To celebrate Scottish Interfaith Week 2025’s theme of ‘Our Future’, we asked young people about the values and social justice issues that mattered to them.

Any primary school class or secondary school pupil in Scotland could enter the competition and be in line to win a prize.

We invited young people to use any creative medium to explore a value or social justice issue and ways to take action.

We received over fifty entries and have now concluded the (very difficult!) judging.

Primary school winners

Primary schools could submit one entry per class. Originally one class would win a £50 voucher and a certificate, and another class would be awarded a runner-up certificate.

However, Mrs Taylor’s P4a and P4b classes at Giffnock Primary School wrote two beautiful poems about the importance of kindness.

We struggled to chose which poem should win as they were both excellent, and in the end we decided to award both classes as joint winners.

Well done to all the pupils of P4a and P4b: you created a collaborative work of art which emphasised the impact kindness can have on ourselves and others.

Mrs Taylor’s classes won a £25 voucher per class and received certificates in the post. Congratulations!

Poem by P4a:

At Giffnock we are kind / Kindness is one of our school value / And something we choose to do/ At school we share / And when we share we always care / When somebody falls / I’ll let them play with my foot balls / We talk to everyone / Are nice and have fun / I’ll lend you a friend / Then we’ll dance ’til the end / And also we will find / It’s good to be kind.

Poem by P4b:

At Giffnock you will find / Everyone is very kind / We don’t fight / Because it never feels right / If you ever fall / We will help you all / We always care / Cause you should share / If you ever cry / We will always ask you why / We are a very kind community / With loads of unity / I’d laugh until the end / if you’d be my friend / no one gets left behind / Cause we are very kind.

Secondary school winners and runners-up

Secondary schools could submit multiple entries, one per pupil. The winner would receive a £20 voucher and a certificate. The three runners-up would receive a £10 voucher each and certificates.

Dozens of secondary school pupils sent in entries but the quality of work from one particular school stood out.

The quality, creativity and insight of the entries from Bucksburn Academy truly impressed us. As a result four students from the school are being awarded – congratulations!

The winner is Haniya for designing an eye-catching digital painting about mental health and for writing an informative letter about the importance of mental health and ways to improve it. You can view Haniya’s poster and story as a PDF.

The runners-up are Luna, Annabell and Gurmehar for creatively and informatively exploring the issues of climate change, access to healthcare, and discrimination.

 

Looking ahead

Thank you to everyone who created an entry for the Our Future competition, we were delighted so many young people got involved and shared what matters to them.

The future of interfaith relations in Scotland will thrive with a generation of young people who are passionate about social justice and shared values.

We hope to create more school resources for teachers next year, until then here is a collection of other entries we loved:

Find out more about the Our Future: School Competition for Scottish Interfaith Week.