Written by Dr Donna de Haan
Dr Donna de Haan is a sociologist, qualitative researcher and Founder of The Diversity Doctor. She helps brave leaders make the invisible culture of their organisations visible by uncovering the patterns shaping people’s everyday experiences. Donna is the creator of The Living School Model™, which helps schools create the cultural conditions in which staff thrive and pupils flourish, and the author of the forthcoming book If These Walls Could Talk. Find out more at www.diversity-doctor.com.
Belonging is about to become another thing schools are expected to measure. And I can already see what could happen next.
- A new survey.
- A new initiative.
- A new responsibility added to somebody’s already overflowing workload.
But belonging is not another piece of work to add to the school improvement plan.
Belonging is an outcome of how your school already works.
It is shaped by the interactions pupils have with the adults around them. By the way they are greeted in the morning. By what happens when they get something wrong. By whether expectations feel clear and consistent. By whether their contribution is noticed and whether they feel safe enough to ask for help, express who they are or say when something does not feel right. Pupils are experiencing the culture of their school every day. The question is whether we are paying attention to what that experience is telling us.
Lived experience is data
Schools already hold vast amounts of data about pupils: attendance, attainment, behaviour, exclusions and engagement. But much of this is lagging data. It tells us what has happened after a pupil has started to disengage, withdraw or struggle. It shows us the outcome, but it does not always reveal the everyday experiences that created it.
The lived experience of pupils and staff is the data being created in real time.
Belonging is present in the small interactions that happen long before a pattern appears on a dashboard. It is shaped through relationships, routines, decisions and responses that may seem insignificant in isolation but collectively teach people what they can expect from the school. That is why measuring belonging cannot begin and end with asking pupils whether they feel they belong. We also need to understand the culture producing their answer.
Pupils experience school through its adults
When we talk about pupil belonging, our attention naturally turns towards pupils. But pupils experience their school largely through their interactions with adults, and those adults are also having a lived experience of the same organisation.
Do staff feel valued and trusted? Do they experience clarity and consistency? Can they ask questions, contribute ideas or admit that they are struggling without fear of judgement? Do they feel part of the school community, or simply responsible for delivering within it?
This matters because adults do not create culture from outside it. They create it while experiencing it. A teacher who feels trusted, supported and able to contribute is working within very different cultural conditions from one who feels unheard, depleted or constantly scrutinised. Those conditions travel. They influence the tone of classrooms, the quality of relationships and the emotional experience pupils have throughout the school day. This does not mean that pupil and staff experiences will always be the same. But they are not separate. If we want to understand whether pupils belong, we must also become curious about whether the adults responsible for creating that belonging experience it themselves.
Start by noticing what is already happening
The good news is that schools do not need to create belonging from nothing. It is already alive in many of the relationships, routines and practices taking place every day. There will also be moments when it becomes inconsistent, conditional or harder for some people to access.
The work is to notice both.
Before launching something new, look at how your school currently works. Where are people already experiencing trust, connection and contribution? Where are they having to work harder to feel included? What are pupils and staff learning about what happens when they speak, struggle, challenge or need something different? That is where the real story of belonging begins.
I have created a free resource, How to Build and Measure Belonging Without Adding Another Initiative, exploring the five questions school leaders are asking following the White Paper—and the answers many schools may be missing.
If you would like ongoing support to look at your school through a different lens, you can also join the Living School Leadership Community. Each week, I share one idea and one practical invitation to help school and trust leaders notice the culture they are already creating and decide where their attention will have the greatest impact. Members can also join live Listening Circles to explore these questions alongside other leaders, without judgement and without pretending to have everything figured out.
Because belonging will not be created by the initiative we launch next. It is being created by the way our schools work today.