I was delighted to attend the passing out parade of Clackmannanshire’s Police Scotland Youth Volunteers at Lornshill Academy on Sunday.

The programme, which aims to strengthen the relationship with the Police and young people and encourage citizenship skills, has been running in Clackmannanshire for the last year and has been a resounding success.

It was fantastic to join the volunteers to recognise and celebrate the contribution they have made to events such as the Alva Games and the Edinburgh Tattoo.

It gave me great pleasure to officially open Play Alloa’s fantastic new premises a couple of weeks ago.

Play Alloa has been established in Alloa now for 23 years. Firstly as a councillor, and for the last nine years as the local MSP, it has been great to see the organisation expand, grow and develop into what has become such a valued service to the people of Clackmannanshire.

It is clear that a lot of thought and effort has gone into designing the new facilities which I’m sure will provide exciting, new possibilities for Play Alloa and I wish them all the best for the future.

A few weeks ago, children and young people across Clackmannanshire returned to school. I’d like to extend my best wishes to them for the coming academic year and I hope that every single one of them has the opportunity to reach their potential.

For the 26 per cent of our children who are living in poverty in Clackmannanshire this will be more challenging as studies have clearly shown that children growing up in poverty are less likely to do well at school.

However, the SNP is clear that we must never just sit back and accept that these factors make under -attainment in our schools inevitable for some young people.

Since coming to office in 2007 the SNP has worked tirelessly to improve education – pre-school age children now benefit from 600 hours of free childcare, compared to only 412 in 2007 – and we have rebuilt or refurbished 520 schools in the last eight years.

Our primary one children are in smaller classes, more student teachers find permanent employment and more of our young people than ever now leave school and go into work, training or continue with their education.

However, there is no room for complacency. Scotland’s children must be given everything they need to fulfil their full potential in life and the Attainment Scotland Fund is an important step in the right direction.

Clackmannanshire received additional funding of £718,109 to focus on literacy, numeracy and health and well-being in primary schools and I have requested a meeting with the head of education to find out more about how this money will be spent locally to improve outcomes for our children.

I am pleased to confirm that last week I received the unanimous backing of the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane SNP Constituency Association to be their candidate for next year’s Scottish Parliament election. I am extremely grateful to the local party members, old and new, for putting their trust in me.

It has been an honour to represent the people of Clackmannanshire and Dunblane in the Scottish Parliament for the last four-and-a-half years, building on the work I started as the MSP for Ochil and serving as a councillor for Alva prior to that.

My commitment and enthusiasm for this area will never diminish and between now and next May’s Scottish election I will continue to represent my constituents in every way I can.