Meeting of the Parliament 01 October 2025 [Draft]
I am sorry, but I only have four minutes, and I have already taken one intervention.
The Government is now providing schools with comprehensive guidance on a range of approaches to responding to behaviour issues. That builds on the guidance that was published in June 2025 to promote positive relationships and behaviours across the whole school community.
Importantly, the guidance was developed with input from headteachers, teaching unions, local government and educational psychologists. It focuses on improving outcomes by reinforcing positive behaviour and working to reduce the likelihood of negative behaviour occurring in the future.
The Scottish Government guidance is the latest commitment to be delivered through the relationships and behaviours in schools joint national action plan, which covers the period from 2024 to 2027. It was developed in response to evidence from the behaviour in Scottish schools research that the Government published in 2023. Around 4,000 school staff from across Scotland participated in the production of the report. The joint action plan is a collaborative exercise and is informed by the work of the Scottish Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Education Scotland, as well as by the views of parents and carers. It contains 20 key action points that are designed to support schools in their practice and approaches. It will be delivered across three years and is led by partners, including national Government, local government and third sector organisations.
Scotland has a good education system, with great schools and great teachers. We should trust them more. We all want our children and young people to get the most out of the learning opportunities that are available to them, and all children and young people have the right to get the support that they need to reach their full learning potential.
There are real challenges in Scotland’s schools at the current time—we are all aware of that—and it would be far more beneficial for Scotland’s children and young people if parties were able to work together to respond to those challenges.
In my experience, schools know how best to use their local knowledge to develop their own mobile phone strategy.
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