Wellbeing, behaviour, and attendance in Scottish schools

A number of concerning trends have been identified in the Scottish educational landscape regarding the health and wellbeing of children and young people. The first of these relates to the increase in the number of learners, across the primary and secondary sectors, identified as experiencing mental health issues, in particular the symptoms of anxiety and depression, and being referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for specialist support (Scottish Government 2023a). A significant contributing factor to this increase, and applicable to other countries in addition to Scotland, has been the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in particular the impact of lockdown, both in terms of the social isolation imposed and the increased time spent online (Panchal et al. Reference Panchal, de Pablo, Franco, Moreno, Parellada, Arango and Fusar-Poli2023). The Scottish Government estimates that this has affected between a quarter and nearly half of all school-aged children (Scottish Government 2023b). McDonald et al. (Reference McDonald, Lester and Michelson2023), in discussion of the impact of the pandemic on young people’s mental health, distinguish between the exacerbation of pre-existing anxiety conditions and the emergence of COVID-specific anxiety. Other factors contributing to the increase in poor mental health and which pre-date the pandemic relate to deprivation and the misuse of digital technology (Scottish Government 2023b).

The consequences of this increase in the mental health challenges facing young people are multi-faceted and interlinked. The first relates to behaviour in schools.

According to a research report on behaviour in Scottish schools, there has been a perceived decline in pupil behaviour since 2016 across all categories measured (low level disruptive, serious disruptive, and other negative behaviours) (Scottish Government 2023c), with staff experiencing verbal abuse (67%), physical aggression (59%), and physical violence (43%). In an Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) survey of teachers (2023), 72% of branches noted that violence and aggression had risen in the past five years. Various reasons have been suggested to account for this, such as the lack of adequate resources available to support children with Additional Support Needs (ASN), ineffective discipline policies, and a perceived lack of consequences as a result of the Scottish Government’s restorative approach to behaviour management, as well as disengagement and wider societal changes in attitude. The reduced opportunities for social interaction and classroom learning in the context of lockdown has likewise been cited as a contributing factor, having

The increase in the numbers of young people experiencing mental health issues intersects with this increased incidence in negative in-school behaviour. Respondents to the EIS survey identified poor mental health and lower resilience as underlying causes of challenging behaviour, a perception confirmed by reviews undertaken by Sharpe and Nelson (Reference Sharp and Nelson2021) and the Scottish Government (2023b). The Centre for Mental Health (2020) and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition (2023) go further in not only identifying the negative impact of anxiety, trauma, and unmet emotional needs on behaviour, but also highlighting the ways in which restrictive behaviour management responses to behaviour which stems from negative feelings leads to an increase in those feelings of anxiety or low self-worth and thus reinforce and perpetuate the cycle between negative feelings and behaviours of concern.

Moreover, the Scottish Government has recognised that to fully understand the complex interplay between mental wellbeing and behaviour, account must also be taken of issues relating to attendance and attainment with which they are closely linked:

A third of Scottish pupils were persistently absent in 2022/23, defined as missing 10% or more days of school. This decline in attendance levels, though exacerbated by the pandemic, was already in evidence in 2018/19 figures (Scottish Government 2024). An Education Scotland deep dive on the issue found that the reason most frequently cited by local authorities and schools for absence were pupil and parental mental health. In the same way that poor mental health was identified as both a cause and exacerbating negative behaviour, the same inter-relationship has been identified between mental health and attendance:

As part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, aimed at closing the poverty-related attainment gap, all Scottish local authorities have included attendance as a core stretch aim for their health and wellbeing strategies in recognition of the need to address the issues of wellbeing, behaviour, attendance, and attainment through a holistic approach. The complex nature of the situation facing schools means that no single strategy will be sufficient to address it. Nevertheless, it will be critical to develop approaches to improve the current situation if learners are to be equipped to thrive educationally, socially, and professionally.

Health and wellbeing: Scottish government strategy

In 2010, the Scottish Government implemented a new curricular framework, a Curriculum for Excellence (Education Scotland 2010). This applied to the entirety of formal education from ages 3–18 years, which it divided into two stages, Broad General Education (BGE) up to the end of S3 (ages 3–15 years) and the Senior Phase (S4–6, ages 16–18 years). As part of this new arrangement, the curriculum was arranged into eight curricular areas, one of which was health and wellbeing. In line with other areas of the curriculum, a set of defined Experiences and Outcomes was designed to ensure that learners were achieving certain benchmarks in health and wellbeing and that they were measurable. It was intended to represent and encourage a holistic approach within schools that included the mental, social, emotional and physical wellbeing of learners. That this was an educational priority for the Scottish Government can be understood from the simultaneous introduction of their Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) policy, part of which included a set of wellbeing principles that came to be known as the Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, Included (SHANARRI) indicators and which were to be used to assess wellbeing. The Scottish Government’s commitment to this can likewise be gauged in the mandate that the health and wellbeing of every child should be the responsibility of every teacher of every subject, on a par educationally with literacy and numeracy. This was reflected by the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) inclusion of this requirement in the professional standards for initial registration and for Career-Long Professional Learning, which underlines teachers’ responsibility to fulfil this commitment.

As part of its mental health strategy (2023a), the Scottish Government recognised the need to support young people with specialist provision and early intervention and identified the key role of Personal and Social Education (PSE) lessons in improving wellbeing for all learners. One of its key recommendations was that there should be a review of PSE provision in schools. Education Scotland carried out this review, looking at thematic content (mental, emotional, social, and physical education; planning for choices and change; physical education; food and health; substance misuse; and relationships), as well as resources, delivery, and perceptions of PSE classes as an initial step in the process of improving the PSE curriculum (Education Scotland 2023). It found general perceptions to be that although placed educationally on a par with literacy and numeracy by the arrangements of Curriculum for Excellence, it was not regarded as a proper subject. It also noted that there was a lack of support for teachers to deliver it in terms of training and resources, that there was a gap in meaningful provision in the senior phase (S4–6), and that there was an inconsistency in the quality of delivery. It recognised that the absence of a specific curriculum for PSE was an issue and recommended that schools should design lessons in line with the experiences and outcomes in the health and wellbeing guidance in the Curriculum for Excellence and use national benchmarks and wellbeing indicators to monitor and track progress. The expectation is that schools should devote at least 1 hour per week to PSE and that it is a universal entitlement for all Scottish learners.

In particular, the review identified the provision of mental health and wellbeing education to be a priority, and to support this, a number of resources have been made available by Education Scotland on the National Improvement Hub. Seen as central in addressing the need to improve wellbeing is the development of the emotional literacy of young people, as reflected in such resources as the Emotions and the Brain unit, created by the Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution (SCCR) (Education Scotland 2025). The overarching aim of the unit is to equip learners with the knowledge, skills, and strategies to manage conflict more effectively and thus improve their interpersonal relationships. In service of this, the core outcomes are to enable learners to identify and name emotions; to understand the relationship between physiological response, emotions, thoughts, and behaviour; to recognise how a single emotion can manifest itself in different ways (including the masking of emotion); and to begin to appreciate the possibility of the co-existence of conflicting emotions. These are the main stages and outcomes in most approaches to emotions education.Footnote ¹

Developing emotional literacy across the curriculum: classical literature

The review of PSE clearly states that learning in health and wellbeing should largely and explicitly be taught in specific PSE lessons, whilst at the same time acknowledging the responsibility of all staff to participate in the holistic development of young people. In view of the importance of providing learners with a framework for emotional literacy, both in a theoretical way and through more personal exploration of the concepts, and of the requirement of all practitioners to contribute to this curricular area, it will be crucial for teachers across all areas of the curriculum to consider the ways in which they can support this. The teaching of classical literature would seem to be well placed in this regard, providing rich opportunities for classics teachers to reinforce in a more nuanced way and expand upon the emotional literacy that is explicitly taught in the PSE classroom.

Within the Scottish curriculum, two classical subjects are available for National Qualification as part of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). Both Latin, a language-based course, and classical studies, a social subject, incorporate elements of classical literature, which in the case of Latin refers to texts in the original language, and for classical studies, to texts in translation. The number of candidates presenting for exams in Latin has experienced a decades-long decline and it has become a recurring feature of discourse around the teaching of classical subjects to seek to justify, directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly, the place of classics in the curriculum. To some extent, this article follows suit in highlighting the potential for the teaching of classical literature to provide a meaningful way to enhance learners’ understanding of emotions and to further develop their emotional literacy through a more narrative pedagogical approach, thus providing relevant and complementary learning. However, it aims primarily to provide a model for teachers of literature generally, and of classical literature in particular, to begin to think creatively about how prescribed texts might be considered in light of emotional literacy learning and employed so as to contribute to the holistic development of learners.

Reading and teaching for emotional literacy

The concept that reading can result in improved mental wellbeing is not new (Rizzolo et al. Reference Rizzolo, Zipp, Stiskal and Simpkins2009); nor is the proposal that literature can be used to teach children about emotion. The Story Project, backed by the Shine Trust, is a pilot scheme which aims to use story to develop emotional literacy. The project, which has been running in five primary schools in Bradford, reported finding a significant boost in children’s emotional literacy both in their knowledge and understanding of vocabulary and concepts and their increased empathy in their interactions with others (2024).

The research of Kumschick et al. (Reference Kumschick, Beck, Eid, Witte, Klann-Delius, Heuser, Steinlein and Menninghaus2014) provides an interesting case study by examining whether literature could be taught in such a way that it developed both learners’ emotional literacy and competence in analysing text. The research on the effectiveness of a literature-based intervention on the development of emotional competence involved more than a hundred second- and third-grade children aged 7–9 years in elementary schools in Brandenburg, Germany. Broadly speaking, the aim was to develop precisely those aspects of emotional literacy which form the outcomes of the Scottish Emotions and the Brain unit, namely the acquisition of emotional vocabulary, identification of emotions in self and others, and the understanding of both masked and mixed emotions. A specific storybook was chosen and it was anticipated that both the emotional competence and basic skills in literary analysis would show improvement. They found evidence of improved recognition of emotions and ability to identify masked emotions, with boys being particularly positively influenced in their capability to grasp the concept of masked emotions. It was less clear whether the intervention had developed competence in understanding mixed emotions or if it led to any noticeable improvement in learners’ literary analysis skills beyond the project. The research was, therefore, successful in achieving its proposed outcomes in relation to emotional literacy development. In part, its success in developing emotional literacy must be attributed to the careful choice of story which had been selected precisely on account of its explicit emotional content and that the methodology involved the focussed teaching of emotional concepts, this being the primary, though not the exclusive, aim. In its intention to prioritise the teaching of emotional concepts, the methodology is reminiscent of the explicit teaching of wellbeing themes in PSE lessons, albeit in a fictionalised, narrative context. It is the same principle which underpins the creation of children’s literature which is explicitly about a particular emotion, such as those suggested, for example, by the Scottish Book Trust for the principal purpose of developing children’s emotional literacy.

The question remains, therefore, how far a teacher of literature, whether ancient or modern or English, Roman, or Greek, can achieve some success in enhancing learners’ emotional competence when the text is not ‘about’ a particular emotion, when teaching emotion is not the primary purpose of the lesson, and when subject-specific learning intentions need to be balanced with the multiple other whole-school demands on class time.

Embedded emotions

It may not be the case that a piece of literature is ‘about’ an emotion, or have any didactic intention in this regard, such as is the case with the prescribed texts which are part of the Latin and Classical Studies National Qualification courses. There is, nevertheless, a great deal of scope in the teaching and study of them to draw upon what they have learned about emotions in PSE lessons. There are a number of advantages to bringing aspects of emotional literacy learning into the classics classroom. Many of these advantages pertain to the ways in which literature can function as a vehicle for the further enhancement of young people’s understanding of emotions and the potential for improved wellbeing as a result; whilst others relate to the ways in which this prior learning might be drawn upon in the service of enriched understanding and increased capability in the handling of literary texts.

Regarding the former, identifying and using the vocabulary and terminology used to describe and talk about emotions in PSE lessons will allow classics teachers to reinforce those concepts and begin to develop a shared vocabulary across the curriculum. Moreover, the exploration of concepts such as mixed emotions, masked emotions, and physical expressions of emotion will give learners to opportunity to see those concepts illustrated in a narrative context and thus consider them in a less abstract way, deepening their understanding. It also encourages them to explore ideas from a different perspective and in a less personal way.

Carrying this learning over into the classics classroom has significant potential benefits for the teaching of classics as well, since drawing upon this prior learning can bring depth and nuance to how learners approach literary texts. Discussion of emotion is an integral part of teaching character analysis in a literary context, informing understanding of a character’s thoughts, speech, behaviour, and motivation. When young people have an awareness that all of these aspects of a person or character are driven by and are a reflection of underlying emotions and can understand that a writer is showing a character’s inner world through external signs rather than explicitly stating what it is, it equips them with a way to decode what is happening in the narrative. This approach, which allows learners to begin to develop higher-order cognitive processes through the practice of such skills as critical thinking, offers a pedagogy which simultaneously activates an awareness of emotions and what they know about emotions and asks them to exercise this in analysing and evaluating literature at a more sophisticated and insightful level. There is also scope for this to be applied beyond character analysis into appreciation of stylistic features and linguistic techniques by examining how a writer uses such devices as imagery, repetition, and sound to emphasise the emotional experiences of the characters at the linguistic level. This approach will be useful when working with texts both in Latin and in translation, though the level of specifically linguistic commentary possible in translated texts will depend on the quality of the translation.

The prescribed Latin texts and the texts commonly chosen for study in classical studies at higher level National Qualification cover a range of authors and genres which in various ways provide contextualised portrayals of emotions and emotional concepts. By way of illustration, this article will briefly consider some of these texts and suggest ways they might be approached and presented to enhance learners’ understanding of their own emotions personally, but also encourage them towards a broader appreciation of how emotion can function at a community level. The study of Virgil’s Dido and Aeneas episodes offers the opportunity to explore a range of emotional experiences and behaviours and Cicero’s Verrine speeches provide scope to consider issues relating to manipulation of emotions, whilst the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles are an excellent route to understanding more nuanced notions of communal experience and regulation of emotion. It is possible for classics teachers, therefore, to use these texts as a rich source of material to enhance learners’ understanding of the emotions and emotional concepts which are embedded within and across each course, and to move learners towards an appreciation of these emotions when they can see them in a more multi-layered scenario rather than as abstract theoretical concepts.

Virgil’s Aeneid: Dido and Aeneas

One of the most popular texts studied at higher level is Virgil’s story of Dido and Aeneas. Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid tells the tale of the Trojan Aeneas’s mission to lead his people, defeated in the Trojan War, to a new homeland in Italy. Shipwrecked in Carthage on his journey west, he falls in love with Queen Dido, whom he must ultimately leave to fulfil his duty. The tragic Dido, unable to contemplate life without him, ends her life. They meet one final time in the Underworld when Aeneas journeys there to speak to his dead father.

As a means of improving learners’ emotional vocabulary, this text exposes them to a wide range of emotions and forms of expression which can be used to reinforce prior learning. As an extension of this, it can illuminate some of the behaviours associated with those emotions. Adema (Reference Adema, de Bakker, van den Berg and Klooster2022) identifies five textual expressions of emotion in the Dido episodes which can be more widely applied in literary appreciation: explicit emotional concepts; internal and external processes; behaviour; space; and similes. In doing so, she provides a very effective framework for teachers to approach the embedded emotions of characters. This emotion-technique framework offers a way to approach a text which highlights the complex interplay of literary technique, and ‘real world’ emotional experience as presented through the characters’ physiological experience and associated behaviours.

For example, when Aeneas first encounters the Carthaginian queen in Book 1, Dido is explicitly described by the narrator as laeta, happy, and her behaviour, walking tall amongst her people, encouraging the building work and leading the crowd, are behaviours which are evidence that the emotion she is feeling is happiness. This underlines the congruity between emotion felt internally and the external expression of it. In particular, the abundance of similes and metaphors employed by Virgil in portraying Dido’s emotional state offers a valuable dimension to this learning.

The same approach would likewise work effectively as a means of examining the concept of mixed emotions. At the heart of the Aeneid is the figure of pius Aeneas, the dutiful hero, and although he is less mercurial than Dido, he nevertheless experiences significant emotional turmoil (Polleichtner Reference Polleichtner2005). The conflict he experiences between his public responsibility and his private desire is nowhere more evident than in the scenes where he must leave Dido behind to fulfil his duty. He is torn by competing emotions: he wants to go and he wants to stay. The humanity of Aeneas and his struggle to suppress one emotion in favour of another is, therefore, a very useful exemplum of the concept of mixed emotions and the narrative of his inner conflict demonstrates in a more concrete and meaningful way what the abstract concept means in practice. The emotion-literature framework (Adema) could be useful here to highlight how Virgil uses language which is simultaneously coldly detached (such as his use of legal terminology to refer to the relationship) and warmly intimate to linguistically reflect that inner tension.

What will be crucial, however, for learners to benefit fully from the emotional literacy opportunities inherent in such literature, is for teachers to draw attention to how the learning taking place about emotions in a literary appreciation context reflects and is an extension of the learning which is taking place in PSE lessons. This can be achieved most easily, and with minimum impact on lesson preparation time, by directly telling them that this is the case and encouraging them to recall their learning from elsewhere in the curriculum and to apply it to their reading of the text. This identification and nurturing of cross-curricular links can not only help them to activate their prior learning and embed and integrate new learning, but can also begin to establish the habit of looking for opportunities to do this, thus modelling for them a metacognitive and independent approach to their learning. It likewise offers the opportunity for the interdisciplinary learning which underpins the Curriculum for Excellence. Such joining up of learning will be more successful when the classics teacher can use the same terminology as the PSE teacher and adapt some of the activities from the Scottish Emotions and the Brain unit, such as using a ‘feeling wheel’ to identify and discuss the emotions experienced by the characters, discussing strategies Dido might have used to soothe her emotions, and defining the approaches of Dido and Aeneas to conflict in terms of the instinct models of the PSE unit.

Cicero: Verrine speeches

Another popular text studied at Higher level is part of the Roman lawyer Cicero’s prosecution speech against Verres, who had been the Roman governor in Sicily. The extent of Verres’ corruption had been so enormous and shocking that the people of Sicily had been determined that he should be brought to account. Cicero gathered so much evidence and presented it in such a convincing manner that Verres absconded after the first speech, knowing he would be convicted. The success of this speech depended in large part on the rhetorical skill employed by Cicero and his ability to generate an emotional response in his audience, the jury of senators. The development of learners’ skill in identifying Cicero’s rhetorical techniques and analysing them for their effectiveness is a key part of the study of this text but it also furnishes the classics teacher with the opportunity to explore concepts around the development of emotional literacy which are not part of the core emotions learning of the specific PSE lessons. In particular, the exploration of the rhetorical term pathos and the techniques used by speakers to manipulate the emotions of an audience as a means of persuasion can bring learners to a wider appreciation of the function and role of emotions from a different angle. Crucially, this can open the discussion up to modern examples of emotional manipulation in, for example, politics and social media, and the morality of politicians and influencers in doing so (Remer, Reference Remer2013). Raising awareness of how emotion can be artificially generated has clear and significant benefit for young people. The development of critical emotional literacy is certainly not a new concept, forming a central part of the training of Greek and Roman youngsters, nor is it a uniquely modern need, but in a digital and increasingly polarised world, it will be essential to equip learners not only with the emotional literacy to be aware of their emotions, but also with the critical skill to realise when those emotions are being intentionally, perhaps maliciously, manipulated. This will have implications both for the wellbeing of young people and their ability to function effectively as active citizens (Holmes-Henderson et al. Reference Holmes-Henderson, Zmavc and Kaldahl2022). The recommendations of the recent report into oracy education in schools (Oracy Education Commission 2024) underline the importance of this awareness as part of emotional wellbeing. Emotional learning in this vein functions, therefore, to engage learners with the broader relevance and role of emotions beyond the experience, naming, responding to, and regulating of personal feelings.

Greek tragedy: Medea, Antigone, and Oedipus

Three of the most popular texts studied as part of the Higher Classical Studies course are Euripides’ Medea and Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus. Written in Athens in the 5th century BCE, these tragedies chart the tragic downfall of each eponymous hero/heroine. The study of these in the Scottish Classics classroom again has something quite specific to offer to the development of learners’ emotional literacy and to their broader understanding of what emotion is. A number of the technical features of tragedy can be exploited to add a different dimension to their understanding of emotional concepts. The unfolding of the tragedy, according to Aristotle, would ultimately evoke, and was designed to evoke within the audience, the two specific emotions of pity (eleos) and fear (phobos) (Konstan, Reference Konstan1999). In general terms, this introduces the concept of empathy, the ability to put oneself in the place of another, on which the stirring of emotion in tragedy, to large degree, depends. It invites learners to draw comparisons between the emotional responses of an ancient audience and what elicits those responses, with the emotional impact those same events might have on a modern audience. Also relevant is the feature of catharsis, a term originally used in reference to, and still typically associated with, tragedy. This term, coined by Aristotle in his Poetics, a treatise on literary theory, refers to the purging of the emotions of pity and fear, and emerged from the belief that the act of watching the performance of a tragedy enabled the audience members to experience pity and fear within that controlled, communal, theatrical setting, resulting in the reduction, or even removal of, those limiting emotions in everyday life. It therefore served a social function not only in providing a means of healthy emotional regulation, but also in allowing citizens to share in the emotional experience. There is much scope here to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of this civic function of tragedy and to highlight the intra- and extra-textual emotional levels on which they function. It may again be useful to connect this learning with the explicit emotional learning of the Emotions and the Brain unit, where there are suggestions for ways to release and regulate emotion, such as verbally, creatively, and through exercise. Tragedy may offer a new route to learners for the regulation and release of emotion by raising awareness of how literature, theatre, film, and television can similarly function as a strategy for managing emotion.