Peer Education Project Scotland

The Peer Education Project is a low-cost, evidence-based and effective approach to addressing the challenges children and young people are facing with their mental health and well-being.

This secondary school based educational programme involves school staff being trained as Project Leads and supported by the Foundation to implement the project in their school. Project Leads then recruit and train a cohort of senior pupils as Peer Educators who go on to deliver mental health lessons to all S1 pupils.

The model aims to bypass the walls young people may put up when being taught such personal topics by adults whom they may feel are detached from their personal experience, while also creating an attainment and learning opportunity for senior pupils.

Embedding this mental health knowledge and understanding universally in the curriculum contributes to a whole school approach to positive mental health and wellbeing.

PEP Pilot in Scotland

Following the success of the Peer Education Project in England which began in 2015-16, the Foundation in Scotland embarked on a pilot in 2019. Five schools from different local authorities across Scotland took part and 138 senior pupils were trained as Peer Educators who then delivered lessons to around 800 S1 pupils.

We worked collaboratively with everyone involved in our pilot schools to evaluate the impact of the project and explore ideas for improvement and development. As a result, the learning from the Scotland pilot has informed and contributed to some significant developments in the project both locally and nationally.

The Peer Education Project is now available to all schools in Scotland, you can register on the PEP platform below.

Sign up to PEP