At Braes High School young people take the lead and are central to promoting and actioning Cost of the School Day in their setting. Emma Taylor, PT for PEF, supports a core group of young people in the school's Cost of the School Day pupil group and knows how crucial it is that the voices of young people inform this work.
“We have kids that are socially minded and it’s important because we are a rights respecting school, anything that we do that is just done to kids, it doesn’t work, we need to meet them on their level. We wanted to have people who could tell us their story and could act from their narrative.”
Post Covid, the school reconsulted on Cost of the School Day and got a core group of interested young people together to review the findings and put together a presentation for senior leaders to highlight what was working well in the school and what areas pupils felt needed to be addressed.
Emma says their priority was awareness raising amongst staff and tackling attitudes about poverty. They then engaged other pupils in a logo competition for their Cost of the School Day group. Delivered in PSE lessons, this helped to raise awareness of the group and allowed pupils to have good conversations about cost barriers.
“First thing we wanted to do was raise awareness and address stigma. It’s the casual stuff that we don’t realise we are doing, so it's important to target staff first so they can frame things properly.”
The group runs their Cost of the School Day social media which includes an Instagram page and TikTok videos highlighting all their approaches, including resources trollies, spare uniform, and access to digital support.
Recently pupils delivered Cost of the School Day awareness raising sessions with their cluster Primary schools and work with Primary Pupil Councils to support action planning in their own schools. Emma thinks:
"Working with our primaries is very important to us, the problem is so big by the time they get to us it has got to start early so they will have that support throughout their school career. It’s a community approach looking at how can we breed this culture throughout the whole cluster. Pupils are also designing lessons and plan to use the Cost of the School Day calendar to work through yearly costs and help pupils and staff to come up with alternative and affordable ways to run various school activities."
In 2021, St John Ogilvie High School consulted with pupils and parents about problem school costs. This supported the development of their Cost of the School Day Position and Action Plan, documents that recognise the need to be flexible to the changing circumstances their families and young people are facing.
Actions include Cost of the School Day lessons delivered in Modern Studies for all S1 pupils and an audit of how costs in each department were impacting pupils. To raise awareness of how the school can help pupils with costs, a pupil Cost of the School Day group was established.
In 2022 this group worked alongside S2/3 Photography classes to create posters to raise awareness of the support offered in school. The posters are displayed throughout the school to raise the profile and to encourage pupils to come to ask for support if they need it. The pupil's catchy slogan of “School shouldn’t cost…let us help” proudly showcases the variety of ways the school is helping pupils.
Leigh Galloway, the Modern Studies Teacher who supports the group, says:
“It's been great to get their input into our policies and also into the Cost of the School Day lessons we have incorporated as part of our S1 course. Many of the young people involved are keen to support everyone in their school community and their input into how the school continues to develop its Cost of the School Day policies and strategies is likely to be invaluable.”
The group’s current focus is promoting the availability of free sanitary products to pupils and parents and creating toiletry packs for Pupil Support Teachers to distribute, with the overall aim of normalising conversations where pupils can feel comfortable asking for help.
Young people in the group said:
“We enjoy being part of the group because we want to help people and it makes people more aware of where they can get sanitary products, so they don't feel embarrassed in school.”
Leigh believes the work carried out by pupils shows:
“their desire to help support pupils but also acknowledges that many of us are finding this time challenging, it gives pupils in the group a sense of ownership over the work they are taking part in.”
At Buckie Community High School pupils are active in designing and promoting their Cost of the School Day initiatives.
Pupil consultation identified a high number of young people attending school without breakfast so, in collaboration with pupils, a universal breakfast club was established.
Young people have created their own promotional video about the breakfast club, so all pupils know about it and the benefits of free breakfast at school. The video also supports fundraising efforts which has included awards from Participatory Budgeting initiatives, local sponsorship and donations from businesses within the community to continue funding this vital universal provision.
Off the back of dedicated Cost of the School Day work in 2022, the school now runs a pupil equity group. Stewart Clelland, who was PT for Raising Attainment at the school, says that:
“they are my ears on the ground and can report back to me and senior leaders which costs are difficult for pupils.”
The pupil equity group created, promotes and tops up classroom well-being boxes which provides free essential items for all pupils including snacks, toiletries and stationery. The group has also worked to move the school’s food pantry into the community to a more accessible and discreet location so more families are able to access it. They raised with their school some of the hidden costs associated with Duke of Edinburgh expeditions including the cost of food for overnight activities, which has resulted in all pupils now being able to access the free community larder to stock up on provisions. One pupil said that:
“It can sometimes be all these little extra costs that can mean it’s actually hard to take part, some people will be worried about having enough money”
Alongside work in their own school the group have been volunteering at a neighbouring Primary school’s breakfast club. The time they dedicate to their Cost of the School Day work also contributes towards their Saltire and Duke of Edinburgh volunteering hours. The group continues to look at ways they can reduce costs in school with a strong understanding that:
“Poverty can be a big thing in schools, and it can affect lots of children’s rights.”
“Not everyone that needs help knows they can get it.”
The Auchenharvie Academy Ambassadors has been very busy since they formed. The Ambassadors started out by asking other pupils what they thought was a problem, and what could be done, through surveys and focus groups. This led to lots of great ideas to take action on.
"The initiative we have led so far that we are most pleased with is our wellbeing boxes. We’ve created wellbeing boxes in each of our safe spaces containing hygiene products, cereal bars, sanitary products and stationery items. They are easily accessible to all young people with no stigma. We are also busy making sure that everyone knows about our uniform store and prom wear, including a QR code for easy accessibility.
We are really starting to see the effects of this in the school, because now young people know who to contact when they need support and more importantly, where to go to access the support. It is also helpful having pupils involved in the running of this as we are seeing some pupils wanting to speak to other pupils when looking for help rather than only staff."
(Auchenharvie Ambassadors)
Musselburgh Burgh Primary School has a dedicated group of young people challenging the Cost of the School Day. They describe what they do and what their plans are for the future:
"We are the Burgh Believers. We meet at lunchtimes to explore the cost of the school day with our peers from all over the school. We have looked at some of the things we already do in school such as free uniform rails, breakfast club and our newly opened Burgh Pantry and are now asking the rest of the school and our families what we can do next.
We want school to be a fair place where nobody is worrying about money because every child has a right to an education.
We are looking forward to telling everyone about the cost of the school day."
The Cost of the School Day Voice network supports pupil equity groups and offers activities, meetings and events for young people and their leaders.
