“Really tough” challenges in Scottish education are making it more important than ever to prioritise health and wellbeing, the outgoing president of School Leaders Scotland has said.
Addressing the SLS annual conference today, Pauline Walker said she was “pleased” to see “progress is being made” on education reform.
This included the publication of the Education (Scotland) Bill and changes to the national qualifications and inspection bodies, as well as “clearer timelines”.
Scottish education ‘at a crossroads’
Ms Walker, headteacher at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, said: “I believe we are standing at a crossroads in Scottish education right now and it is essential we take the right path. It’s really tough out there - but there are solutions to the big issues we face, if we take the right steps.”
She stressed that all this change came amid “a backdrop of real challenge”, saying: “Across the country, we face pressures of austerity, increasing demands and complex needs.
“Attendance, mental health and wellbeing, behaviour and ASN [additional support needs] - these are not abstract issues. These are daily realities for every school leader here today.”
Ms Walker added: “I don’t believe we should be asked to ‘do more with less’. But we are being asked to be creative - to find solutions, to reimagine how we use what we have, and to keep our focus firmly on what matters most.
“Through it all, one truth has become increasingly clear: wellbeing matters.”
The health and wellbeing of leaders, teachers and learners “underpin everything we do”, Ms Walker said.
Her year as president comes to a close at tomorrow morning’s session of the SLS conference in Balloch, when she will be succeeded by Kirsty Ayed, headteacher at King’s Park Secondary School in Glasgow.
A changing education landscape made it “even more important that we take time to connect, to listen, and to support one another”, said Ms Walker, with SLS providing “a professional community of understanding, experience and encouragement”.
Impact of support from colleagues
She added: “This year I have felt this more than ever as I have had to take a break out of school due to personal health issues. The care from my team in school, my local authority, SLS and colleagues from across Scotland has shown me just how important that support is.
“I was never forgotten, and that mattered - every text, email or phone call made a positive difference, and I am immensely grateful for everyone’s support.”
Ms Walker highlighted that SLS has made Cancer Research UK its conference charity this year, and she paid tribute to a fellow headteacher who died in December 2024 after a cancer diagnosis.
She said: “Every year in schools we, as leaders, support colleagues with a cancer diagnosis and with the increasing prevalence it is more important than ever to have new and innovative treatments. We also very sadly lost one of our executive members to cancer last year, Andrew Sharkey [who was headteacher at St Kentigern’s Academy in West Lothian].”
Mr Sharkey will be posthumously awarded honorary SLS membership this evening.
Ms Walker also used her speech to share her understanding of leadership, which “isn’t always about grand gestures or sweeping change”.
She said: “More often, it’s about those quiet, persistent nudges - the steady, deliberate movements that, over time, shift culture and practice.”
She added that a “spirit of collective leadership” had come to the fore among school leaders in the past year, at a time when “momentum is building” around education reform.
She called on every SLS member “to continue contributing - to share your views, challenge assumptions, and ensure that reform not only improves the system, but meets the very diverse needs of our schools”.
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