Measuring Pupil Belonging

Pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement drops sharply between Year 7 and Year 8. The evidence has pointed to it for years, and the government’s schools white paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, has now made it every school’s business. By 2029, all schools in England will be expected to monitor pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement, however, the DfE estimates that only around 60% currently do.

Lauren Dooley and her team at Greater Manchester Education Trust began this work long before it became a requirement. This is Part One of the trust’s story: how it prepared to measure pupil belonging, from the research review to pupil consultation to its first Pupil Belonging Survey with Edurio. Part Two will follow with what the data revealed and how the trust’s schools responded.

Belonging falls between Year 7 and Year 8

The work began through GMET’s involvement in the Reach Foundation’s Cradle to Career programme, which is built around civic duty, an all-through curriculum and relationships. Three of the trust’s four secondary schools signed up for the relationships thread, which Lauren leads.

When the team reviewed the evidence, one finding stood out: the sharp decline in engagement that many pupils experience between Year 7 and Year 8.

The evidence pointed to what pupils lose at transition: relationships, routine and a sense of belonging. Secondary structures feel less personal. Pupils report lower autonomy, lower trust and reduced feelings of competence. The move from a class of 30 to a year group of 200 changes what belonging feels like entirely.

Lauren was careful not to assume the national picture applied directly to GMET’s schools.

What the school’s white paper says about measuring pupil belonging

GMET’s preparation has since taken on a wider significance. The white paper, published in early 2026, sets out that every school will be expected to monitor pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement by 2029, supported by a new Pupil Engagement Framework that will give schools structure and guidance for doing it well.

The case for acting is clear. The white paper notes that UK 15-year-olds report the lowest life satisfaction of 27 European countries, and that a declining number of young people feel they belong in school. With roughly four in ten schools not yet measuring belonging at all, most trusts will need to build this capability over the next three years.

That is what makes GMET’s approach worth sharing. It shows what it looks like to measure pupil belonging properly: grounded in research, tested with pupils and designed to produce data schools can act on.

A team wider than pastoral

Rather than treating belonging as the responsibility of pastoral teams alone, GMET set up a cross-school working group with a senior leader, a Head of Year 7 and a Head of Year 8 from each of the three participating schools. The focus on the move from Year 7 to Year 8 was deliberate, reflecting how significant that stage is for pupils’ sense of connection and identity.

Reviewing the existing belonging measures

Before drafting a single question, the team reviewed the established measures of school belonging: the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM, 1993), the School Belongingness Scale (2017) and the Student Belonging Scale (2025), alongside Solution Tree, a pupil-friendly framework widely used in the United States.

The PSSM remains one of the most widely validated measures and is referenced in Manchester’s local authority inclusion resources. But it was developed in the early 1990s, and it places less emphasis on identity-based inclusion. For a trust where one secondary school has more than 70% of pupils speaking English as an additional language, that mattered.

No single tool captured everything the trust wanted to understand. So the team built its own framework, drawing on the strongest elements of the established research while making sure the questions reflected the lived experiences and identities of the pupils it serves.

Testing the questions with pupils first

Before rolling the draft survey out across schools, Lauren ran a focus group with Year 7 pupils, positioning herself as an independent facilitator rather than a representative of any one school. The group was intentionally representative rather than random: the pastoral lead brought together pupils reflecting the range of experiences, backgrounds and needs the survey would need to capture. To encourage open participation, the session was designed to feel purposeful and valued: pupils met in the boardroom, with refreshments and enough time to work through the questions at their own pace.

The pilot proved invaluable. Small but important barriers quickly emerged.  One question used “Y” and “N” response options on the assumption that every pupil would understand the format. Not every pupil did. Some terminology needed explaining, and one pupil misunderstood the task entirely. In response, the team refined the survey and created a glossary of key terms, displayed openly for all pupils rather than offered only to those who asked, ensuring a more equitable and accessible experience.

Delivery was planned as carefully as the questions. The survey would run during ICT lessons, introduced by a standardised presentation used across all participating schools, within a common survey window to keep comparisons between schools reliable.

Choosing a pupil belonging survey platform

Just before the Easter break, with the survey finalised, Lauren learnt in a planning conversation with Edurio that the platform was about to launch its own Pupil Belonging Survey. When the team compared Edurio’s survey with their draft, the two aligned to a striking degree. Through months of independent research, pupil consultation and design, GMET had arrived at many of the same themes and questions.

After careful consideration, the trust took that alignment as validation of its approach, and adopted Edurio’s survey for what it added: national benchmarking, professionally managed delivery, and analysis of how experiences differ for pupils eligible for free school meals, pupils with SEND and pupils with differing attendance profiles, tracked over time.

Staying focused on Years 7 and 8

As plans developed, the team considered surveying pupils across Years 7 to 11 straight away. They decided against it.

The design gives GMET both a longitudinal view and an annual snapshot. The trust will follow the current cohort through to Year 11 while bringing each new Year 7 intake into the survey cycle. The aim was never to gather as much data as possible, but to understand belonging at the point where it is most at risk, at a key point in pupils’ secondary school journey and act on what the data shows.

What happens after the survey

For GMET, the survey is the starting point for deeper listening. Responses are anonymous by default, but pupils can add their name if a question raises something they want to discuss. Each school has follow-up routes in place, from a dedicated letterbox to an open-door approach. Once the data has been analysed, focus groups with pupils will explore the themes behind the numbers.

For Lauren, the value of the survey lies not only in identifying strengths and areas for development, but in creating the space for schools to pause, reflect and challenge long-held assumptions. In a sector often characterised by pace and competing priorities, that reflection is a deliberate act.

Pupil voice is the first of three perspectives. The trust plans to gather the views of parents and carers on transition next, with staff voice to follow, so findings can be triangulated across pupils, families and school professionals.

Part Two: what the data reveals

GMET planned to complete its Pupil Belonging Survey before the end of the academic year, with Year 7 as the priority cohort. The timing lets pupils reflect on their first year of secondary school while it is fresh, and gives schools the findings early enough to improve the experience for the next intake. In Part Two of this case study, we will cover what the data showed, where it challenged assumptions, and what the trust’s schools changed as a result.

Speak to a survey specialist about running a belonging survey in your school or trust: