Fleeing the family nest for university or a first job is always daunting. But when you are leaving a rural Highland home for the big city the move is all the more difficult.

Students at one Highland school, however, will today begin a course designed to help ease the transition: urban survival techniques.
Sixth-year pupils at Tain Royal Academy will study self-defence and its legal limits, how to spot an aggressor and personal safety. The course is designed to help the students move from the Highlands - which has the lowest crime rate in the UK - into more dangerous territory.