SDS Education in Schools
Case Sudies
St. Andrew's Primary School and Nursery Class in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, have recently launched the Skills 4.0 meta-skills framework in their school. This case study highlights the approach they’ve taken to embedding meta-skills into their curriculum.
Colette Lambie, Acting Head Teacher at St. Andrew’s, explains why the school chose to launch the meta-skills framework and how the journey has been so far:
“Although we had always prioritised skills development through our learning and teaching, it felt more essential than ever to equip our pupils for life in an ever-changing world. The Meta-Skills 4.0 framework from Skills Development Scotland gave us the structure we needed to take a consistent, whole-school approach to developing these vital capabilities across all ages and stages.
A previous focus in our School Improvement Plan—prompted by HMIe feedback—was to develop more robust tracking of skills progression. We saw this as an ideal opportunity to strengthen that work, and we knew that to truly embed the framework, pupils had to be at the heart of it.
We launched our journey with a pupil-created video, introducing the meta-skills in child-friendly language, ensuring our learners were fully invested from the start. The framework has also provided us with a shared language of skills, which has been invaluable in building staff confidence in tracking and discussing skills progression. Tools such as the self-evaluation resources have empowered pupils to reflect on their own development and set meaningful goals, particularly in areas where they feel less confident.
Our monthly Meta-Skills Master Awards have helped raise the profile further, ensuring all pupils can name the skills and understand their relevance to learning, life and work. I feel confident in saying that our pupils now not only recognise these skills but actively strive to develop them across the curriculum.
For schools beginning this journey, our advice would be to start small, involve pupils meaningfully from the outset, and focus on building a whole-school culture where meta-skills are recognised, valued, and celebrated.”
Here Acting Principal Teacher, Laura Henderson has put together a video showing us what embedding meta-skills looks like in practice at St Andrew's.
And here are some pupils telling us how they achieved their meta-skills awards.
Meta Skills Master
Focusing - “I got the Meta Skills Master award for focusing at all times during learning. This has been a target for me, so I was really proud of myself.” Liam
Meta Skills Gold Medallist
Creativity - “I was a Meta Skills Gold Medallist because I got my writing complete, and it was full of creative descriptions.” Evvie
School video
As part of the launch of the meta-skills framework, the school has created a video explaining what meta-skills are and how developing them benefits their pupils. Not only does the creation of the video help embed meta-skills within St Andrew’s, but it also provided a fantastic opportunity for the participating pupils to develop many of their meta-skills in the process.
The video has also been shared with other primary schools to help them on their skills journey.
Jennifer Flanagan, Acting Head Teacher at St. Aloysius Primary and Honeywell Nursery, tells us how the school used the video to raise awareness of meta-skills:
“We used the St. Andrew’s Launching Meta-skills video to kick-start our journey in developing meta-skills. It provided real-life examples, explained by children, making it relatable and engaging for our learners.”
And finally, here are some thoughts from Tom Harley, Skills Development Scotland’s Education Team Manager on St. Andrew’s meta-skills journey:
“St. Andrew’s Primary School has made impressive progress in embedding meta-skills into their curriculum. The strong commitment from the senior management team has been key to ensuring a whole-school approach to launching and sustaining the framework. It’s inspiring to see the enthusiasm from both staff and pupils and how they are making meta-skills a natural part of everyday learning and teaching.”