In 2020, Cawdor Primary School begun their journey in reimagining their curriculum. Developing their shared purpose, vision, values, and aims as the basis for their vision for 2030, following a year-long participatory consultation across the community, they launched their values in June 2022: kindness, teamwork, belonging, and respect.

Through their self-evaluation whilst embedding their values into the life and ethos of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) setting and school as a community, it was identified that aspects of wellbeing were being considered as discrete strands, and the community would benefit from a cohesive approach to wellbeing underpinning their curriculum rationale.

The setting wide survey

Working with the Northern Alliance and Education Scotland, Cawdor used the Equality survey to better understand the experiences of children, whilst also providing feedback to enhance the survey for other users.

The data showed that most children felt:

• Cawdor is safe
• Cawdor is fair
• Cawdor enables confidence to try new things
• they knew what to do if they felt bullied or unfairly treated

Almost all children felt they learned about their rights.

Focus groups

Cawdor’s Young Leaders of Learning explored the data and identified that, whilst the initial data showed a positive picture for most children, there was work to do to ensure that their vision for 2030 could be achieved:

“Cawdor 2030 will be a safe, welcoming, happy and fun place for everyone to achieve their goals.” 

It was identified that the following areas needed further thought:

• What does equality mean, and why is it important?
• What is bullying, and what do we do if we feel we are being bullied or unfairly treated?

Themes explored in the learner conversations

Working alongside the Equality Workstream Lead for the Northern Alliance, Cawdor’s Young Leaders of Learning created a policy written by children for children and adults. It was important that the words were written in a way which children would understand. The group tested these words with their peers.

Alongside the words, children identified that there were visuals to support each of the areas. The Equality Workstream Lead for the Northern Alliance supported the Young Leaders of Learning to create visuals, alongside digital icons, and included these in the policy. An adult section of the policy was developed by the staff team in Cawdor.

The policy included six interwoven areas of wellbeing:

• Cawdor’s values
• the wellbeing indicators (SHANARRI)
• children’s rights (UNCRC)
• equality
• positive relationships
• anti-bullying

What will happen next

The Young Leaders of Learning also worked with Education Scotland to record audio for national resources. They are proud of this achievement.

The Way to Wellbeing policy was launched by the Young Leaders of Learning in March 2024. As part of the launch the Young Leaders of Learning shared with

• children through classroom visits, and the development of a display within the school which explores each thread of the policy in detail
• parents through presenting the policy at a parent council meeting
• the community through the school’s newsletter

It is important that the policy is living and breathing for all. To support next steps the Cawdor community are:

• using their assemblies throughout the 2024/2025 session to embed the six interwoven areas of wellbeing, with pupil leadership groups shaping improvements
• engaging with the Rights Respecting Schools Award, working towards their silver accreditation in the 2024/2025 session
• further developing their curriculum to strengthen equality and diversity across learning alongside their ethos