Spaces and support

reward schools understand the needs of their community and put support in place. 

This includes creating safe spaces, for example, for LGBTQ+ groups to come together or for pupils to practise their faith. 

Schools recognise the impact of poverty on some families and provide inputs that tackle this, for example, providing access to food, clothes and other necessary resources. 

Pupils get involved in providing support and many schools have created roles for pupils as inclusion or equality ambassadors. Teachers look out for and address signs of exclusion, providing support where needed. 

Tools such as the Circle Framework are used to assess and implement staged support. 

Planning tools such as the child’s plan within GIRFEC or behaviour risk assessments for more vulnerable children support a consistent approach across staff and ensure all parties have an input.

An excellent example of how we have supported our Muslim pupils was to make arrangements for classrooms to be available for prayer and a quiet space for those fasting away from other pupils who may have food at lunchtime during the month of Ramadan. 

We used Twitter, notices and email to ensure all pupils and staff knew the arrangements for each day as the prayer times changed and senior pupils helped us to ensure we were providing the necessary support and acted as our advisors. 

Information was also shared with staff to ensure that they had an understanding of what some of their pupils may be experiencing while fasting and the meaning of the festival to their Muslim pupils. 

We found a greater number of pupils talked to their friends and classmates about Ramadan during this time and pupils appreciated the support of the school.