Let’s Hear it for School Belonging
By Professor Kathryn Riley
Let’s Hear it for School BelongingJul 20, 2022
‘Belonging, Becoming and Believing’ in our Global World
A sense of school belonging is just the starting point for young people.
When young people feel confident and that they belong, they learn to respect each other and accept differences. They listen to others, and learn how to make their own decisions, for the right reasons.
A sense of belonging enables young people to grow up to be the best adults they can be. As compassionate adults, they come to see themselves as citizens who respect each other and the planet and can make their distinctive contributions to society.
Contributors:
- Professor María Teresa Rojas, International Researcher from Chile
- Anton Florek, Lead Associate, Staff College UK
- Dr Manuela Mendoza, Chilean and UK Researcher
- Jo Riley and young people from Cremer Primary School, Hackney
- Jamie Pyke (Rapper)
- Professor Kathryn Riley, UCL Institute of Education and The Art of Possibilities
Zero tolerance or a sense of us?
School leaders set the tone for what is valued. Their expectations shape the climate - for exclusion or belonging.
Those leaders who choose to take a compassionate approach, work to help create a sense of oneness and belonging, so that when young people step over the school gates, the threshold, they become part of a community. Whatever else is going on in their lives, they know that they are stronger in their school by being together.
Compassion is the super-glue that brings schools, families and communities together.
Contributors:
- Dame Mary Marsh, past headteacher and Chief Executive of the NSPCC
- Jo Dibb, past Executive headteacher, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, London
- Dave McPartlin, headteacher Flakefleet School, Fleetwood
- Jamie Pyke (Rapper)
- Professor Kathryn Riley, UCL Institute of Education and The Art of Possibilities
Acceptance: This is how we look. This is how we talk.
Belonging is that sense of being somewhere you can be confident you will fit in and feel safe in your identity: a feeling of being at home in a place.
In schools where belonging works, the student-teacher relationship is powerful. Young people feel trusted. They believe that their voice is heard and that what they say matters.
They are happier, more confident and perform better academically. Their teachers feel more valued, and their families connected.
Contributors:
- Dr Kelly-Ann Allen, Australian Psychologist and Educator
- Imani Clough, UK Educator and Trainer
- School students from University of Birmingham School
- Jamie Pyke (Rapper)
- Professor Kathryn Riley, UCL Institute of Education and The Art of Possibilities
You are all in Detention
School exclusion and marginalisation has an impact on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society.
When young people are stigmatised and excluded, their families come to see themselves as failures. When they can’t find a sense of belonging in the formal structures, they look for it elsewhere, becoming vulnerable to grooming or being up in gangs.
In this uncertain world, we all need to have a sense of self-esteem, and a place where we belong.
Contributors:
- Janet Foster Associate Professor of Criminology, London School of Economics.
- Anita Berlin, GP and Professor or Community Medicine at BARTS.
- Shaun Brown, The Difference, the UK.
- Jamie Pyke (Rapper).
- Professor Kathryn Riley, UCL Institute of Education and The Art of Possibilities.
Shut up and leave me alone
At the deepest level, belonging is what defines us as humans.
How young people experience their school days will stay with them throughout their life. For some, ‘belonging’ begins as a struggle to be accepted in school. Young people may feel like outsiders. ‘Shut up and leave me alone’ were the only words that 10-year-old refugee ‘Aisha’ could find to say in English, after three weeks in her school.
Others find themselves ostracized: informally by their peers, or formally through punishments which exclude them for periods of time. Being ostracised is a special pain that is lived and re-lived.
Contributors:
- Dr Mohammed Elmeski, International Educator from Morocco
- Catherine Gladwell, Refugee Education UK
- Kipling D. Williams, American Professor of Psychology
- Jamie Pyke (Rapper)
- Professor Kathryn Riley, UCL Institute of Education and The Art of Possibilities