There is no equivalent on-line resource to my knowledge that is as reliable as your standard printed encyclopedia. There used to be a great printed encyclopedia by Columbia. Proper scholarly works written for a non specialist audience such as school pupils are the right way to imbibe and encourage knowledge".

OB Comment: Yes there is? If you really want  ‘scholarly works’ what about an on-line version of a traditional encyclopedia? For example Britannica on-line? Surely on-line is better than printed because it is kept more current and up to date?

Kamm: "What I would like educators to do is to encourage school pupils and students at university to approach critically the resources that they use and to be aware that only things that can be properly checked and researched are reliable knowledge. Wikipedia doesn’t discriminate between different types of user and that’s what worries me".

OB Comments: I completely disagree. Wikipedia can be properly checked and researched but it doesn’t mean that it is reliable, refuting the point about reliability being guaranteed through the checking of sources.  I do of course agree  that we need to teach school children to critically approach sources – that’s why I wrote the article on Wikipedia in the first place. We need to teach learners to use Wikipedia properly and to do their best to verify all the sources that they use.

I actually like the fact that anyone can edit Wikipedia and I’ve already acknowledged that this brings associated difficulties. I like the fact that knowledge doesn’t have to be elitist.

The interview went on a bit longer. But I think I’ll leave it at that.

I wonder if the BBC will get in touch now and ask me for my opinion? They presented a rather one-sided, biased argument that if it was a Wikipedia article would be unlikely to come up to standard and would be flagged as a concern…

By the way Oliver and I have already made our peace over on his blog.

Wikipedia is good for pupils and teachers: TESS Article - November 2009

At a number of recent conference and staff training events I have been speaking about Wikipedia in schools. Many of my thoughts on this are based on my original post that I wrote back following the 2009 Handheld Learning Festival. You can read the full article in more detail here.

On Friday in the Times Education Supplement Scotland there was an article about some of this work.  This was partly related to some of the things that I was talking about during my keynote and workshop at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Annual Conference.

The article is reproduced here for reference purposes. I have made some comments about what I think about his article at the bottom of the post.

____________________________

Wikipedia is good for pupils and teachers

News | Published in TESS on 20 November, 2009 | By: Elizabeth Buie

Scotland’s games-based learning guru Ollie Bray has challenged the orthodoxy that teachers should shun Wikipedia as a reference source in the classroom.

Mr Bray, depute head of Musselburgh Grammar, who is currently seconded to Learning and Teaching Scotland as national adviser for emerging technologies in learning, argues not only that pupils be allowed access to it in their lessons, but that teachers use it to show pupils how to evaluate the reliability and credibility of information.

Speaking at this year’s conference of the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers, he said teaching pupils to use and evaluate articles on the online encyclopaedia, written and edited by millions of users globally, fitted with Level 3 literacy outcomes in A Curriculum for Excel lence. These require pupils to look at techniques in assessing sources and reliability of information.

Although many teachers and academics criticise Wikipedia for lacking reliability and accuracy, and favouring consensus over credentials in its editorial process, Mr Bray claims teachers can’t stop pupils using it at home, so it is better to teach them to use it responsibly.

Wikipedia flags up entries which contradict each other, he says. “We, as teachers, should be looking at these disclaimers and working with young people to discuss why articles are disputed or contradict themselves. If we start with the belief that everything is subject to opinion, then we can work on how to validate it.”

He suggests teachers and pupils study the “discussion”, “source” and “history” tabs on the website. The discussion area will show pupils the extent of debate that goes on to find compromise in a disputed area, while the editing tab will allow them to contribute to the discussion and increase their knowledge.

Teaching how to use Wikipedia should fall into the same category as internet safety and responsible use of technology, says Mr Bray. When people talk about “inappropriate content” on the web, it’s about sexual or racist content, but it should also include biased information, he believes. “There is extreme content on the internet, but kids only find it because they go looking for it.”

Teachers should be teaching pupils how to validate where knowledge comes from, says Mr Bray.

Pupils should also be entitled to use sites such as YouTube, he argues, but the picture is “very mixed” when it comes to allowing teachers and pupils to access them. His authority, East Lothian Council, has unblocked YouTube access for teachers and pupils, he says; some authorities block it for both, some for pupils only, and others allow staff to view it after 4pm.

A debate is necessary, he argues, about which approach is right.

Economic factors are also involved, he says: “Why is it fair that children in East Lothian can get access to hundreds of hours on Channel 4, National Geographic or the Scottish Parliament, when other schools and teachers have not got access to these resources?"

“It means that children don’t get to benefit from it, or the teacher or head has to spend a lot of time copying the resources, or the department has to spend time procuring resources which are available for free.”

____________________________

Overall I am happy with the piece – after all I did say these things (plus a lot more) at a recent conference!

I would just to clarify a couple of points:

• I don’t consider myself a games based learning guru – but I have had some success in using technology (including computer games) in the classroom.

• I have no evidence to suggest that some education authorities block or filter Wikipedia BUT I know a number of schools, departments and teachers who frown upon its use. YouTube is a different matter and I’ll come back to that in a separate post.

• Although I think that appropriate use of Wikipedia fits the Level 3 outcomes of A Curriculum for Excellence – I also think that its use is equally important in the level 2 and level 4 outcomes as well.

• I think its important to clarify my statement “There is extreme content on the internet, but kids only find it because they go looking for it.” – I’m not saying that sometimes children do not come across inappropriate content by accident BUT I am saying the research shows that many young people do go looking for inappropriate content – see BBC article here

• Finally, I’ll come back to YouTube is a separate post.

I would welcome any comment on the above, either below, by email or on the TESS website.

Meeting Greg Whitby

After work today I got to spend a few hours with Greg Whitby I was really impressed with Greg’s style, philosophy and passion for education. I left the session feeling very inspired (and that’s not a word I use very often).

Like many others I first came across Greg in this short YouTube video – if you have not seen it is well worth a look:


Since then I have followed his blog and more recently followed Greg on Twitter.

A bit more background on Greg:

Greg Whitby is the pioneering Executive Director of Schools in the Diocese of Parrammatta, in Western Sydney, and leads a system of approximately 80 Catholic schools. He has 30 years combined experience in K-12 schooling and senior system leadership.
 
In recognising the critical link between good teaching practice and student learning outcomes, Greg is working to build the capacity of school leaders and teachers through a whole-of-system approach to professional learning.
 
 As a regular speaker at national and international conferences, Greg talks about the key areas underpinning a new model of schooling for today’s world:  de-privatising teacher practice, personalising student learning and ICTs as enablers to facilitate deep learning.   
 
In 2007, he was named the most innovative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its annual SMART 100 awards.  Greg has also been awarded an ACEL Presidential Citation for his contribution to Australian education.   

 

So what was Greg’s message?

Greg spent two hours with a group of us at the LTS offices in Glasgow and we were joined by other practitioners from all over Scotland in a flashmeeting.

I took a number of things from his presentation including:

• Lots of young people are disengaged from their learning

• To overcome disengagement we need to search for relevance

• We have spent the last 20th Century perfecting 19th centaury learning (quoted Stephen Heppell here)

• We need to start asking big questions about learning and the structure of learning. For example why do all children start school at the same age? Does the class you end up in dictate where you end up? How much do school timetables kill creativity?

• The whole next version of the web will be a mash up

• We have good schools but we are victims of the past when it comes to school improvement.

• What’s the point of a classroom of the future or  school of the future? We want a classroom of today!

• If you want success you have to un-lock the timetable.

• I [Greg] expect all of my schools to be extremely diverse.

• We need to develop systems that allow us to take action as things happen.

• Students learning is what makes the biggest difference

• The focus of technology should be on teachers learning as well as students learning

• Good leadership involves the making or courageous decisions

• Use the wisdom of the crowds (teachers, parents and most importantly students) to drive forward school improvement

• All of our children and staff are allowed to use facebook, youtube, my space etc… But it is important to have robust network security and tracking.

• Teachers feel under valued because they are always being told how to improve.

• Our leaders have to be leaders in pedagogy

If you are interested in what Greg had to say – why don’t you listen to his presentation on the flashmeet re-play.

Changing Youth Culture: what does this mean for schools?

At the recent South Ayrshire Building Windmills Conference for all of their headteachers I referred to some perceptions of modern day youth culture. In particular I referenced data that was collected by QTX on behalf of channel 4  earlier this year.

It’s representative of a significant sample of 12 – 24 year olds across the UK (although I forget how big the sample size was).

 Key points from the study were as follows:

•  They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)
• They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV
• 25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access”
• A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time
• They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces
• And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC

I think this data is interesting for schools and the emerging nature of education.

If you believe the data is reprehensive, perhaps school leaders should be asking themselves the following questions?

• Do you know how your students interact with technology?
• Do you know the amount of children in your school who have access to the Internet at home? How will you collect this data?
• Do you know how the young people in your school can access the Internet?
• Should students be allowed to multi task in lessons?
• Is the definition of an on-line ‘friend’ the same as a traditional ‘friend’? Is this changing definition important for schools and responsible internet use?

Is this data important to schools? Should we ignore it? What do you think?

Coming Soon to a Car Park Near You!

At Musselburgh Grammar School we have a number of visually impaired students. I’ve written about our Braille Room before – a fascinating place to visit if anyone is ever in the school. 

Traditional PE can sometimes be difficult for visually impaired students so we are always looking for more ways to become more inclusive. As a result of this we recently gained funding to buy two tandem bikes that we hope to start using within our Health and Wellbeing Curriculum.

Last night after school we gave the new bike a test drive – I think this is going to be a great activity!

Classical Comics: Mabeth and Henry V - Now in electronic form

This year I will be continuing my work on the use of Graphic Novels in Education and this project will form one of the A Curriculum for Excellence Development Groups at Musselburgh Grammar School for next session.

I’ve spoken about Comic Life before and one interesting new product that will really compliment this is a combined initiative from Classical Comics and RM. As I have mentioned before I love the work of Classical Comics and I think their work really brings Shakespeare to life. Now two of the titles from Classical Comics (Macbeth and Henry V) are available in electronic form. You can get all three versions of the book as electronic .pdf’s.

The three versions are:

Original text version: Ideal for purists, students and readers who will appreciate the unaltered text.

Plain text: The full text made more accessible by the translation into modern English.

Quick text: The full play in comic book form, translated into modern English and with less dialogue for a faster paced read.

As the file format is as a .pdf it would be possible to project the text onto a whiteboard for whole class teaching. Students could follow using either a printed copy of the text or their own copy on a laptop of handheld computer (eg: their phone).

One other interesting version of the books that is available is a ‘no text’ version. This is where Comic Life will really come into its own for students to develop their own commentary and creative writing around an fantastic visual stimulus.

Anyway those kind people at RM and Classical Comics have been kind enough to send me a few electronic copies of Macbeth and I look forward to trying it out with the schools English Department and students at MGS over the coming months.

Watch this space for up-dates!

Scottish Education Awards 2007

I was in Glasgow today at the 2007 Scottish Education Awards, sponsored by the Daily Record. Musselburgh Grammar School had been short listed for the ‘Schools for All’ Award. In the end Dundonald Primary took the final trophy but it was a real privilege to make it to the top three schools and we had a great day. We also really appreciated the £500 prize money for getting this far and the goody bags!

The event was exceptionally well organised and along with the three students that I took with me, we had a great time. The ceremony was slick, the music was excellent, the lunch was great and guy inside the big green balloon was entertaining (and just a little strange!).

One other great bit of news for East Lothian is that Ann McLanachan Head teacher from Longniddry Primary School was given the lifetime achievement award.