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How much do we still have to learn about learning? suggests neuroscience should play a bigger role in education policy and teacher training.

Our Brainsmart site is a beginner's guide to the brain, and getting yours to work better. And if learning neuroscience helps to understand the mechanisms of learning and aids teachers in identifying how children learn best in order to maximise their capabilities, it sounds a good thing.

But if, as suggested by of Edinburgh University on yesterday's Good Morning Scotland, learning is all about getting knowledge into your head - and locking it in by using the information, will we be back to drumming things in, learning by rote? Will teachers want that? And is that the best for the ?

Worth catching on Â鶹Éç iPlayer is Michael Morpurgo's Richard Dimbleby Lecture. In his inspirational speech, Set our Children Free, his theme is the rights of children, while urging respect for parents and teachers.

I hadn't heard of before our Authors Live event in June. But from that event and watching talks and interviews with him in our Learning Zone clips, elsewhere on the Â鶹Éç, on , on , and this , I've found him to be an engaging speaker and entertaining storyteller.

In the second half of his impassioned speech he turns his attention to this country. If you can't spare the full 44 minutes, watch from 27 minutes for the question we should be asking, "are we doing the best for our children in schools here at home?". With survival and liberty, education is one of the most fundamental rights of the child. How can we all make a real difference to young lives?

The 35th Richard Dimbleby Lecture will be available on Â鶹Éç iPlayer until Tuesday evening - watch or download it while you can.

Update: You can now watch an extract from Michael Morpurgo's Lecture online, or embed into your own blog.

It seems a flak jacket should be the garment of choice for teachers just now.

There's been a series of attacks on pay and conditions.

First up politicians proposing a - effectively a pay cut as inflation is escalating.

There's to be a review of the McCrone deal.

And is already tackling gains such as and its pay levels.

Now a think tank the - run by a former teacher - is calling on so that in-service days are less disruptive for families.

That suggestion seemed to strike a chord. When my colleague Jackie O'Brien in Inverness interviewed parents outside she found many had already thought about the report they'd first heard about on Â鶹Éç TV and radio that morning. It is unusual to find this level of awareness of an education issue in the news.

Interestingly the straw poll indicated a gender divide. Mothers seemed to be supportive of reorganisation of in-service days while dads indicated the current arrangement is absolutely fine.

McCrone 'disappointed' by teachers' deal outcome

Some of you might remember me talking about the wonderful 'Talkie Time' last year. Well, I'm delighted to tell you that Rodd is back, with more chat and activities for young learners.

The activities in Talkie Time are great for early and first level and and are so much fun that the adults may just get carried away too! You can find extensive clips from Rodd's shows on the Talkie Time page, where they will remain even after the programme is no longer on iPlayer. It will shortly become available too in our Learning Zone clips library, where you can find all of Rodd's previous adventures.

In addition, CBeebies have a site with interactive clips where you can talk to Rodd and help him with all the scrapes he gets himself into. For all the grown ups who just can't get their head around talking to your telly, CBeebies have also provided a handy cheat's guide and video demonstrating how the programme works.

I'd love to hear from any of you who have used Talkie Time at home or in class - we hope you enjoy it and have lots of fun chatting to Rodd.

It will come as no comfort to teachers, parents and politicians protesting about non-teaching staff giving youngsters instruction in sport and the arts that something similar is long established south of the border.

Outdoor education and enterprise are just some of the lessons which may not be delivered by traditional teachers there.

Some want no truck with the principle in Scotland arguing that instruction is likely to be superficial. There's concern untrained teachers may for example address for the most part the most extrovert children in the class or even lack the skills to engage the majority of the class.

Potentially there could be bored or ignored children.

Others argue the injection of new blood from the outside world especially young blood isn't the worst thing that can happen to a school. More than one teacher goes straight into teacher training after completing their own education which limits the experiences they can draw on.

Some teachers don't believe they received substantial training in sport and the arts so may not be totally against someone else taking over those subjects.

But for teaching unions the concern is that the introduction to schools of less well paid instructors makes it more difficult to uphold teachers' pay, conditions and status.

You can watch a discussion on this topic from Sunday's Politics Show Scotland (around 35 minutes in)

Some of you may have noticed a rather in the latest issue of , about an exciting new resource from those nice people at Â鶹Éç Learning Scotland (that'll be us).

is a new sitcom aimed at pre-teens which addresses all those thorny topics around growing up. It's a collaboration, so we're working with , and as well as practitioners across the country to make this a really great resource for the classroom and home. The idea is to tackle these issues but in such an entertaining way that embarrassment levels are kept to a minimum - for pupils and teachers alike!

Keep an eye here on the blog for more updates about Lara and her friends, and we hope you will follow her adventures when the series launches soon.