Meeting of the Parliament 04 March 2026 [Draft]
I will come to the points that Mr Rennie has addressed in his motion, but I have more praise for him first, which it is important for him to hear.
I am also grateful to Willie Rennie for his collegiate contributions to the cross-party review of additional support needs, particularly his suggestion that the Government convene a national event with practitioners to learn from and to share examples of what is working well in our schools. That event will be held next Thursday, when we will publish the cross-party review into additional support needs.
Finally, I am grateful to Willie Rennie for the final few words in today’s motion, which state:
“Scottish education deserves better.”
I think that we can all agree on that, because, across the political divide, we should all be thinking radically about the ways in which we intend to drive the improvements that I accept are required urgently in our schools, and we should be commending the progress that is being made right now in our classrooms.
Last Friday, I was pleased to visit Kinross high school to see for myself the difference that extra funding for additional support needs has made in that school. I was grateful to Jude for teaching me more about the unicorns and the history of Scotland, although I am not sure that I will be picking up boccia professionally any time soon.
The intensive support provision in Kinross high school is an excellent example of how tailored supports can be provided to school staff appropriately. There is, for example, classroom-level additional support needs provision, a principal teacher for inclusion and a bespoke intensive support provision unit for pupils with the greatest need. Importantly, all that work is happening in a mainstream setting, and it is being enhanced and supported because of extra funding that was provided by last year’s Scottish Government budget.
I put on record my praise again today for the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats for their support of last year’s budget, which has made that investment possible. I also want to thank them for their positive behaviour in relation to teacher numbers, because, in the past year alone, teacher numbers have increased for the first time since 2022, thanks to extra investment from last year’s budget flowing to our councils. That investment is helping to support a record low pupil teacher ratio and smaller class sizes in our primary schools.