How to Teach Empathy in Primary Schools: A Classroom Guide

Two classmates, one shared moment. Empathy grows from small acts of paying attention.

A child can know the word “kind” and still walk straight past a classmate in tears. Empathy isn’t something children simply have or don’t have. It’s a skill, and like reading or counting, it can be taught, modelled and practised. For a busy primary teacher that’s good news: building empathy doesn’t need a new slot on an already-full timetable. It needs a handful of small, repeatable habits woven into the day you already teach. This guide breaks down what empathy actually looks like in a KS1 and KS2 classroom, why it matters more than ever, and five practical ways to teach it, starting tomorrow morning.

Why empathy has to be taught, not assumed

We tend to treat empathy as a personality trait: some children are “the kind ones,” others aren’t. The evidence says otherwise: empathy is a learnable skill, and children who develop it cope better, fall out less, and ask for help sooner. The Education Endowment Foundation, the government’s independent what-works body for schools, finds that teaching social and emotional skills adds, on average, around four months of additional progress a year, alongside better behaviour and relationships. That matters now more than ever, because much of children’s social life has moved onto screens, where it is easy to forget there’s a real person on the other side.We explored this with parenting expert Sue Atkins, who called “empathy the seatbelt of life”, a skill that protects a child through whatever they meet. Read our full interview with Sue Atkins. In the classroom, that seatbelt isn’t fitted in one lesson. It’s built one small moment at a time.

What empathy looks like in a KS1–KS2 classroom

Empathy is easier to teach when you can spot it. In a primary classroom it looks like:

●       A child noticing someone sitting alone and choosing to sit with them.

●       Pausing to ask “Are you okay?” before deciding someone is “being annoying.”

●       Naming a feeling (“you look frustrated”) instead of only reacting to the behaviour.

●       Considering how a character in a story might feel, and why.

It also changes with age. In KS1, empathy is concrete and immediate: noticing a friend is sad, fetching help, sharing without being asked. By KS2, children can hold a more complicated idea, that a person can feel two things at once, or that the child who lashes out might be the one struggling most. Pitch the question to match the age. “How does she feel?” in Year 1 becomes “Why might he have done that?” in Year 5.

None of these are grand gestures. They’re small acts of noticing, and noticing is the root of empathy. When you can name what empathy looks like, you can catch it, praise it, and grow it. That is exactly what the five methods below help you do.

5 ways to teach empathy in the classroom

1. Model it out loud. Children copy what they see named. Narrate your own empathy: “I noticed Sam looked left out at break, so I asked him to join our game.” You’re showing them empathy is something you do, not just feel.

2. Name the feeling first. Before solving a playground fall-out, slow down and ask: “How do you think she felt when that happened?” Empathy starts with recognition. Naming feelings, theirs and others’, is the single most repeatable habit you can build.

3. Use story and film. A character lets children practise empathy safely, from the outside. Ask “What would you have done?” and “Why might they have acted that way?” Visual stories are especially powerful: they let a whole class feel the same moment together, then talk about it.

4. Role-play the other side. Have children act out both sides of a small disagreement, then swap. Stepping into someone else’s shoes, literally, turns an abstract idea into something felt.

5. Set a kindness task to take home. End the week with one small, specific action: “Notice someone who needs help, then help them.” Empathy that’s practised outside the classroom is empathy that sticks.

None of these need a worksheet or a spare hour. Pick one, do it consistently for a fortnight, and you’ll start to see the noticing spread.

Why empathy is harder to teach now, and what helps

Teachers are not imagining it. More of childhood now happens through a screen, where you cannot see the other person’s face, or watch your words land on it. A child can be unkind online and never see the hurt it causes. That missing feedback, the flicker on someone’s face, is the exact thing empathy is built from, and it is the thing a screen removes.

The classroom is where you put it back. Every method above does this in a small way: naming a feeling out loud, reading a face in a story, standing in someone else’s shoes for two minutes. The good news is that empathy responds to practice at any age. A class that practises noticing, even for five minutes a day, gets visibly better at it within a term. You are not fighting technology. You are teaching the skill it quietly skips.

Why film makes empathy stick

There’s a reason story sits in that list. Children learn empathy best when they feel it before they’re told to. A well-chosen short film does exactly that, putting the whole class inside someone else’s experience in a few minutes. We see it in our own results. In our March 2025 pilot across six schools, children’s empathy scores rose from 79% to 97% after the programme. At Be Kind Movement, every workshop is built around short films for this reason: it’s the difference between explaining empathy and letting children feel it. Over 3, 5 or 10 weeks, our Kindness in School Programme uses film, discussion and creative activities to build empathy and the wider emotional skills underneath it. Across our work so far we have reached 1,682 children through 183 workshops in 37 schools, and 100% of teachers recommend us.

Start tomorrow: your free classroom activities

The five methods above are the resource: no sign-up, no download, no catch. Save this page or print it, and pick one to try on Monday morning. Most browsers will print a clean copy straight from here.

And if you’d like empathy taught for you, using the films that make it land, find out more about the Kindness in School Programme, or get in touch to bring a free workshop to your school (free to low-income and deprived schools).

Frequently Asked Questions: Teaching empathy in primary schools

What are the 5 A’s to develop empathy?

You will see several A-lists online, a 5 A’s here, a 3 A’s there, and they vary by author because there is no single evidence-based framework behind them. The pattern underneath them all is consistent though: notice the feeling, name it, and act on it. That is the same habit the five methods above build, and it is the version a primary class can actually practise.

Should a 7 year old show empathy?

Yes, in an emerging form. By around age 7 most children can recognise how someone else feels and respond to it, though they still need adult modelling and plenty of practice. As PBS’s child development guidance puts it, empathy is a skill, one we can cultivate and strengthen with practice. If a 7 year old in your class finds it hard, that is a teaching opportunity, not a red flag.

How do you teach empathy in school?

Model it out loud, name feelings as they happen, use story and film so children can feel a situation from the outside, role-play both sides, and set one small kindness task to take home. The five methods above walk through each step. The common thread: children learn empathy by doing it, not by being told about it.

What is empathy for KS2 children?

Keep the definition simple for KS2: empathy is noticing how someone else feels and caring enough to do something about it. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone; empathy is standing in their shoes. A short film is often the quickest way to show the difference, because children feel what the character feels first and find the words after.