A new episode of The Brian Taylor Podcast is now available.

In this week's programme, Brian and The Herald's education correspondent John-Paul Holden were joined by Carol Monaghan of the SNP, Professor Stephen Turner of Aberdeen University, Elaine Kerridge, policy manager at Children in Scotland, and Deborah Gallagher, a guidance teacher at Glasgow's Kelvinside Academy.

The expert panel heard powerful testimonies from children across Scotland about their experiences of education during the pandemic, and what they hope will change in the weeks and months to come.

They also discussed confirmed plans for the new term as outlined by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon earlier this week, and looked at the impending vaccinations for 16 and 17-year-olds.

Ms Monaghan, a former physics teacher, was particularly keen to emphasise the potential distress caused by some of the terms and language used in discussions about education approaches.

She said: “I think we as parents or as politicians or as medics, or whatever our role is, have to be quite aware of additional anxieties that we can bring about by using phrases like, you know, children are falling behind on coursework or we need them to catch up. Catch up with what? Catch up with metrics that we have set?”

Her remarks come after a wide-ranging debate about how to secure learning recovery.

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