Schools - improving relationships and behaviour: progress report 2025
This is the first annual progress report on the relationships and behaviour in schools action plan 2024 to 2027 'ensuring safe and consistent environments for all'. This progress report details activity between November 2023 and March 2025.
Theme 3: Support for children and young people
Action 9: Age and stage appropriate resources are available to support children’s social and emotional development.
BISSR highlighted particular concerns about children and young people’s social and emotional development, particularly post-COVID, highlighting the impact on children and young people’s social and communication skills, leading to distressed and disruptive behaviour related to sharing, playing together and communicating their feelings in primaries, and interpersonal relationships and group work in secondaries.
In September 2024, refreshed school resources to support children’s emotional development were published, supported by the Scottish Government Mental Health Directorate. This updated resource was created by Fife Council Education staff alongside the Digital Bricks Learning team, Education Scotland and Scottish Mediation. The ‘Keeping Your Cool in School’ programme was first launched in 2007, and changes have been made for the 2024 programme to update and modernise the resources, reflecting our developing knowledge of how children and young people are impacted by conflict and disputes within relationships. The resources now reflect the ways we use technology as a learning tool within our schools, and allow for teacher judgement with regards to how to frame questions and discussion activities.
The Keeping Your Cool in School resources aim to equip primary-aged children with the skills to manage emotions and also raise awareness of wider issues affecting them and their peers. Each level of the programme explores a range of responses to different situations and has the potential to support positive relationships and behaviour, particularly amongst younger children, which was highlighted within BISSR 2023. These resources are available from the Education Scotland website and also a bespoke website.
Education Scotland is currently refreshing the Compassionate and Connected Classroom resources targeted at upper primary learners.
Action 10: Children and young people are supported to develop healthy relationships and behaviours, grounded in tolerance and respect
To promote positive relationships and behaviour, children and young people need support to develop healthy, respectful relationships.
During phase 1, as part of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme, new health and wellbeing resources on anti-racism at nursery and primary level were launched in October 2024. These resources provide tools, workshops and ideas to support Early Years practitioners and educators in Scotland to build an anti-racist curriculum which responds positively to the diverse needs of individual learning where all cultures, religions, identities and languages are recognised and valued. Associated professional learning is available to support engagement and delivery.
Education Scotland introduced a new module to the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) programme on challenging online misogyny. MVP is a peer mentoring programme that gives young people the chance to explore and challenge the attitudes, beliefs and cultural norms that underpin all forms of gender-based violence in our society, and has been introduced in all local authorities. The new module comprises a two-part lesson to be delivered by MVP mentors and offers a safe space to discuss gender-related pressures among young people. It explores the scale of online misogyny, the impact that it has on pupils, and skills and strategies to recognise and challenge discriminatory behaviours.
The Scottish Government has published its analysis of the Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood statutory guidance consultation, and will proceed with updating the guidance taking account of this analysis.
The Mental Health in Schools Working Group has been re-established to consider relevant evidence about children and young people’s mental health, and how support is being provided in education settings. Its work will include consideration of how to support the implementation of relevant resources including Keeping Your Cool in School resource, the Mental health and wellbeing Whole School Approach framework and the professional learning resource on supporting children and young people’s mental health.
Action 11: Children and young people’s views are embedded in the development of school policies and procedures.
The national guidance on mobile phones in Scotland’s schools, and refreshed anti-bullying guidance, Respect for All, both highlight the importance of schools proactively engaging with their whole learning community, including children and young people, in the development of their local policies.
The development of Respect for All was supported by engagement with stakeholders including children and young people, school staff, teachers, parents, and community learning and development practitioners, to gather feedback on revisions to the guidance. Children and young people provided feedback through engagement sessions with the Scottish Youth Parliament, LGBT Youth Scotland, respectme’s Youth Action Group and a Women’s Aid organisation. Feedback from engagement sessions informed changes to the guidance, including updates to the definition, online bullying, the importance of engaging with young people and the language used throughout the document.
Education Scotland’s new Guidance for developing a local relationships and behaviour policy, and Guidance on creating a local authority and school attendance policy both highlight the important of policies being created and implemented alongside children and young people, parents/carers, and staff.
To ensure that all teachers understand the need to involve children and young people in policy development, Education Scotland have collaborated with the General Teaching Council for Scotland to produce a resource for teaching professionals, ‘A children’s rights-based approach: A guide for teachers’. In the ‘What can I do?’ section of the resource it asks teachers to reflect on the question: ‘Do I fully involve learners in establishing a relationships policy for the class or school, and link this to the UNCRC?’
Schools taking part in cohort 1 of the Improving Attendance Quality Improvement Programme (action 8) are ensuring that children and young people’s views are central to their activity, and these schools will share learning at the end of the programme in 2025-26.
In response to feedback from children’s organisations, desk research is being undertaken to gather existing evidence of young people's views and experiences of relationships and behaviour in schools.
A priority for phase 2 will be identifying opportunities to gather young people's views and experiences of relationships and behaviour in schools to inform updates to the national suite of policies.