Good morning Voornaam A slightly cloudy and gloomy start to this Monday but at least we're well on our way to summer. We hope you had a wonderful weekend, and are ready to grab a hot cup of coffee and settle in for today's biggest stories. Leading the news today, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's foreign minister are among those found dead at the site of a helicopter crash after a search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country's northwest, state media has reported. An exclusive from our Education Correspondent next - how a new army of specialist workers is being recruited to help convince a lost generation of youngsters to return to school. It comes as shocking figures published in March showed almost a third of school pupils in Scotland are now persistently absent, meaning they miss more than 10 per cent of sessions. We spoke to Katie Dowd, one of North Lanarkshire’s family engagement support assistants (FESAs). "A lot of children are staying up late watching television, iPads, playing computer games therefore are too tired in the morning to get up for school and parents don’t feel they are strong enough to follow through with getting them up and it is just easier to let them stay off then it becomes a vicious cycle as they continue to turn day into night. “Many of the children either have a diagnosis or are awaiting a diagnosis of autism/ADHD which parents feel can be a barrier in them getting to school." Read more here. Victims of the infected blood scandal have had to wait "far too long" for compensation, a Cabinet minister acknowledged ahead of today’s long-awaited public inquiry report. "The worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS saw tens of thousands of people infected with contaminated blood or blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s. "An estimated 3,000 people have died as a result, while those who survived have lived with life-long health implications, and compensation costs are expected to reach at least £10 billion." A memorial to polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton will travel more than 7,000 thousand miles to Dundee to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The wooden cross from Shackleton’s Hope Point memorial will soon be on display at Discovery Point museum in Dundee, where the Royal Research Ship (RRS) Discovery, which first carried Shackleton to Antarctica in 1901, is kept. Read more about this incredible story here. Don't forget to keep updated with news through out the day with our daily blog. Have a glorious day, From The team at The Scotsman |