Belonging in Schools: From Staff Culture to Pupil Experience

In the first session of the Belonging in Schools Webinar Series hosted by Edurio and The Belonging Effect, experts Hannah Wilson and Zahara Chowdhury dug deep into these exact questions. Drawing from their extensive work with schools, they shared practical, actionable insights on how to transform school culture from the staffroom to the classroom.

Navigating the biggest challenges in belonging in schools

When it comes to cultivating belonging in schools, leaders often face roadblocks on two fronts: workforce demographics and communication barriers.

• Workforce diversification and retention: Hannah says that recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse cohort of staff, leaders, and governors remains a major challenge. To overcome this, schools must move toward active listening. She also emphasises the need for regular feedback loops, structured listening activities, and thorough exit interviews.
• Courageous conversations: Zahara points out that many educators struggle with having uncomfortable conversations and knowing exactly what to say (and when to say it) in both classrooms and staffrooms.

 The solution: Overcoming these hurdles requires deep consistency. Schools must build a shared language, routine, and approach to belonging so that all students and staff feel secure within the school’s overarching identity – and their own individual identities within it.

Extending belonging beyond the school gates

Schools do not exist in a vacuum; creating a sense of belonging for children means engaging with families and the wider local community.

• Meet communities on their terms: Zahara advises school leaders to physically step into the community. Go to community strongholds, local environments, or even the supermarket to engage with families where they feel safe and on their terms.
• Co-create solutions: True collaboration means enabling what the community actually needs, rather than what school leaders think they need.
• Celebrate diverse identities: Highlighting local initiatives that champion diversity can bridge the gap between home and school. For instance, looking at local community projects – like Bristol’s Black Joy Trail – can provide beautiful blueprints for celebrating diverse identities and fostering joy.

First steps to take right now

If you want to immediately shift your school’s culture toward greater belonging, the experts recommend starting with these two tangible steps:

1. Implement a shared DEIB calendar: Build a shared Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) calendar for all staff. Review your current assemblies and celebrations against it to see what might be missing, ensuring a healthy balance of focus across various awareness days, weeks, months, and religions.
2. Just ask (and listen): Be explicit with your school community. Send a clear message stating that you want to ensure everyone feels included, and humbly acknowledge that you might not always get it right. Establish clear, transparent communication lines detailing how you will gather feedback, what you will do with it, and the timelines for action. Whenever possible, look for opportunities to co-create policy with your community or experiment with frameworks like reverse mentoring.

Designing a neuroinclusive environment

Many neurodivergent pupils find themselves “tolerating” or masking at school rather than genuinely thriving. Because the traditional school model is highly systemic, reasonable adaptations alone are often not enough.

To address this, schools must look at neuroinclusivity through a wider lens:

• Consistency in adjustments: Staff and pupil training on neurodiversity is essential. Any reasonable adjustments made for pupils must be clearly communicated and clarified across the board so that the application is consistent.
• Shift from the individual to the system: Instead of focusing purely on modifying the minoritised student, look at the environment, the people, and the student experience around them. Investigate what everyone needs to learn and do to adapt, with the goal of creating a classroom and community that is universal by design.
• Investigate the “toleration”: Don’t be afraid to ask students and parents exactly what they are tolerating. Examine the nuances – from transition periods and email communications to clubs and curriculum materials.

The danger of "inclusion bases"

Many schools utilise inclusion-based or separate spaces for specific pupils, but how does this impact children’s sense of belonging in schools?

Hannah warns that we must critically examine whether our inclusion efforts are actually forms of hidden segregation or exclusion, such as placing students in a different building, room, or table. Leaders need to act as their own “critical friends” and ask hard, reflective questions: Why are these pupils in that base? Have they been excluded? Do they actually feel more included there? Addressing these systemic questions is incredibly powerful when embedded directly into a school’s strategic development plan.

Aligning belonging with inspection frameworks (Ofsted)

Belonging in schools isn’t just a pastoral nice-to-have; it sits squarely within modern inspection expectations. Under current inspection frameworks, Ofsted assesses belonging through the lenses of inclusion and personal development. Inspectors look past simply providing a “seat in the classroom” to evaluate several core areas:

• Curriculum representation: Does what you teach reflect the diversity of your school’s community? Minority groups, pupils with SEND, and disadvantaged children should feel visible and respected in the curriculum.
• Relational inclusion: Moving away from a strict reliance on rigid reward and sanction charts, inspectors look at how staff actively build trusting, emotionally safe relationships with pupils – particularly those struggling with behaviour or attendance.
• Pupil and parent voice: Evidence is gathered through surveys and discussions to check if learners truly feel they matter, have a voice, and are treated fairly.
• Safe spaces for dialogue: School leadership must demonstrate how they handle difficult conversations regarding discrimination and equality to foster peer-to-peer respect.

Measuring progress and overcoming pushback

How can school leaders ensure that their belonging and anti-harm work is genuinely shifting staff behaviour and building pupil trust?

• Track the data: Utilising weekly pulse surveys provides a quick, regular check-in on school climate. Interestingly, after robust training, schools often see a temporary spike in reported incidents. Don’t panic – this is usually a positive sign of increased consciousness and staff confidence in noticing and naming harm.
• Gather qualitative insight: Set up dedicated email inboxes and compile staff case studies to capture the nuances of the student experience. Remember, a wealth of research confirms that belonging and inclusion directly correlate with improved student outcomes and academic progress.

Navigating Community and Staff Pushback

When introducing topics like Pride or LGBT identities, leaders occasionally encounter friction from staff or students. While student voice is vital, areas that impact student safety and prevent harm cannot be ignored.

To move past “complicit compliance” or a snail’s pace, look at pushback with genuine curiosity. Ask yourself: Why is there pushback? Is it due to a lack of inclusion literacy, media influence, high workloads, or a feeling that other areas are being ignored? Often, friction is projected when staff or students feel a lack of belonging and wellbeing themselves. Introducing intersectional role models (such as showcasing that someone can co-exist within multiple identities, like being both LGBT and Muslim) can humanise these conversations and bridge cultural divides.

Looking to deepen your practice?

Cultivating true belonging in schools requires a continuous commitment to training, reflection, and structural change. For school leaders, governors, and trustees looking to further their development, The Belonging Effect offers a wealth of tailored toolkits, books, job boards, and specialised training frameworks – spanning inclusive recruitment, neurodiversity awareness, and governor DEIB oversight.

Ready to take the next step in measuring culture across your school network? Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Belonging Webinar series: How to Measure Belonging in Your Trust.