AN item for the “there’s always one” file. Only days into the great lockdown and some people are just not coping. Take the holidaymaker – British, of course – who decided she would flout the rules and have a dip at Paradise Park in Tenerife.

ONE of the few benefits of living in the Unprecedented Era is having the chance to experience life at another time and in a different place.

EVERY crime fiction fan will be familiar with the good cop-bad cop routine. One officer is friendly with a suspect to secure their cooperation, the other plays hard ball; one cop is a stickler for the rules, the other is a maverick.

OKAY, the tale that follows is not exactly up there with the yarns spun by those Florentines fleeing the plague in The Decameron, but bear with me. It is hard to be a Ustinov-standard raconteur when that big wide world you took for granted has shrunk to the size of an egg.

HOW does an opposition oppose without appearing to oppose for opposition’s sake? That is the tricky situation in which Labour now finds itself as the death toll from coronavirus reaches a horrific new high.

WHILE watching the daily Downing Street press conferences it is possible to feel a range of emotions. Frustration, for instance, as one inquiry after another goes unanswered, or disappointment at the quality of the questioning.

STRANGE things you never thought would come to pass. Queueing to enter a supermarket. Being thrilled by the sight of the bin lorry arriving. Making your own surgical mask. These days. But the oddest thing of all? Being glad to see politicians.

ONE trusts the stork’s passage across London was peaceful, its job of delivering Baby Johnson to his delighted parents made easier by the emptiness of the skies. Congratulations and welcome, young man.

HELLO and welcome to Step on a Rake, the game show where clever people do dumb things. Previous winners of the show have included Catherine “Second Home” Calderwood, Scotland’s former chief medical officer, and Robert Jenrick, England’s well-travelled Communities Minister.

Crave pragmatic, honest, clear-eyed conversation about the realities of ed tech? Here's a reading list from Education Week, as presented at ISTE 2019.

Effective management approaches are not skills principals typically learn through the traditional pathways of education. To fill the gap, they are turning to business programs and publications.

Teachers say the technology ecosystems they experience in their schools are largely characterized by incremental, rather than transformational, changes.

Industry observers attribute the rise to heightened interest in ed-tech initiatives, decreasing technology costs, and the move to Common Core standards.

A new nonprofit that will convene technology experts from across business, nonprofit, government, and education sectors will begin its big-picture problem solving in the educational arena.

The resignation is the latest change for the educational software giant, which is facing increasing competition in selling learning-management systems to schools and colleges.

"Folks in some foundations are quietly expressing frustration that they've been cautioned to stay in their lane and only fund things aligned with their pre-COVID strategy," says Stacey Childress.

FIRST it was Bond, then Peter Rabbit, followed by The Secret Garden. Due to the coronavirus crisis, film distributors have been pulling movies from the schedules left, right and centre and postponing their releases till later in the year.

RADIOACTIVE (12A)

WHILE we may not be able to venture far from home in the coming weeks, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the wonders of Scotland – city skylines, beaches, mountains, woodland and rugged wilderness – safely from the comfort of our sofas.

The Conversation

“THE little island of Todday is a completely isolated community,” declares the voiceover at the start of the 1949 Ealing Studios classic Whisky Galore. “100 miles from the mainland, 100 miles from the nearest cinema or dancehall. Oh, but the islanders know how to enjoy themselves. They have all that they need. But in 1943, disaster overwhelmed this little island. Not famine, nor pestilence, nor Hitler’s bombs, or the hordes of an invading army, but something far, far worse: ‘There is n

FOOTBALLERS are performers, we all know that. But can they tackle a film script? Can they find the head space to turn out a tricky line on a crowded set? And what of football managers? Can they take to acting? We’ve long believed them to have the ego of an oligarch and to make the demands of a dictator. Does any of this suggest those born to kick balls around a park can turn their hand to thespianism?

LIKE many of your readers, I would imagine, I am a fairly enthusiastic armchair football supporter with no real club affiliation.

NEIL Mackay (“Johnson? Sturgeon? When it comes to coronavirus they are both the same”, The Herald, May 5) lambasts Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson for both taking an almost identical approach in their fight against Covid-19, somehow implying that this is in itself a fault.

IT is good to see that one of your readers, R Russell Smith, has been enjoying our wildlife and fresh air, having “walked over fields and alongside the burn close to home, enjoying the sunshine and company of lambs gambolling” (Herald letters, May 5).

YOU report (HeraldScotland, May 5) that Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the UK government’s key advisers on the current lockdown restrictions, has resigned after breaching the government (and his own) strong advice on the need for social distancing.

BEING a full-time, voluntary, unpaid carer, since November 2018, for my wife, who has dementia, I would like to ask a question of the Scottish Government, especially Jeane Freeman, the health secretary.

New findings on a state initiative in Wisconsin suggest that to make the most out of smaller class sizes in the early grades, teachers should focus on basic skills when they have one-on-one contact with students, ask children to discuss and demonstrate what they know, and have a firm, but nurturing,

Gov. Jeb Bush has warned that Florida won't meet class-size limits without taking such steps as expanding private school vouchers, lifting restrictions on the number of charter schools, and moving to year-round schedules.

Keeping preschool class sizes at or under 20 children, and keeping child-teacher ratios at 10 to 1, will work for most children in preschool, according to a new study.

Continuing increases in K-12 enrollment, a downturn in higher education enrollment, and a rise in cyberbullying are among the trends illustrated in two new statistical publications from the U.S. Department of Education.

Hundreds of teachers across the Sacramento Unified school district walked out of their classrooms and onto picket lines last week for the first time in 30 years, staging a one-day strike alleging unfair labor practices by the California district.

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210.”

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210.”

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210.

When the ruthless crime boss and Mafia Godfather Sam Giancana was gunned down in Illinois in 1975, he was quickly replaced by yet another murderous protégé from the Chicago Crime Syndicate, Tony Accardo.

Balls up

Head boy

Dried up talent

Force or farce?

Hot air

In a recent high-profile case, Harvard College rescinded its offer to a school-shooting survivor after racist comments he’d written online surfaced. But how common is it for colleges to take back offers? And do students have any recourse?

For the first time in 40 years, the percentage of black 18- to 24-year-olds with a high school credential was nearly the same as that of their white peers, data from the National Center for Education Statistics show, but racial gaps remain for earning an on-time diploma.

Supporters of the bill say it would extend critical civil rights protections to more students. But opponents say it ignores parents' rights in schools and could lead to confusing situations for some children.

Amid public concerns about school safety fueled by high-profile school shootings, new federal data show reports of student fights, bullying, and other forms of victimization have continued a decades-long decline.

Martha Caldwell, Oman Frame, Terry Roller, Dr. Kris Felicello, John Seborowski, Jessica Hannigan, John Hannigan and Kelly Wickham Hurst share their suggestions for combating bullying.

The highly polarizing 2016 Presidential campaign blitzed the swing state of Virginia. And in the year that followed, a new study in the journal Educational Researcher suggests school bullying problems likewise split along political lines.

Amid public concerns about school safety fueled by high-profile school shootings, new federal data show reports of student fights, bullying, and other forms of victimization have continued a decades-long trend of decline. At the same time, schools have ramped up security measures, like the use of ca

The new question of the week is: How can teachers and administrators best address bullying in school?