Each year we receive more workshop submissions than we can believe. This year we had over 90 incredible submissions from across the sector. Below you'll find more than 25 workshops carefully selected to inspire and educate.
Want to see the full programme? Check out that here. Need tickets? Head back to the hub mainpage to buy them.
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Day One: Session One | Session Two
Day Two: Session Three | Session Four | Session Five
Themes
Day One
Session One | 11:10am - 12:20pm
Day One: Session Two
Day Two: Session Three | Session Four | Session Five
Session 1A
Lord Provost + Imperial Suite
(main hall)
Session 1B – Ellisand Suite
“It's not just their job, it's our whole lives”: Armed Forces life through a children's rights lens
Forces Children Scotland
This co-produced workshop delves into life of an armed forces children and young people through the lens of children’s rights. Introducing the newly launched Forces Children’s Rights Charter, Forces Children Scotland will outline the charter, the activities used to explore the topic with children and young people, and how adults across Scotland can be Forces Children’s Rights Defenders.
Session 1B
Ellisand Suite
Session 1C – Clarinda Suite
A brighter future: Working together to end youth homelessness in Scotland
rock trust
We are battling with an ongoing Housing Emergency, but we know that homelessness is not just a housing issue — it's everyone’s issue. Youth and children services can play a critical role in preventing and intervening before a young person and their family reach crisis point. This workshop will invite attendees to step into a young person's shoes to experience what meaningful prevention and early intervention can look like, how they can implement this in their roles and why a cross-sector and pathways approach are key ideas if we are to end youth homelessness in Scotland.
Session 1C
Clarinda Suite
Session 1D – Alloway Suite
Care experience + education: navigating children’s rights at school with Enquire
Enquire
Enquire’s new toolkit, Navigate, provides advice and information about care experienced children and young people’s rights to support at school. This interactive session will dive into how and why the toolkit was created, how care experienced voices helped to shape it, and how it can help all adults improve care experienced pupils’ time at school.
Together we will consider some key issues impacting care experienced children at school and how the additional support for learning framework can be used to better listen to and support care experienced pupils. There will also be opportunities to explore and give feedback on the Navigate toolkit.
Session 1D
Alloway Suite
Session 1E – Bearsden Suite (upstairs)
Road Safety Scotland (RSS) sees road safety as a lifelong-learning process which is everyone’s responsibility. Supporting the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for children to safely be in road environments, and also when young people become independent road users, across all modes, including pedestrians, cyclists, passengers and drivers, are essential. All RSS road safety resources for ages 3–18 years are linked to Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and the session will give an insight to the free online resources available, paying particular attention to the new secondary school resource.
Session 1F – Scott Suite (upstairs)
This workshop will equip participants with a children’s rights-based approach to social media use, emphasising the importance of supporting young people’s well-being online. Attendees will be introduced to two valuable resources: Quit Fighting for Likes and Online High, which provide practical tools and insights for addressing online challenges faced by children and young people. Through interactive exercises, participants will gain hands-on experience in delivering selected activities from these toolkits, enabling them to apply these methods in their own work with young people. By the end of the session, attendees will feel prepared to support children to positively navigate social media.
Session 2A – Lord Provost + Imperial Suite (main hall)
“That meltdown came out of nowhere!”: When safe becomes scary
...with kids
This will be an interactive workshop exploring how children who have experiences of being removed from the family home can develop hidden trauma triggers which then show up, through behaviour, in so called safe places. This workshop is suitable for social workers, foster carers, adopters, educational staff who are often confused by children’s behaviours that seemingly “come out of nowhere”. Using a range of props as trigger items, we will ask participants to reflect on how the ordinary can become super scary in the mind of children with care experience, unable to verbalise their experiences but communicating their stories via behaviour.
Session 2A
Lord Provost + Imperial Suite
(main hall)
Session 2C – Clarinda Suite
Supporting grieving children and young people
Child Bereavement UK
“When my mum died, it felt like no-one could bring themselves to say anything to me.”
Every day in the UK, around 127 children and young people experience the death of a parent; many more will have a sibling, grandparent, friend or other significant person die. Around 1 in 29 children – one in every typical classroom – have been bereaved. Bereavement can cause a huge range of feelings and thoughts, and children’s physical health and wellbeing can also be affected by loss. Grief also interferes with learning. In our workshop, we will look at helpful ways to support these often-overlooked mourners.
Session 2C
Clarinda Suite
Session 2D – Alloway Suite
Good support can make a world of difference. This workshop explores what that support looks like for children and young people affected by someone else’s substance use. By educating and delving into what this can mean for children and young people, we can reduce the stigma of living in a home with substance use.
Session 2E – Bearsden Suite (upstairs)
Building inclusive, active communities: Supporting wellbeing through junior parkrun
parkrun
Junior parkrun supports the physical and mental health of children and young people – and strives to be inclusive and welcoming to all ability levels. This workshop explores how junior parkrun aims to inspire children and young people to get active, build connections across diverse socio-economic groups, and empower local communities to engage with inclusive, sustainable and supportive initiatives that encourage young people and those around them to develop lifelong healthy habits.
Session 2E
Bearsden Suite
(upstairs)
Session 2F – Scott Suite (upstairs)
Breaking barriers in mental health stigma and discrimination for young people
See Me
Through sharing lived experience examples, this workshop will focus on increasing participant’s knowledge and understanding of mental health stigma and discrimination for young people and the impact it can have. The session will aim to build confidence and capacity in having supportive conversations free from stigma and discrimination with young people as well as create space to share learning and anti-stigma action to take in settings and communities. The session will also share tools and resources that participants can use with young people in their settings.
Session 2F
Scott Suite
(upstairs)
Session 3A – Lord Provost + Imperial Suite (main hall)
Building inclusive outdoor community play across Scotland for families with children with additional support needs
choose play & Thrive outdoors
In East Lothian, children and teenagers with additional support needs (ASN) have been developing ideas to influence the design of a new play space. Ensuring all of Scotland's children are able to play, learn and thrive outdoors is fundamental for a happier and healthier nation now and in the future. This workshop will consider whether Scotland is a play-friendly nation to children with ASN, asking, to what extent are their rights to play and participation under UNCRC articles 31, 23 and 12 respected and fulfilled?
Session 3A
Lord Provost + Imperial Suite
(main hall)
Session 3B – Ellisand Suite
Led by lived experience and designed to support and empower individuals who are adopted, living in kinship care or living with FASD, #E aims to create a community for all ages. Learn how they have fostered a sense of belonging, built up peer support networks and shared lifelong transferrable skills. Explore both the barriers and the successes the project found as well as the importance of celebrating the small wins along the way. Hear directly from the young people involved and how it has impacted their lives.
Session 3C – Clarinda Suite
This interactive workshop will guide participants through the process of amplifying children’s voices in research, from conceptualisation to delivery. It will focus on co-production with children and key stakeholders, demonstrating how to design research that includes children as active collaborators. Attendees will learn practical approaches to engage children in meaningful decision-making, creating child-centred research methodologies, and developing interventions or policies that reflect children’s lived experiences. Through case studies, group discussions, and participatory exercises, the session will showcase best practices for ethical and inclusive research, aligning with the UNCRC and supporting The Promise.
Session 3C
Clarinda Suite
Session 3D – Alloway Suite
“Is that really all I am?” Exploring labels and language use
Language Leaders
This highly interactive workshop explores the language used around and for children and young people who are going through the hearing system. Jointly facilitated with young people who are part of the Language Leaders, attendees will participate in activities around word choice and the impact that has on a person and their environment.
Session 3D
Alloway Suite
Session 3E – Bearsden Suite (upstairs)
A culture of kindness and inclusion: Practical approaches to preventing and addressing bullying
Safe Strong & Free
Learn evidence-based, practical strategies to intervene safely and constructively in bullying situations. Including techniques to support children that have experienced bullying behaviour, how to challenge bullying behaviour, and create a positive, inclusive environment that discourages bullying. The session will encourage professionals to actively promote a culture of kindness and respect within their schools or organisations. By establishing clear anti-bullying practices and modelling positive behaviour, participants will be able to contribute to safer, more supportive environments for all children and young people.
Session 3E
Bearsden Suite
(upstairs)
Session 3F – Scott Suite (upstairs)
This session will be delivered by The Young Ambassadors, a group of young people from racialized backgrounds aged 12-16 who are interested in advocating for anti-racism and positive change in our world. Participants will develop their understanding of how to produce an audio recording. Attendees will explore what it means to have important conversations about topics such as racism, bullying and mental health in a recorded environment. This includes conversations about podcast etiquette, ongoing consent, editing, and more. Participants will leave with ideas of fun ways they can continue to play with audio design and recording in the world around them, on everyday devices such as a smartphone.
Session 4A – Lord Provost + Imperial Suite (main hall)
Learning for Sustainability in early years
West Lothian College
This workshop will highlight West Lothian College’s research project undertaken with colleagues at South Westphalia University, Germany comparing Learning for Sustainability in Early Years. Participants will examine the benefits to children's health and wellbeing in this approach and also how this can be linked to children's rights and meta skills. Practical activities will be provided that participants can take away and use in their own settings. This session will be co-presented with students from West Lothian College’s HND Childhood Practice course.
Session 4A
Lord Provost + Imperial Suite
(main hall)
Session 4B – Ellisand Suite
Peer mediation is a process by which children and young people help their peers deal with difficult situations in a constructive, non-violent way. This workshop will enable attendees to learn to recognise the causes and impacts of conflict and how it can escalate. Participants will be equipped with mediation tools and strategies that they can take away and use to resolve conflict in their own settings.
Session 4B
Ellisand Suite
Session 4C – Clarinda Suite
This workshop will showcase learning and examples of innovative and pupil led anti-poverty work from the Cost of the School Day Voice network. Having gathered young people’s views through their Big Question activity, Child Poverty Action Group explores young people’s opinions on poverty and problem costs at school, including everything from food at school to access to school trips. Explore what children and young people say helps reduce costs and boost family incomes and what supports they need in school.
Session 4F – Scott Suite (upstairs)
Thinking about stigma: promoting inclusive practice
Clued-Up
This interactive workshop seeks to raise awareness of the multiple forms of stigma young people face, as well as equip participants with tools to challenge stigma in everyday life. Explore the importance of trust and relationship-based practice while taking a deep dive into the language we use and unconscious bias.
Session 4F
Scott Suite
(upstairs)
Session 5A – Lord Provost + Imperial Suite (main hall)
At Creative Natives, a group of young people within Cyrenians, members developed an immersive film, “Learning to Surf”, which plunges viewers into how ordinary interactions, from taking public transport to visiting a supermarket, feel for a young person experiencing acute anxiety. Through this short film and other engaging activities, attendees will explore what young people want adults to know about their experiences with mental health and conflict in order to support them better. The session will also explore the links between family conflict, youth homelessness and mental health.
Session 5C – Clarinda Suite
Sharing the power of books for children with PMLD with PAMIS
Edinburgh International Book Festival
How do we make space for those who are voiceless? Children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) are often excluded from mainstream events because they communicate in their own way. This session will tackle the issue of inclusive events and share practical ways of encouraging meaningful participation from children with PMLD in arts events - with a particular focus on books and sensory stories. There will be the opportunity to explore sensory activities in practice and hear from families working with PAMIS about the impact being involved in the Book Festival has had on their lives and how books have the power to make a real difference.
Session 5C
Clarinda Suite
Session 5D – Alloway Suite
Storytelling for emotional intelligence and well-being
Midlothian Sure Start
Understand how stories can promote and aid emotional intelligence and well being. Oral storytelling can often engage children who don’t engage in other learning activities giving practitioners another avenue to explore to connect and foster learning. Take away ideas, skills, and methodology to weave metaphor into stories to foster emotional intelligence and well-being.
Session 5D
Alloway Suite
Session 5E – Bearsden Suite (upstairs)
Realising the rights of young people with additional support needs to access sex and relationship information.
healthy respect
Explore the new resource from the NHS regarding access to sex and relationship information for young people with additional support needs. This workshop will share learning from the approach taken, consultation process and development of the resource, as well as provide practical tools for talking to young people and those with additional support needs about sex and relationships.
Session 5E
Bearsden Suite
(upstairs)
Sponsors
