Barbara Jane van der Meulen
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growteachers.bsky.social
Barbara Jane van der Meulen
@growteachers.bsky.social
190 followers 130 following 80 posts
FHEA | Teacher and teacher-educator | Researcher and lead author of
education reform policy research https://rse.org.uk/how-does-the-education-reform-agenda-align-wit-scotlands-biggest-priorities/
| Dutch-Scottish hybrid | Views own
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growteachers.bsky.social
Useful & illuminating thread, thanks. And congratulations! Pleased to add I recently treated myself to Drystone and very much look forward to reading it.
December 9, 2025 at 5:08 PM
growteachers.bsky.social
Excellent piece, thank you. Falkirk is way too close for comfort today. Appalling prospect.
December 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
growteachers.bsky.social
So good even I'm watching it!
November 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM
growteachers.bsky.social
Lovely place. Happy memories of a day's horseriding there a few years ago ☺️
November 8, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Barbara Jane van der Meulen
asls.org.uk
‘outwith’: preposition: outside; beyond. A term unique to Scotland.

Revising my visa essay,
applying for three more years
here, I read my own scribbled words:

Comparable opportunities for critical study
do not exist outwith Scotland…

—Katie Ailes, “Outwith”
Glasgow Women Poets, Four-em Press 2016
Outwith Katie Ailes ‘outwith’: preposition: outside; beyond. A term unique to Scotland. Revising my visa essay, applying for three more years here, I read my own scribbled words: Comparable opportunities for critical study do not exist outwith Scotland. Outwith: a term unfamiliar, yet scrawled in my own hand, doubtlessly mine, and I wonder: I came here all rude American brass, all trash can, fanny pack, Where’s the castle? Then Glasgow rolled itself under my tongue, a grey marble lolling my mouth open with Os: Glasgow, Kelvingrove, going to Tesco, then thistling my speech wi sleekit lisps, wee packets a crisps, my lips like the lids of those glass bottles of sand I used to collect from every beach: my mouth a shore holding each grain that altered the flow of my speech, my pen flowing ‘s’ into the cursive waves of ‘socialised,’ ‘civilised,’ ‘acclimatised,’ answering Aye! by accident then smiling. I may be from out but I am now with.
November 4, 2025 at 12:42 PM
growteachers.bsky.social
Great place. Your book's on my list!
November 4, 2025 at 1:45 PM
growteachers.bsky.social
Have been trying to follow this and trying to understand what went wrong with the bid for CS funding last year. We love the Lanternhouse & would be very sad to see it close.
September 30, 2025 at 7:46 PM