Written by Chloe Watterston
Chloe is an educator, athlete, and advocate for inclusive, curiosity-driven learning, dedicated to creating spaces where every young person feels safe, valued, and empowered. Her work across mainstream and SEND education, community projects, and curriculum reform is driven by a passion for amplifying marginalised voices and breaking down barriers to learning.
Belonging is not a bonus; it is a basic human need. Students who feel unseen, misunderstood, or undervalued will never thrive, no matter how carefully a curriculum looks on paper. Too often, belonging is treated as an afterthought- diversity weeks, a handful of posters in corridors, or the occasional themed assembly. These gestures may be well-meaning, but they fall short. True belonging requires more than decoration. It demands integration, empathy, and truth-telling.
Empathy has been stripped from education by a Eurocentric curriculum. When children encounter only one narrative, their own reflected back endlessly, or someone else’s never shown, they are denied the chance to be curious about differences. This absence breeds prejudice, isolation, and a narrow sense of the world. Representation matters, but not as an add-on or a gesture. It matters because it reflects humanity in its full breadth.
Learning outcomes are directly shaped by belonging. Research shows that students who feel they belong are more likely to achieve academically, develop social intelligence, and build resilience. A school that makes children feel like outsiders, whether because of race, culture, gender identity, or ability, unintentionally closes doors. Belonging must be woven into the fabric of school life from the start, not treated as an optional extra. When it is cultivated intentionally, young people gain the freedom to be curious, to trust, and to empathise. Without it, they turn elsewhere for meaning- often online, where they encounter narrow and sometimes toxic narratives about themselves and others.
Our most powerful tool for building empathy is storytelling. Stories act as mirrors, windows, and sliding doors: mirrors so children see themselves reflected; windows so they can look into other lives; and doors so they can step into perspectives far from their own. When children never see themselves in a story, they are told- silently but forcefully- that they are invisible. When they never encounter differences, they are denied the chance to develop empathy. Books, films, oral histories, and local community stories should not be treated as extras outside the ‘real curriculum.’ They are the curriculum.
Narratives that exclude Black contributions to science, art, geography, and literature are not neutral; they are erasure. Inclusive education cannot be about “adding diversity” on top of a whitewashed foundation. It must be about truth-telling. Black histories should be present in every subject, in every classroom, and in everyday conversations. Integration often provokes discomfort, but discomfort is not failure. It is learning. A curriculum rooted in truth will not always feel comfortable, but it will always be necessary.
Grades, too, can be barriers to belonging. Exams reward memorisation under pressure, punishing those who do not thrive in such conditions. For many learners, especially those from marginalised groups, this reinforces inequity rather than reducing it. Success needs to be redefined. Coursework and project-based assessment can value creativity, local histories, and lived experiences. A ‘D grade’ (which, in modern terms, equates to a Grade 3) may reflect extraordinary resilience and achievement in context. True equity means measuring children not against a singular rubric, but against their own journeys.
In classrooms, empathy cannot be demanded without exposure to difference. Curiosity grows when children encounter diverse stories and have safe spaces to talk about identity, race, gender, and belonging. Teachers play a vital role here. Students learn not only from what is said, but from what is modelled. When teachers show curiosity, challenge harmful narratives, and treat difference as opportunity rather than threat, they teach children to do the same.
Next come the practical shifts. Local heroes and community changemakers can be celebrated so that children encounter role models on their own doorstep. Equity, diversity, and inclusion must be reviewed with the same seriousness as safeguarding or attainment. Schools can use existing frameworks, such as the Equality Act and the Gatsby Benchmarks, to embed equity into daily structures rather than treating it as an extra burden. Above all, as discussed, storytelling should sit at the heart of the curriculum across all subjects.
Generations of young people are growing up in a world of polarisation, online radicalisation, and systemic inequality. After years of austerity, many are absorbing harmful narratives from the sources they trust most. They deserve better. They deserve an education that reflects them rather than erases them, and teachers willing to model curiosity and courage. As an Anti-Racism in the Curriculum panellist put it: young people are themselves an oppressed group- no one knows what it is like to be a child in 2025 except the children of 2025. Schools must listen to them, reflect them, and prepare them not only for exams, but for life lived with empathy and justice.
Inherited histories remind us that the curriculum is not abstract. It is rooted in the cultures and communities that shape who we are. My poem (see my article next week) – captures this truth:
“For the ones who carry the world in their veins – and make this island beat.”
This is Britain: a mosaic of footsteps, flavours, languages, and inventions, built by travellers, migrants, and dreamers. It is not a fantasy of purity, but a reality of mixture and connection. A curriculum that denies this truth denies the very heartbeat of the nation.
Now education must prioritise empathy with the same seriousness it gives to literacy and numeracy. Belonging should be woven into every subject, student voice must be valued, and leaders held accountable for equity. Success must be redefined so that growth, creativity, and resilience stand alongside grades. Every child should be able to look at the curriculum and find themselves reflected in it, while also seeing and stepping into the lives of others.
Going forward, if we want to raise a generation capable of compassion, critical thinking, and courage, education must be transformed into a tool for connection, not division.
Belonging is the root. Empathy is the bridge. Truth is the curriculum.