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This week, the latest stage in the rebrand of the SQA got underway. We are now, officially, expected to use the name ‘Qualifications Scotland’.

The people in charge are still trying to convince us that this isn’t a rebrand, but rather the birth of an entirely “new organisation”, one that has been – to use the phrase that has popped up on their press releases – built ‘from the ground up’.

So before going any further, let’s just deal with this once and for all.

It is obviously untrue to claim that Qualifications Scotland is a new organisation, and the more its leadership – and some politicians – say otherwise, the more ridiculous they look.

Almost all of the same people are doing almost all of the same jobs as they were before. The organisation has all the same powers that it had before. It is run from the same offices as it was before.

There is a new chief executive, a few new management positions, and the bit at the end of everyone’s email has changed.

It might even turn out to be the case that some cultural changes have been achieved as well.

But a new........

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