Education Scotland  developed the Young Leaders of Learning Programme to  ensure that children and young people are actively involved in school improvement. The programme allows children to share their views about what is important in their lives. Central to this is giving children increased opportunities to shape improved educational experiences.

The purpose of the programme is to ensure that our pupils are actively involved in ongoing self-evaluation activities leading to improvement by:

• taking part in reciprocal visits to other schools to identify what is working well, areas for improvement and effective practice
• promoting ways that children and young people can be involved in school improvement activities in their own school

There are many benefits to the programme, including:

• supporting schools’ own self-evaluation activities as children and young people will be able to share practice and become more familiar with the language and processes of school improvement
• an opportunity to build leadership skills in Young Leaders of Learning
• early feedback suggests that the impact on learner participation across the schools has been significant, with head teachers taking a more strategic approach, and ensuring the wider learner population takes forward some of the outcomes from the visits
• upholding relevant articles of the UNCRC: Article 12 states that every child has a right to have a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously. Article 13 states that every child must be free to say what they think and to seek and receive all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law

A process of ongoing evaluation is in place, and at each visit feedback is taken from the YLLs. At the end of the year, lead staff are asked to share the impact on their school and the children and young people. This information is collated and shared.

Who are our Young Leaders of Learning?

We currently have 12 Young Leaders of Learning who have completed the Education Scotland training; six pupils from Primary 6 and six from Primary 7.

Our Partner School is Blairdardie Primary School in Knightswood.