Today’s Edinburgh Conference on “Quality in Education: From Vision to Reality”, run by the city’s education department and TES Scotland, will present a variety of ways in which emotional intelligence can be nurtured.

The speakers include headteachers, advisers, psychologists and other professionals with experience of the emotions, thoughts and behaviour of young people. They will show how music and sport can enhance learning, self-esteem and creativity, how teachers can encourage the aspirations of all children, whether they are seen as emotionally troubled, spirited, average or exceptional, and how skills in the workplace are changing.

Myra Reid, East Renfrewshire’s quality development officer, believes that music is a valuable key for unlocking doors that connect children to their emotions. “Using instruments to invent music that expresses children’s thoughts and feelings is a key part of the 3-5 curriculum. We’ve been working with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to provide training for all our nursery staff in how creativity can be taught. This has raised everyone’s expectations.

“An important focus of the work each year is a musical show put on by the nursery children, which helps them recognise and express emotions such as fear, anger, sadness and joy through animal characters in the stories. Everyone has a great time and the children benefit socially and educationally in many ways.

“During rehearsals for our latest show, one of our staff watched a four-year-old, who can be very boisterous, reading the story to a three-year-old, who thought this was great, for 20 minutes.”

Frank Berry, headteacher at St Margaret’s High in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, has been trying to broaden the traditional physical education curriculum in his school and use it to boost achievement, reduce social exclusion and build positive lifestyles.

These are the ambitious aims of the new sports comprehensives being piloted at St Margaret’s, St Maurice’s and Braidhurst high schools in North Lanarkshire, in which funding and additional staff are provided to offer pupils a wide range of physical activities during and outwith school hours.

“Initially there were worries that this could change the nature of the comprehensives and they might become some kind of elite school like the sports colleges in England, but that’s not our intention at all,” says Mr Berry. “The idea is to build a new approach to sports and for children to gain improved health options and better opportunities for participating in and enjoying the life of the school.

“We are developing a model that can be used in all schools and will benefit all young people.”

For David May, headteacher at Craigie High in Dundee, raising ambitions and aspirations is an important function of the school staff and management. Exams are important, he says, but ethos is the key.

“We need to widen our definition of achievement. It can be in exam results but it can also be in working with other pupils and trying to help them. It can be in participation in sport, drama or music. There are many ways to achieve.

“In terms of ethos, we consult widely through questionnaires and pupil councils. We have buddying and induction schemes to help the younger children. We’ve been working on pupil motivation and individual learning styles with presenters from outside.

“A big thing has been the development of a praise culture. We have done a lot of work with staff and pupils on emphasising the positive, both in the classrooms and outside. Last year, two sixth-year boys won a national award for working with youngsters in the local primary on managing emotion and conflict resolution.”

In talking about how to get the best out of “spirited children”, Elizabeth Morris, principal of the School of Emotional Literacy in Gloucestershire, makes the point that all of us need to begin with our own emotions if we want to influence the thinking, feelings and behaviour of others. “We have much more ability to manage ourselves than to control a child.

“We need to think positively about these children, show ourselves willing to have a relationship with them. They do respond. I’ve interviewed hundreds of students and what they invariably say is that if teachers aren’t prepared to have a relationship with them, why should they bother?”

Ms Morris also advises teachers to keep a check on their own state of health. “Being positive is far easier when energy levels are high. So it is very important that we keep monitoring our own energy and resources. We need to do checks on ourselves to make sure our fuel levels are high and we are sufficiently hydrated.

“If we allow ourselves to become dehydrated none of us can be as calm in dealing with a child because the concentrations of adrenaline and cortisol rise. Being dehydrated seriously affects the biochemistry of the brain.”

Also at the conference, teacher Elly Andersen will give a seminar on Denmark’s folkehojskoler tradition in which learners of all ages come together to focus on personal growth and ideals. Margaret Doran, Stirling’s head of schools, will talk about how to release teachers from current constraints and foster learning that is enterprising, imaginative, innovative and ambitious.

Douglas Bulloch, chair of the Scottish Children’s Reporters’

Administration, will discuss ways of integrating children’s services and improving the prospects of vulnerable young people. Psychiatrist Rob Wrate will explain how to support children and learning when their emotions are in turmoil.

And looking forward, Alasdair Ferguson, Standard Life’s education liaison manager, will talk on employers’ changing expectations of people and what schools can do.