OUR period of self-isolation finally came to an end on Thursday, which meant my daughter got to attend her final day of Primary 2 and I got to have a cup of tea in peace.
I had assumed it would be a dress down day and let her choose her outfit accordingly. When we arrived at the school gates it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t.
Ach well. After a year of disruption I don’t think her teacher will have been too concerned with the non-regulation attire. There is always an "anything goes" sort of vibe on the last day of term, anyway – both for school pupils and for our elected representatives.
Maybe that’s why one Tory MSP decided to treat his desk like a punching bag during Douglas Ross’s opening question to the First Minister at FMQs.
WHACK! WHACK! THUMP! Douglas Ross struggled to be heard over the din.
READ MORE: Tory MSP who removed Gaelic from Holyrood logo appointed education convener
What provoked such a noisy demonstration of approval?
Well, it wasn’t what you would expect. Douglas Ross didn’t begin with a monologue about why he had decided - from the lofty heights of the second-place podium - that indyref2 is democratically unacceptable. He didn’t sing a chorus of that weird One Britain, One Nation song, either.
He started off by thanking teachers for their hard work during what has been an extremely challenging year. Fair enough. No complaints from me. After the relentless agony of home-schooling, I have developed a much greater appreciation for teachers than I had before.
Give them everything. Whisky. A pay rise. A parade. Give them it all and give them it quick – teachers are heroes. But it wasn’t that sentiment that caused the whack-whack-whacking.
It was Douglas Ross’s next comment, that teachers had supported pupils "often with little or no help from this government’’ that brought such glee to the Tory benches.
I don’t know how much help teachers have had or whether it was enough. And, with the fear of having to teach my own child again looming over me, I wouldn’t be so bold as to assume that they don’t have cause for complaint.
Douglas Ross, it seems, has no such qualms about appearing bold or even disingenuous with his line of questioning. Or maybe the party that fought so hard against feeding hungry kids during the school holidays has had a sudden change of heart.
Douglas Ross is right that we should listen to teachers when they say they need extra support from government. But we should also listen to them when they report on the levels of deprivation they see in their classrooms and the impact that has on a child’s learning.
READ MORE: WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon hits back at Tory education claims in noisy FMQs
Anyway, back to FMQs and an increasingly angry Douglas Ross. He said that the Scottish Government had lost its way on education.
"It says one thing and does another! With no real vision for where they’re going or how they get there.’’ On the last day before summer recess, you’d expect the First Minister to have a wee parting dig at the Scottish Tory leader and when the opportunity came she grabbed it with both hands.
"I’m sorry if the complexities of these arguments are sometimes a bit challenging for Douglas Ross’’ she replied.
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