Written by Belonging Effect
Belonging Effect is committed to shaping intention into impact and supporting people with their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging strategy and training needs.
Part 1 of 7 | Shaping Intention into Impact
Belonging is not a bonus. It is the foundation.
As educators return from the October half-term break, there is an opportunity to pause, reflect and reconsider what really matters in our schools.
On 16th October 2026, the Department for Education (DfE) published its School Belonging Case Studies Research, a 90-page report exploring how schools cultivate a strong sense of belonging while maintaining high standards of attendance and attainment.
Commissioned by the DfE and conducted by Ipsos in partnership with TONIC, Professor Kathryn Riley and the Anna Freud Centre, the research draws on qualitative case studies from 16 mainstream schools, eight primary and eight secondary.
For those of us who have spent years advocating for belonging to be recognised as central to educational culture, leadership and practice, this is a welcome and significant contribution to the national conversation.
Perhaps the most important message in the report is not that belonging matters – we already know that. The real question is: How do we move from knowing that belonging matters to ensuring that belonging is experienced by everyone?
At The Belonging Effect, this is the challenge at the heart of our work: Shaping Intention into Impact.
Belonging Is Not an Initiative. It Is a Culture.
One of the most encouraging findings from the research is the recognition that belonging cannot be delivered through a single intervention, programme or initiative:
- It is cultivated through the relationships we build, the environments we create, the behaviours we model and the decisions we make.
- It is experienced in classrooms, corridors, playgrounds, staffrooms and school gates.
- It is reflected in our curriculum, policies, language, leadership and expectations.
- It is revealed in how people experience our school culture, not simply how we describe it.
Schools can have beautifully articulated values, compelling vision statements and ambitious inclusion strategies, but these intentions only become meaningful when they translate into the everyday experiences of pupils, staff and families.
Belonging is not what we say we offer. It is what people experience.
This distinction matters because a school can be welcoming without everyone feeling welcome. It can be inclusive in its intentions while some members of its community continue to experience exclusion.
Cultivating belonging therefore requires more than goodwill. It requires curiosity, courage, consistency and accountability.
Understanding the Five Dimensions of Belonging
The DfE research identifies five interconnected dimensions through which school leaders, staff and pupils understand belonging:
- Safety and Security
Belonging begins with feeling physically and psychologically safe. Pupils need to know that they can ask questions, make mistakes, express themselves and seek support without fear of humiliation or judgement.
- Inclusion
Every pupil needs opportunities to participate, contribute and experience success. Inclusion is not simply about being present. It is about being meaningfully involved and valued.
- Collective Identity
A shared sense of community, purpose and pride can strengthen belonging. However, collective identity must create space for individuality rather than require conformity.
- Individual Recognition
Every child deserves to be known, understood and valued as an individual. Their identities, strengths, interests, experiences and needs should be recognised rather than overlooked.
- Positive Relationships
Relationships underpin belonging. Connections between pupils, staff, leaders and families create the trust, care and mutual respect that enable school communities to flourish.
These five dimensions offer a useful framework for reflection. They also remind us that belonging is both individual and collective. We need to feel connected to a community while retaining the freedom to be ourselves. We should not have to compromise our identities to experience belonging.
From Belonging to Attendance and Attainment
The research also explores the relationship between belonging, attendance and attainment. School leaders, staff and pupils described a reciprocal relationship in which these experiences can reinforce one another.
When pupils feel connected to their school community, they may be more motivated to attend. Regular attendance creates opportunities to participate in learning, develop relationships and experience success. Positive experiences can, in turn, strengthen belonging.
This is an important connection, particularly within the current educational landscape, where attendance, engagement and attainment remain significant priorities. However, we need to be careful not to reduce belonging to a strategy for improving performance indicators.
Belonging has intrinsic value – children deserve to feel safe, accepted, respected and valued regardless of their attendance record, academic attainment or behaviour. Indeed, some of the pupils who experience the greatest barriers to attendance and attainment may be those who most urgently need schools to understand their experiences of belonging.
We must also remember that this qualitative research offers valuable insights into school practices and participants’ perceptions. It does not establish that belonging interventions directly cause improvements in attendance or attainment.
The relationship is complex, contextual and deserving of continued exploration. Nevertheless, the findings reinforce an important principle: high expectations and a strong sense of belonging are not competing priorities. When high expectations are accompanied by appropriate support, compassion and a genuine belief in every child’s potential, they can communicate care rather than exclusion.
Belonging Is Everyone’s Responsibility
Another important message from the research is that belonging cannot sit solely with the senior leadership team, the SENDCo, the pastoral team or the designated inclusion lead. It must become a shared responsibility.
Every interaction has the potential to strengthen or undermine someone’s sense of belonging:
- The way a teacher welcomes a pupil into a classroom.
- The way a teaching assistant responds to a child experiencing difficulty.
- The way a leader listens to a colleague who raises a concern.
- The way a school responds to discriminatory language or behaviour.
- The way families are invited to contribute to decisions that affect their children.
These moments matter – and while leadership establishes the conditions, culture is ultimately shaped by the collective behaviours of the whole school community.
This includes the adults – we cannot meaningfully cultivate belonging for pupils without considering the belonging of the staff who teach, support and care for them. If we expect educators to create psychologically safe, compassionate and inclusive environments, we must also consider whether they experience these conditions themselves. Staff belonging is not an optional extra. It is an essential part of whole-school belonging.
Six Areas of Practice Worth Exploring
The DfE research identifies six themes of practice that schools use to strengthen belonging:
- Relational practices: Intentionally building and sustaining positive, trusting relationships throughout the school community.
- Pupil voice and agency: Creating meaningful opportunities for pupils to influence decisions and contribute to their school culture.
- Celebrating diversity and challenging discrimination: Ensuring that identities, cultures and experiences are represented, respected and celebrated while actively challenging prejudice and exclusion.
- Cultivating a strong school identity: Developing shared values, traditions and communities that create connection and collective pride.
- Individualised approaches: Recognising individual needs and removing barriers to participation, engagement and success.
- Belonging beyond the school gates: Strengthening connections with families, communities and wider partnerships.
What strikes us is that these practices are not particularly revolutionary – many schools will recognise elements of their existing work within them. The challenge is not necessarily knowing what to do – it is understanding how consistently, equitably and effectively these practices are experienced across our school communities. And, perhaps most importantly, recognising who may still be excluded despite our best intentions.
Introducing Our Seven-Week Series: Belonging in Practice
Over the next seven weeks, The Belonging Effect will explore the findings from the DfE research and consider what they mean for school leaders, educators and wider school communities.
Each Monday, we will examine an area of practice, connect the research to the realities of school life and share practical questions to encourage reflection and action. We will celebrate promising practice, challenge assumptions and explore how belonging can be intentionally cultivated, strengthened and evaluated.
We believe there is no universal blueprint for belonging – every school has its own context, culture, history, community and challenges. What works in one setting may not transfer directly to another, but the underlying commitment should remain consistent: creating school communities in which everyone has the opportunity to feel safe, included, recognised, connected and valued.
Things to Consider This Week
As you return to school after half-term, we invite you to reflect on three questions.
- Who belongs?
When we say that everyone belongs in our school, what evidence do we have that this is genuinely experienced by all pupils, staff and families?
- Whose voices are missing?
Who might experience our school culture differently from how we intend it to be experienced? Whose perspectives have we not yet heard, understood or acted upon?
- What could we change?
What is one intentional action we could take this week to strengthen belonging within our sphere of influence?
Perhaps it is a conversation we have been avoiding, a relationship we need to repair, a voice we need to amplify or a practice we need to reconsider.
Small actions, consistently applied, can contribute to meaningful cultural change.
Final Reflections
The publication of this research provides an important opportunity for schools to revisit their understanding of belonging and reflect on the cultures they are creating, but research alone does not change culture. People do – through their leadership, relationships, language, behaviours, decisions and willingness to listen, learn and act.
Cultivating belonging is not a project to complete or a destination to reach. It is an ongoing commitment to understanding how our school communities are experienced and having the courage to respond to what we discover.
As we begin this series, perhaps the most important question is not simply whether belonging matters. It is whether we are prepared to make the changes necessary to ensure that everyone experiences it, because belonging should never be left to chance. It must be cultivated with intention, sustained through action and evaluated through impact.
Continue the Conversation
At The Belonging Effect, we support schools and organisations to cultivate inclusive cultures where belonging can be experienced, strengthened and measured by all stakeholders.
Our mantra is Shaping Intention into Impact.
Join us next Monday as we explore Belonging Begins with Relationships, considering how trust, psychological safety and connection shape the experiences of pupils and staff.
Reference
Department for Education (2026). School Belonging Case Studies Research. Research conducted by Ipsos in partnership with TONIC, Professor Kathryn Riley and the Anna Freud Centre.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-belonging-case-studies-research
Find out more about our work at www.thebelongingeffect.co.uk.