The 'game-changing' solution to the crisis in Scotland's classrooms
When teachers burn out, Scotland’s children pay the price
The terms ‘stress’ and ‘burnout’ are becoming increasingly commonplace in Scottish education. From pupil behaviour to unmanageable workloads, it appears that we are in the midst of a crisis in our classrooms.
Teaching unions are balloting for industrial action over class contact time, claiming that their working conditions are deteriorating. According to the latest survey from Scotland’s biggest teaching union, full-time teachers are working the equivalent of six days a week, while seven out of ten say they are frequently stressed. Half say their workplace wellbeing is poor.
Clearly this matters. After all, teachers’ working conditions are children’s learning conditions, and every child in Scotland has the potential to make an important contribution, to their community, their country, and the wider world.
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An uncertain future
We need to let them reach that potential, but it feels like almost every day we are presented with more evidence that being a child is difficult. It ranges from record mental health needs to inequality, poverty, disengagement from school, and a pervading uncertainty about the economy, the jobs they will do, climate change, and the state of the world.
Quite simply, children today are growing up in what is probably the most disrupted and volatile era of the last 80 years.
And yet our youngsters are too often painted as the problem, rather than the ones having to deal with decisions made by adults. Recent headlines blaming young people have been about knife crime, unemployment, rioting, vaping, poor behaviour and low attendance at school, and problematic social media use.
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Workloads and burnout mean our teachers have less capacity to provide the kind of responsive, patient relationships that children need to feel noticed and motivated at school.
And it’s not just in classrooms. The same applies in care homes, youth work and community services. Wherever adults are stretched, young people feel it first.
‘A growth mindset’
But we can change this, and evidence gathered over the last two decades by children’s charity Winning Scotland proves it. For the past 20 years, we have been working to build confidence and resilience in young people, not by working directly with them, but by developing and supporting the adults around them.
So far, we have seen 600,000 children in Scotland positively affected in education – as well as social care, sport, and employability – and eight out of ten children are more engaged in learning because of our work.
In settings like schools, sports clubs and care homes, where children spend much of their time, we help teachers, carers and coaches develop a ‘growth mindset’ so they focus more on children’s potential, not their limits.
One teacher told us that working with Winning Scotland was a “game changer”. They said: “This whole idea that our abilities aren’t fixed, that we can develop them with effort, really motivates me. It makes me want to constantly seek new teaching methods, stay on top of current best practices, and keep refining how I do things in the classroom.”
Teachers have reported seeing children’s attainment and confidence soar, as they learn from feedback and embrace their own mistakes. One pupil said: “I always used to just give up and never really try putting effort in. Now I’ll try to look for an option to see how I can get around it, instead of just sitting there and not really caring about my work.”
We’re also exploring the use of artificially intelligent tutoring tools to empower teachers. By giving them better insights and freeing up time for pupil relationships, we can drive more effective learning.
Making good decisions
Our approach is led by evidence from the Harvard Centre for the Developing Child, a research group that uses science to help young children facing challenges have fairer, better outcomes.
The research shows that if we want to improve our outcomes for children, we must build the capabilities of the adults who care for, teach, support and raise them. When adults thrive, children flourish.
Harvard’s research shows that children’s outcomes depend on the ability of adults around them to plan, focus, adapt and stay in control. These skills allow adults to manage stress, make good decisions, and provide stability.
One headteacher described working with us as a “steady drip feed” of confidence and motivation that spread through the whole school. Starting with new S1s, the approach grows and develops as pupils get older, gradually changing the environment that everyone learns in.
This is a thread that also runs through our Planet Youth pilots in various parts of Scotland, which are inspired by a hugely successful approach in Iceland. It helps communities build networks of capable adults who surround young people with support, opportunities and belief.
We don’t need to get scared by headlines about a crisis in our schools, but we do need to listen and start taking action.
If we are serious about changing outcomes, Scotland’s next broad investment must be in the adults who make a difference. In their training, their mental health, their confidence, and in the infrastructure around them.
When key adults are given the space, freedom and guidance to focus on a child’s holistic development – rather than just striving desperately to get through another day – the impact cascades. Classrooms become calmer, households more stable, and communities more connected.
If we want to rebuild hope for our young people, we must start by strengthening the adults they depend on.
Richard Orr is the director of partnerships at the charity Winning Scotland
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