It’s that time again when we at Tes Scotland decide on our 10 people of the year (although our definition of “people” is fairly broad, as you’ll discover).

Our entries reflect big talking points and some of the most popular articles in Tes Scotland this year, from subject choices to adverse childhood experiences, from teddy bears to calendar boys, from pupil voice to revamping the curriculum, from kindness to cruelty.

But, in an era of austerity, our person of the year could not be more timely. “Debbie”, a single mum struggling to make ends meet, provided a coruscating reminder that success in education is about so much more than great classroom teaching.

People of the Year: Tes Scotland’s person of the year

A pupil writes: ‘Children must be freed from the curriculum’s chokehold’

Listen: What is the quality that every teacher needs?

And here, below, is the rest of our top 10, in no particular order. To read more about each one, see the new issue of Tes Scotland magazine, out today, and look out for online profiles of each nominated person at tes.com/news in the coming days. 

Tes Scotland’s people of the year 2019

Harriet Sweatman: The pupil whose essay about the curriculum’s “chokehold” on children went viral.

Furball: One of the army of teddy bears deployed at three West Lothian schools, whose presence symbolised changing attitudes to issues such as “adverse childhood experiences” in Scotland

Jim Scott: The researcher and former secondary head whose analysis of attainment data led to furious debate about the state of Scottish education.

Chris Smith: The inspiring maths teacher whose passion for his subject reaches right around the world.

Robert Acker Holt: A Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis and died in 2018, he has now - in Glasgow schools - inspired the first initiative of the Kindness Movement, a timely attempt to counteract more negative impulses rife in the world in 2019.

Greta Thunberg: The Swedish schoolgirl who is transforming the way people think about climate change.

Kirsty Robb: The scientist who is fighting against superbugs after having taken the all-too-often overlooked articulation route from college to university, and has become the first inductee into the College Hall of Fame.

Beth Morrison: The campaigner against the use of restraint on children in schools, whose efforts over many years paid off this week.

Calendar boys: The brave Dumfries and Galloway staff whose naked forms adorned college walls and raised money for a cancer charity.