Supporting Religiously Diverse Staff to Feel Safe and Included in Teacher Training
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.
As schools and teacher training providers continue to build more inclusive environments, conversations about supporting staff from diverse religious backgrounds are becoming increasingly important. While much attention is rightly given to supporting pupils, creating a culture where trainee teachers and school staff feel safe, respected and able to bring their whole selves to work is equally vital.
Recently, a teacher training provider approached us seeking advice on how best to support a trainee teacher who has chosen to wear a niqab. Their question was thoughtful and proactive: how can we ensure she feels welcomed and supported, particularly when there are currently no colleagues within our school communities who wear a niqab?
The answer begins with a simple but often overlooked principle: inclusion is not about making assumptions. It is about creating conditions where people can tell us what they need and trusting them as experts in their own experience.
Start with the Individual
Every person’s experience of faith and religious expression is different. While some women who wear a niqab may choose to remove it in certain professional settings, others may not. Some may require specific adjustments, while others may not need any additional support at all.
The most effective starting point is a respectful conversation with the trainee herself. Rather than focusing on what challenges might arise, ask open questions about what would help her feel comfortable, safe and supported throughout her training journey.
This approach not only avoids assumptions but also demonstrates trust, respect and partnership.
Focus on the Environment, Not Just the Individual
When organisations think about support, attention often centres on the individual who may be perceived as “different”. However, in many cases the greatest opportunity lies in preparing the wider environment.
Religious literacy and awareness training can help colleagues better understand different forms of religious dress and practice. This is not about requiring staff to become experts in every faith tradition. Rather, it is about building confidence, reducing misconceptions and creating a culture where curiosity is respectful and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.
Small actions can have a significant impact:
- Ensuring all staff engage with the trainee as they would any other colleague.
- Addressing questions or misconceptions through education rather than leaving individuals to explain or defend their choices.
- Encouraging respectful conversations about diversity and inclusion.
- Challenging stereotypes when they arise.
These everyday behaviours often have a greater impact on belonging than any formal policy.
Consider Practical Adjustments
As with any member of staff, there may be practical considerations that support comfort and wellbeing.
Potential adjustments could include:
- Access to well-ventilated spaces during warmer weather.
- Private or discreet spaces if required for personal comfort.
- Consideration of uniform or dress expectations where relevant.
- Opportunities to discuss placement-specific considerations before entering a new school environment.
The key is flexibility and dialogue rather than assuming that particular adjustments will be required.
Representation Matters
Inclusion is reinforced when people can see themselves reflected in their environment.
Schools and training providers may wish to review resources, displays, library books and curriculum materials to ensure they reflect a diverse range of religious identities and experiences. For example, when discussing Muslim communities, representation can extend beyond images of the hijab to include the diversity of ways Muslim women choose to express their faith.
Visible representation helps communicate an important message: you belong here.
Preparing for Questions from Parents and Communities
Inclusion sometimes involves preparing for questions from the wider school community. While most interactions are likely to be positive, schools may occasionally receive enquiries from parents who are unfamiliar with certain forms of religious dress.
Having clear, values-based messaging prepared in advance can help staff respond confidently and consistently. Responses should focus on professional standards, equality, respect and the school’s commitment to creating an inclusive environment for both staff and pupils.
Importantly, the burden of responding to concerns should never fall on the trainee herself.
Cultivating a Culture of Belonging
Ultimately, supporting religiously diverse staff is not about creating special treatment. It is about ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity to thrive.
For teacher training providers, this means moving beyond compliance and towards genuine inclusion. It means recognising that diversity within the teaching workforce enriches schools, broadens perspectives and provides valuable role models for young people.
When organisations focus on listening, representation, religious literacy and everyday respect, they create environments where all trainees can flourish—not despite their identity, but with it fully recognised and valued.
The question is not simply how we support one trainee teacher. The question is how we build school communities where every member of staff feels they belong from the moment they walk through the door.
Final Thoughts
Creating inclusive workplaces requires more than good intentions. It requires curiosity, listening, and a willingness to examine the systems, cultures and assumptions that shape people’s experiences. By taking proactive steps to support religiously diverse staff, schools and training providers can help ensure every educator feels valued, respected and able to thrive.
Call to Action
Please do get in touch if you have worked on an inclusive dress policy and would like to share best practice or if you have lived experience of wearing the niqab at work and would be willing to share your experiences.
Belonging in Schools: From Staff Culture to Pupil Experience
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.
Creating a school where every individual feels they truly belong is one of the most transformative goals a leadership team can pursue. But what does “belonging” actually mean in practice, and how do we move past buzzwords to build genuine, inclusive communities?
In a recent webinar hosted by Iona Kelliher, the Managing Director of Edurio and The Belonging Effect, experts Hannah Wilson and Zahara Chowdhury dug deep into these exact questions. Drawing from their extensive work with schools, they shared practical, actionable insights on how to transform school culture from the staffroom to the classroom.
- Navigating the Biggest Challenges in School Belonging
When it comes to cultivating belonging, school leaders often face roadblocks on two fronts: workforce demographics and communication barriers.
- Workforce Diversification & Retention: Hannah says, recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse cohort of staff, leaders, and governors remains a major challenge. To overcome this, schools must move toward active listening. Hannah Wilson emphasizes the need for regular feedback loops, structured listening activities, and thorough exit interviews.
- Courageous Conversations: Zahara points out that many educators struggle with having uncomfortable conversations and knowing exactly what to say (and when to say it) in both classrooms and staffrooms.
The Solution: Overcoming these hurdles requires deep consistency. Schools must build a shared language, routine, and approach to belonging so that all students and staff feel secure within the school’s overarching identity – and their own individual identities within it.
- Extending Belonging Beyond the School Gates
Schools do not exist in a vacuum; creating a sense of belonging for children means engaging with families and the wider local community.
- Meet Communities on Their Terms: Zahara advises school leaders to physically step into the community. Go to community strongholds, local environments, or even the supermarket to engage with families where they feel safe and on their terms.
- Co-Create Solutions: True collaboration means enabling what the community actually needs, rather than what school leaders think they need.
- Celebrate Diverse Identities: Highlighting local initiatives that champion diversity can bridge the gap between home and school. For instance, looking at local community projects – like Bristol’s Black Joy Trail – can provide beautiful blueprints for celebrating diverse identities and fostering joy.
- First Steps to Take Right Now
If you want to immediately shift your school’s culture toward greater belonging, the experts recommend starting with these two tangible steps:
- Implement a Shared DEIB Calendar: Build a shared Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) calendar for all staff. Review your current assemblies and celebrations against it to see what might be missing, ensuring a healthy balance of focus across various awareness days, weeks, months, and religions.
- Just Ask (and Listen): Be explicit with your school community. Send a clear message stating that you want to ensure everyone feels included, and humbly acknowledge that you might not always get it right. Establish clear, transparent communication lines detailing how you will gather feedback, what you will do with it, and the timelines for action. Whenever possible, look for opportunities to co-create policy with your community, or experiment with frameworks like reverse mentoring.
- Designing a Neuro-inclusive Environment
Many neurodivergent pupils find themselves “tolerating” or masking at school rather than genuinely thriving. Because the traditional school model is highly systemic, reasonable adaptations alone are often not enough.
To address this, schools must look at neuro-inclusivity through a wider lens:
- Consistency in Adjustments: Staff and pupil training on neurodiversity is essential. Any reasonable adjustments made for pupils must be clearly communicated and clarified across the board so that application is consistent.
- Shift from the Individual to the System: Instead of focusing purely on modifying the minoritised student, look at the environment, the people, and the student experience around them. Investigate what everyone needs to learn and do to adapt, with the goal of creating a classroom and community that is universal by design.
- Investigate the “Toleration”: Don’t be afraid to ask students and parents exactly what they are tolerating. Examine the nuances – from transition periods and email communications to clubs and curriculum materials.
- The Danger of “Inclusion Bases”
Many schools utilise inclusion bases or separate spaces for specific pupils, but how does this impact a child’s sense of belonging?
Hannah warns that we must critically examine whether our inclusion efforts are actually forms of hidden segregation or exclusion – such as placing students in a different building, room, or table. Leaders need to act as their own “critical friends” and ask hard, reflective questions: Why are these pupils in that base? Have they been excluded? Do they actually feel more included there? Addressing these systemic questions is incredibly powerful when embedded directly into a school’s strategic development plan.
- Aligning Belonging with Inspection Frameworks (Ofsted)
Belonging is not just a pastoral nice-to-have; it sits squarely within modern inspection expectations. Under current inspection frameworks, Ofsted assesses belonging through the lenses of inclusion and personal development. Inspectors look past simply providing a “seat in the classroom” to evaluate several core areas:
- Curriculum Representation: Does what you teach reflect the diversity of your school’s community? Minority groups, pupils with SEND, and disadvantaged children should feel visible and respected in the curriculum.
- Relational Inclusion: Moving away from a strict reliance on rigid reward and sanction charts, inspectors look at how staff actively build trusting, emotionally safe relationships with pupils -particularly those struggling with behaviour or attendance.
- Pupil and Parent Voice: Evidence is gathered through surveys and discussions to check if learners truly feel they matter, have a voice, and are treated fairly.
- Safe Spaces for Dialogue: School leadership must demonstrate how they handle difficult conversations regarding discrimination and equality to foster peer-to-peer respect.
- Measuring Progress and Overcoming Pushback
How can school leaders ensure that their belonging and anti-harm work is genuinely shifting staff behaviour and building pupil trust?
- Track the Data: Utilising weekly pulse surveys provides a quick, regular check-in on school climate. Interestingly, after robust training, schools often see a temporary spike in reported incidents. Do not panic – this is usually a positive sign of increased consciousness and staff confidence in noticing and naming harm.
- Gather Qualitative Insight: Set up dedicated email inboxes and compile staff case studies to capture the nuances of the student experience. Remember, a wealth of research confirms that belonging and inclusion directly correlate with improved student outcomes and academic progress.
Navigating Community and Staff Pushback
When introducing topics like Pride or LGBT identities, leaders occasionally encounter friction from staff or students. While student voice is vital, areas that impact student safety and prevent harm cannot be ignored.
To move past “complicit compliance” or a snail’s pace, look at pushback with genuine curiosity. Ask yourself: Why is there pushback? Is it due to a lack of inclusion literacy, media influence, high workloads, or a feeling that other areas are being ignored? Often, friction is projected when staff or students feel a lack of belonging and wellbeing themselves. Introducing intersectional role models (such as showcasing that someone can co-exist within multiple identities, like being both LGBT and Muslim) can humanise these conversations and bridge cultural divides.
Looking to Deepen Your Practice?
Cultivating true belonging requires a continuous commitment to training, reflection, and structural change. For school leaders, governors, and trustees looking to further their development, The Belonging Effect offers a wealth of tailored toolkits, books, job boards, and specialised training frameworks – spanning inclusive recruitment, neurodiversity awareness, and governor DEIB oversight.
If you missed Part 1 of the series you can catch up here: Edurio – Belonging in Schools: From Staff Culture to Pupil Experience
Ready to take the next step in measuring culture across your school network? Stay tuned for Part 2 of the series: How to Measure Belonging in Your Trust on 6th July.
Empowering Young People to Change the World
Written by Nicola Wetherall
Nicola is an RE teacher by training, but a specialist and Lead Practitioner for Holocaust, genocide and human rights education at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, she curates the Empowering Young People to Change the World teacher conference series. She combines her part time role at RWBA with her Associate Professor (Teaching) role at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, specialising in curriculum, pedagogy and school development by supporting the Quality Mark process and Beacon School alumni engagement. Nicola founded the Holocaust, their family, me and us schools project.
This year’s DEIB Showcase for #EYP2CtW26 session felt like an expansion – a widening of what we pay attention to in schools, and a reminder that belonging is not an optional extra but a foundation.
We began with Hannah Wilson, who was joined by, and introduced us to, colleagues from the Belonging Effect (formerly Diverse Educators) network, who each brought a richness of experience, context and lived insight that was both energising and deeply grounding. But before I turn to each contribution in turn, I want to say a special thankyou to Hannah, an ally and leader who has supported #EYP2CtW26 conference for many years now, and once again curated a session for us today that was compelling, generous and full of practical wisdom.
So first we welcomed Yassar Hussain – from the UAE – who talked us through GEMS Metropole’s DEIB journey, referring to a range of scholarship that had informed that process, the importance of intentionality, student voice and agency. Yassar’s section was a powerful reminder that belonging doesn’t happen by accident, it’s built through deliberate choices around staff awareness, curriculum representation and student voice. His ‘journey’ within this work, reminded me how small, consistent actions across a year can shift culture, confidence and connection. I think that Yassar’s story offered a practical challenge for all of us: What would it look like to map our own DEIB journey across a year (staff learning, curriculum audits, student voice, community engagement) and treat it as a cycle of listening, acting and refining? For me, his contribution offered #EYP2CtW26 delegates (and me) us a template for intentional, sustainable progress, a next step be it short, medium or long term.
Next, it was a privilege to invite Monia Sahar Zahid and Claire Shooter – from HABS Elstree – who rather beautifully reminded us that belonging isn’t something you switch on in a crisis, it’s the product of the culture you’ve built long before tensions surface. Their emphasis on intellectual humility, visible inclusion and shared experiences offered a powerful blueprint for how schools can create the conditions for safety, trust and connection, even when global events hit the school gates, with a focus on the pastoral and safeguarding rather than the politics or teaching. I was struck by their noticing – their check-ins with staff and students, the human connections and deep rooted respect that revealed. I know several of the anecdotes shared, resonated powerfully with the 460+ educators accessing the session live – and the sense of thanks and gratitude for highlighting those moments was palpable in the chat forum spaces. My takeaway was need to reflect on our own readiness: Do we have the frameworks, shared language and staff confidence to hold difficult conversations before they arrive at our door? The SAFE framework they shared with us and emphasis on defensible decision‑making offer practical starting points for schools wanting to strengthen their approach to belonging, identity and conflict‑sensitive practice. So this was great to share.
Last but not least we were pleased to host Azuraye Williams from the Transform Trust, her contribution brought us back to something deceptively simple but deeply important: belonging starts with people, not paperwork. Her trust‑wide work showed how culture, connection and relationships must come before policies if we want DEIB to be lived rather than laminated, a reminder that systems only shift when humans do. Colleagues were taken with the meaningful and purposeful work undertaken to engage governors, but for me Azuraye left us a practical challenge: How well do we really know the belonging story of our own school? Her trust‑wide approach (surveying every child, engaging DEIB leads, and focusing on each school’s unique context) offered a clear starting point for any setting wanting to move from intention to impact.
It was that intentionality across the session was noticeable and built upon Hannah’s introductory remarks and concluding framing of belonging as a human need. Each contribution built on the last: from GEMS Metropole’s DEEI journey, to navigating global conflict at HABS Elstree, to trust‑wide belonging work at Transform Trust, and throughout, the examples shared (curriculum audits, microaggressions training, belonging surveys, pupil‑led research, ‘people before policies’) reminding us that belonging is not a slogan. It is a practice. A culture. A way of showing up for one another in schools.
In a climate where DEIB work is sometimes misrepresented or politicised, today was a powerful reminder that this work is not about ideology. It is rights‑respecting, dignity‑affirming, and safeguarding‑aligned. It is about ensuring that every child (and every adult) feels safe, seen, valued and able to bring their whole self into a school community. Nothing more complicated, nothing more controversial than that – and yet, the work can feel lonely, induce anxiety and expose vulnerability. I am deeply grateful to Hannah, Yassar, Claire, Monia and Azuraye, for their time, expertise and generosity of sharing, and this thread and spirit continues across the rest of the week.
If you missed this year’s DEIB Showcase for #EYP2CtW26 you can catch up here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5Qv_qeF-NpWPGep25cYsrp0zuYDEPH9c
I’m reminded again that when educators gather with honesty, courage and care, we don’t just learn, we widen our circle of belonging, and in doing so, we create the conditions for empowered young people to do the same.
AI Will Shape Education - But Who Gets to Shape AI?
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.
Artificial intelligence is already changing education. From lesson planning and assessment tools to tutoring platforms and student support systems, AI is becoming embedded in how schools operate and how young people learn. The conversation is no longer about whether AI will influence education. It already does.
The real question is this: Who gets to shape the future of AI in education?
Because AI is not neutral. Every AI system reflects the decisions, assumptions, priorities, and perspectives of the people who build it. The data selected. The questions asked. The problems chosen to solve. The voices included – and excluded – from the room.
If we are not intentional, AI risks reinforcing the very inequities education is trying to disrupt. And that matters deeply for schools.
We have already seen examples of AI systems producing biased outcomes:
- Recruitment algorithms favouring certain demographics
- Writing detection tools disproportionately flagging multilingual learners
- Facial recognition systems performing less accurately on darker skin tones
- Predictive technologies reinforcing historical inequalities rather than challenging them
Bias in AI is often not malicious. But it can become invisible, automated, and scaled at a speed education systems have never seen before. That is why educators must be part of shaping AI strategy – not simply responding to it after decisions have already been made.
Teachers, school leaders, inclusion specialists, youth workers, parents, and community voices bring something essential to this conversation: human understanding. Educators understand context: they understand belonging; they understand lived experience; they understand the difference between efficiency and equity.
If AI strategy is shaped only by technologists and commercial interests, we risk creating systems that optimise for speed and standardisation over humanity and inclusion.
But there is another possibility…
AI could become a powerful tool for accessibility, creativity, personalisation, and opportunity – if a broader and more diverse range of people are involved in shaping what responsible AI looks like in practice.
That means we need more diverse voices and thinkers involved: more perspectives; more challenge; more collaboration. We need people from different backgrounds, communities, cultures, identities, and professional experiences helping to shape the future of AI in education. Not because diversity is a “nice to have,” but because it is a safeguard against harm.
At The Belonging Effect, we believe belonging and equity must sit at the centre of conversations about innovation and technology. That is why we are inviting our network to get involved.
Over the coming months, we will be hosting a series of free webinars exploring AI, education, equity, and belonging. These sessions are designed to create accessible spaces for educators and leaders to learn, question, challenge, and contribute to the conversation – regardless of their starting point with AI.
We are also collaborating on a fully funded training programme with our partners at CVP Group for educators and professionals who want to deepen their understanding of AI, inclusive practice, and ethical leadership in this rapidly evolving space.
We are keen to amplify more diverse voices in this conversation as too often, discussions about AI are dominated by a narrow range of perspectives so we want to help change that. Therefore, we are actively looking to publish blogs, reflections, case studies, and opinion pieces from educators, practitioners, community leaders, and changemakers from diverse backgrounds who are thinking critically about AI, inclusion, belonging, and the future of education.
You do not need to be an AI expert. You do not need to work in technology. If you care about equity, representation, belonging, and the future young people are inheriting, your voice matters, because the future of AI in education should not be built for communities without them – it must be built with them.
This moment presents both a challenge and an opportunity as the decisions being made now will shape classrooms, opportunities, and experiences for years to come. We cannot afford for those decisions to be shaped by only a small group of voices. Disrupting bias in AI starts with diversifying who is involved in shaping strategy and that work belongs to all of us.
The future of AI is being written right now. The question is whether education – and the communities most impacted by these technologies – will help write the story.
To join one of our free webinars, apply for the fully funded training programme, or contribute a blog to our growing community of voices, connect with The Belonging Effect today. Our monthly newsletter will be out on Wednesday.
Together, let’s ensure the future of AI in education is inclusive, ethical, and rooted in belonging.
Teaching Students to Read the Room: Communication, Consent, and Cultural Competence
Written by Tessa Dodson
Tessa Dodson is an education writer passionate about supporting teachers and fostering inclusive classroom environments. She specializes in covering classroom resources, educational trends, teacher wellness, and practical strategies to help educators succeed.
Educators can foster diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). They must teach young learners about the nuances of people from different backgrounds to help raise a population that recognises the distinct body language, tones and facial expressions, which vary from culture to culture. These teaching techniques are among the most effective at empowering everyone with the tools they need to self-advocate and consider diverse student communication skills.
Scenario-Based Learning and Role-Playing
The UK’s increasingly diverse population makes cultural competence and empathy essential lessons from an early age. Students are more likely to deepen their cultural competence if they experience it firsthand. An educator can start by telling learners about differences in nonverbal communication, including that eye contact is impolite in some regions, such as the Caribbean and East Asia.
To make lessons stick, create a situation in which students must interact to act out responses to different patterns, such as navigating personal space or using direct language to make a request. Educators can also create cards to prompt students to simulate a gathering. Transforming classic games, including charades or Pictionary, is another way to get students to interact with other cultural phrases, physical movements and ideas.
However, it is essential to clarify what is and is not appropriate in these contexts, drawing on insights from the cultures being studied to ensure accuracy and sensitivity.
This activity allows students to speak, hear and witness how others would react, especially for people in marginalised communities. Learners may not regularly interact with these individuals, so shaping the environment is crucial to prepare them for that experience. Cross-cultural exposure and communication can positively affect students’ cultural competence.
Film and Media Analysis
Exposing students to diverse media is one of the best ways to make the content entertaining, engaging and stimulating. There is a low barrier to entry in visual media, making the content accessible and safe to consume, which is important when these topics can be intimidating. Also, it stretches students beyond their cultural echo chambers and challenges their stereotypes.
Teachers can source TV shows, movies, news broadcasts and music videos to display narrative in different ways, all focused on considerate communication, teaching consent and overcoming bias. Ask students to make notes about patterns they see between characters, such as:
- Body language
- Amount of physical contact
- Facial expressions
- Amount of transparency and honesty in conversation
- Level of formality
- Vocal tone
Students can also note any reinforced stereotypes they see, and educators can take them through exercises to dispel and unpack them. It will push learners to unravel their opinions about harmful and inaccurate stereotypes or generalisations in the safe, low-stakes format of media commentary.
Develop a “Reading the Room” Log
Inspire students to think critically about their cross-cultural interactions by recording them in a journal. This is a safe, nonjudgmental place for them to reflect on classroom exercises and real-world conversations. They can ask questions, such as “Did I remember to ask consent before going in for a friendly hug?” or “Did my excited curiosity and frequent questions make them uncomfortable?”
These exercises compel students to practice self-awareness and also celebrate wins when they learn something about another culture and successfully implement those communication skills in real life. The journals are records of every student’s growth as they learn how to interpret nonverbal cues and find reasons to advocate for themselves.
Many educators have used the Curiosity, Attentiveness, Respect and Responsiveness, and Embodiment (CARE) model for authentic cultural lessons, and reflective journaling is one of the best ways to produce cultural humility and mindfulness about DEIB topics. If students are struggling to think about what to write, here are some prompts to get them started:
- Describe a time when someone’s tone did not match their body language.
- Write about a time you reacted to a surprise. If you surprised someone else with a different personality and culture with the same thing, do you think you would get the same reaction?
- Reflect on the cultural stereotypes we discussed in class today and why it is important to overcome them.
- Describe a behaviour that is normal to you and your family, such as giving handshakes to visitors. Research how other cultures would view this practise.
Cultivating Empathy and Agency in Student Communication Skills
Everyone can read the room, no matter who is in there. Teaching consent, cultural sensitivity and intersectional thinking is a nonnegotiable skill in the modern era. These techniques make nebulous concepts tangible for learners of all ages. Eventually, these intentional lessons will craft a respectful society where empathetic communication and consent always come first.
Closing the Gap by Valuing Multilingualism
Written by Soofia Amin
Soofia Amin is the Multilingual Trust Lead for Tapscott Learning Trust (TTLT). She is also a Specialist Lead in Education for Multilingualism with vast experience in supporting multilingual pupils and their families. Soofia is passionate about developing excellent practice for multilingual pupils whilst promoting their first languages as a resource in both the classroom and the wider school community. She strongly advocates for a whole-school approach to multilingualism and uses her own school’s example to provide effective models of practice for others.
I recently visited a primary school where low writing outcomes for multilingual children had led leaders to search urgently for ways to “close the gap.” For many school leaders, this phrase often leads to discussions about data dashboards, targeted interventions, and heightened accountability measures. These discussions often neglect one key factor: the children’s first languages.
Many children in this school confidently use two or three languages and travel regularly to their countries of origin. Leaders worry that this rich linguistic exposure might be contributing to weaker writing outcomes. While understandable, this view risks misidentifying the problem.
The challenge here is not multilingualism. Rather how much we, as educators, value and use the children’s linguistic proficiency to further their learning, including their writing. If we focus intentionally on using the multilingual children’s rich language skills to support learning, particularly their writing development, outcomes could look very different.
Building Strong Foundations Through Explicit Language Instruction
Language and subject learning develop together. Children do not learn content first and language later; they learn both simultaneously. Evidence from Cummins states that,
“Conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in the other language comprehensible.” (Cummins, 2000,p.39).
Therefore, embedding spoken language approaches across the curriculum can strengthen literacy and attainment when language is taught explicitly and in context. For multilingual learners, this means making the language demands of lessons visible and teachable.
In practice, this involves modelling how this language is used in speech and writing.
Classroom example: Year 5 science (States of Matter)
The educator explains evaporation using sentences such as:
“When water is heated, it evaporates.”
“As a result, the liquid changes into a gas.”
The educator unpacks key vocabulary like evaporate and evaporation and gives children sentence stems to support their explanations. Alongside the science objective, sits a clear language objective. Children now have the words and sentence structures they need to explain their thinking clearly.
Strengthening Learning Through Cultural and Linguistic Connection
Multilingual children bring a wealth of cultural and linguistic knowledge into the classroom. When educators recognise and build on this, learning becomes more meaningful and inclusive.
Schools that invest in understanding children’s linguistic backgrounds are better placed to design teaching that connects new learning to what children already know.
In practice, this means:
- Gathering information about a child’s home language/s and experiences
- Using this knowledge to make lessons more relevant and accessible
Classroom example: Year 5 science (States of Matter)
The Educator invites children to share where they see evaporation at home: drying clothes, steaming dumplings, or burning incense. Then explicitly links these examples back to the scientific explanation.
By connecting the abstract concept of ‘evaporation’ to something tangible like ‘incense’ or ‘steaming,’ the child is able to relate to it.
Deepening Understanding by Harnessing Home Languages
Research and classroom practice both show that strong first-language skills are crucial for developing English proficiency and achieving academic success.
“The idea that a multilingual classroom is not only beneficial to EAL students but to non-EAL students (suggests) the need for a strategic whole-school approach to language teaching and integration.” (Arnot et al., 2014,p.7)
In practice, schools should:
- Encourage translanguaging as a learning strategy. Translanguaging enables children to first process complex cognitive tasks in their strongest language, before expressing them in English.
- Encourage families to use first languages to support key topics and concepts
Classroom example: Year 5 science (States of Matter)
The children use their first language to clarify why the change is happening. Once they have secured the concept, they then describe it in English.
The child is not cognitively overloaded. They use their first language to handle the heavy lifting of thinking, and only then move on to using English to demonstrate their understanding.
Final Thoughts…
Closing the gap for multilingual children requires a clear understanding of how language underpins attainment, a commitment to evidence-informed practice and a shared vision that places language at the heart of curriculum design.
When leaders get this right, the impact is profound – not only for multilingual children, but for all learners. Prioritising language isn’t just an inclusion strategy; it’s a school improvement strategy.
References
Arnot, M., Schneider, C. and Welply, O. (2014) School approaches to the education of EAL students. Cambridge: The Bell Foundation.
Cummins, J. (2000) Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Allyship in Action: Finding and Growing Allies in Education, Work, and Everyday Life
Written by Marie Manley
Marie Manley works for SEE Change Happens. She is an advocate for families and friends of Transgender individuals. She loves talking to customers about their DEIB requirements, explaining how SEE Change Happen can enhance organisations with all things DEIB-related. She comes from an administration and compliance background, she has strong analytical thinking, a love of processes, and a strict attention to detail.
Allyship is something I used to think of as a value – something you believe in. But over time, and through personal experience, I’ve come to understand that allyship is really about what you do. It’s how you show up, how you listen, and how you stand alongside others, especially when it matters most.
For me, this became deeply personal when my husband became my wife. That journey shifted not only how I see the world, but how I experience it. It opened my eyes to the quiet, everyday moments where allyship is either present or absent – in conversations, in systems, and in relationships. It also helped me recognise just how powerful true allies can be.
What I’ve learned is that allyship isn’t confined to one space. It travels with us – through education, into our workplaces, and into our closest relationships. And in each of those spaces, we have the opportunity to both find allies and become one.
Allyship in Education: Where It Often Begins
Education is often where we first encounter difference – different identities, perspectives, and lived experiences. It’s also where many of our beliefs about fairness and belonging start to form.
I’ve seen how powerful it can be when educators create spaces where people feel safe to be themselves. Allyship in education isn’t just about policies or statements; it’s about the everyday behaviours. It’s the teacher who challenges exclusion. The student who speaks up when something doesn’t feel right. The environment that makes space for everyone to be heard.
Finding allies in education often starts with noticing those small but important actions. Who is curious rather than judgmental? Who is willing to challenge bias? Who makes room for others?
But we can’t leave allyship to chance. It needs to be nurtured intentionally. When inclusion is embedded into how education works – from curriculum to culture – allyship becomes part of the norm, not the exception.
Allyship at Work: Moving Beyond Good Intentions
In the workplace, allyship becomes even more visible – and, if I’m honest, sometimes more challenging.
Many organisations talk about diversity and inclusion, but without active allyship, those words can feel hollow. Allyship at work is about what happens in the moments that aren’t scripted – who gets heard in meetings, who is advocated for, who is challenged when something isn’t fair.
Through my own work, I’ve seen that allies are not always the loudest voices. Often, they are the most consistent. They are the people who quietly but firmly stand for fairness, who follow through, and who are willing to learn and adapt.
When my own family experience changed, I noticed these allies more clearly. The colleague who checked in. The leader who made space. The friend who didn’t assume but asked. Those moments mattered more than any formal policy ever could.
That said, organisations do have a responsibility. Allyship shouldn’t rely on individuals alone. It needs to be supported by leadership, embedded into systems, and reinforced through accountability. When that happens, allyship becomes part of how work gets done – not an extra.
Allyship in Family and Friendships: Where It Gets Real
If I’m honest, the most complex space for allyship is often our personal lives.
Family and friendships are where we feel safest – but they are also where bias can go unchallenged. When my husband became my wife, I saw this firsthand.
SEE Change Happen – Fireside chat is an example of finding Allyship:
https://seechangehappen.co.uk/speaking-library/the-making-of-me-joanne-maries-story/
Some people leaned in with openness, curiosity, and love. Others struggled, sometimes without realising the impact of their words or assumptions.
Allyship in these spaces isn’t about having all the right answers. It’s about being willing. Willing to listen. Willing to learn. Willing to say, “I might not fully understand, but I’m here.”
It’s also about courage. Speaking up when something doesn’t sit right. Gently challenging language or behaviour. Choosing connection over comfort.
Resources from organisations like Stonewall (https://www.stonewall.org.uk/) can be incredibly helpful in guiding those first steps, especially for people who want to be supportive but aren’t sure how.
What I’ve come to appreciate is that allies in our personal lives don’t need to be perfect. They just need to be present, open, and committed to growing.
Growing Allyship – Together
Across all these spaces, one thing stands out to me: allyship is deeply human. It’s built on trust, consistency, and care.
It’s not about getting everything right. It’s about being willing to try, to learn, and to keep showing up.
If we want to grow allyship, we need to create environments where people feel safe to ask questions, to reflect, and to be challenged. We need to recognise and value inclusive behaviours. And we need to hold ourselves – and each other – accountable.
This is something I’m incredibly passionate about in my work, and it’s why organisations like SEE Change Happen (https://seechangehappen.co.uk/) exist – to support people and organisations in turning intention into meaningful, lasting change.
A Final Reflection
Allyship has become something very real to me. It’s not theoretical. It’s not abstract. It’s personal, and it’s ongoing.
It shows up in the colleague who creates space. The friend who listens. The family member who is willing to learn. And sometimes, it starts with us – choosing to be that person for someone else.
So, I often come back to a simple question: How am I showing up for others today?
Because when we ask that – and act on it – allyship stops being something we talk about and becomes something we live.
What do school governors need to know about DEIB?
Written by Hannah Wilson
Founder and Director of the Belonging Effect (formerly Diverse Educators).
School governors play a strategic, not operational, role in DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging). What they need to know can be grouped into purpose, legal duties, oversight, and culture.
- What DEIB means in a school context
Governors should understand that:
- Diversity: The range of identities and experiences in the school community (e.g. race, ethnicity, gender, SEND, religion, socioeconomic background).
- Equity: Fairness, not sameness – recognising that different pupils and staff may need different support to succeed.
- Inclusion: Creating systems and practices where everyone can participate and thrive.
- Belonging: Pupils, staff and families feel respected and safe in the school.
DEIB is not an add-on – it affects outcomes, wellbeing, safeguarding, staff retention, and reputation.
- Legal and statutory responsibilities (UK-focused)
Governors must ensure the school complies with:
- Equality Act 2010: Protects nine characteristics (e.g. race, disability, sex, religion). Requires schools to eliminate discrimination, advance equality, and foster good relations.
- Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED): Schools must show due regard to equality in decisions and policies.
- Safeguarding duties: Discrimination, bullying, and exclusion can be safeguarding risks.
- Ofsted expectations: Inspectors look at inclusion, behaviour, curriculum breadth, and how well vulnerable groups are supported.
Governors do not deliver DEIB – but they are accountable for whether it is happening effectively.
- Strategic questions governors should ask
Governors should be able to challenge leaders with evidence-based questions such as:
Pupils:
- Are there attainment, behaviour, attendance, or exclusion gaps between groups?
- How does the school support pupils with SEND, EAL, or from disadvantaged backgrounds?
- Do pupils report feeling safe and that they belong?
Staff:
- Is recruitment and promotion fair and transparent?
- Are there disparities in staff retention, progression, or disciplinary action?
- Is staff training in equality and inclusion effective and ongoing?
Curriculum & culture:
- Does the curriculum reflect diverse voices and experiences?
- Are incidents of bullying, racism, sexism or homophobia recorded and acted upon?
- How does the school engage families from different backgrounds?
- Policy oversight (not micromanagement)
Governors should ensure the school has clear, up-to-date policies and that they are working in practice, including:
- Equality and accessibility plans
- Behaviour and anti-bullying policies
- SEND policy and provision
- Admissions and exclusions
- Complaints procedures
They should look for impact, not just paperwork.
- Data literacy and proportionality
Governors need confidence to:
- Interpret equality and pupil outcome data without jumping to conclusions
- Understand that unequal outcomes don’t always mean discrimination – but always warrant investigation
- Balance DEIB work with the school’s context, avoiding tokenism or box-ticking
Good governance focuses on patterns and trends, not isolated incidents.
- Tone, language, and leadership
Governors set the tone. They should:
- Use respectful, inclusive language
- Avoid politicising DEIB or treating it as “optional”
- Model curiosity rather than defensiveness
- Support leaders when DEIB work attracts challenge or misunderstanding
Silence or avoidance can be interpreted as indifference.
- What governors should not do
- Do not manage individual cases unless part of a formal panel
- Do not impose personal ideology
- Do not expect quick fixes – culture change takes time
- Do not delegate all DEIB responsibility to one staff member
- Continuous learning
Effective governors:
- Undertake regular training on equality and inclusion
- Stay aware of local community needs
- Reflect on their own board’s diversity and skills mix
In short:
School governors need to understand DEIB well enough to ask the right questions, meet legal duties, hold leaders to account, and ensure every pupil and staff member has a fair chance to succeed and belong.
Shaping Intention into Impact: How Belonging Creates a Lasting Effect
Written by Hannah Wilson
Founder and Director of the Belonging Effect (formerly Diverse Educators).
We often underestimate the power of small actions. A word spoken. A behaviour modelled. A decision made with – or without – care. Yet time and again, research and lived experience show us that impact rarely begins with something loud or grand. It begins with intention.
To understand how intention becomes impact, it helps to explore three interconnected ideas: the Ripple Effect, the Butterfly Effect, and what we call the Belonging Effect.
The Ripple Effect: Intentional Actions That Travel
The ripple effect describes how a single action creates a chain reaction of consequences, spreading outward like ripples from a stone dropped into water. A kind gesture can inspire another. A thoughtful idea can spark collective change. Equally, negative behaviours can ripple just as far, reinforcing harmful patterns if left unchecked.
This phenomenon appears across economics, sociology, leadership, and personal development because it reflects a simple truth: our actions do not exist in isolation. Every choice – especially those made by leaders, educators, and organisations – sets something in motion.
Ripples are visible. They move outward in predictable ways. We can often trace them back to their source.
The Butterfly Effect: Small Moments, Unpredictable Outcomes
The butterfly effect takes this idea even further.
Originating in chaos theory and popularised by meteorologist Edward Lorenz, it suggests that a small change in initial conditions can result in large, unpredictable outcomes later. Metaphorically, a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world could influence a storm system elsewhere.
Here, the emphasis is not just on reach – but on sensitivity. Tiny moments matter more than we think. A brief interaction. A missed acknowledgement. A single experience of inclusion – or exclusion – can alter a person’s trajectory in ways we may never fully see.
Unlike ripples, these effects are often invisible. But they are no less real.
The Belonging Effect: Where Intention Becomes Human Impact
This is where the Belonging Effect comes in.
The belonging effect describes the profound influence that a sense of belonging has on human wellbeing, motivation, and performance. When people feel they belong, they are more engaged, resilient, creative, and committed. When belonging is absent, the outcomes are equally powerful – anxiety, disengagement, poor performance, and diminished wellbeing.
Decades of research across schools, workplaces, and communities show that belonging is not a “nice to have.” It is a fundamental human need. In educational settings, a strong sense of belonging is linked to higher achievement and retention. In workplaces, it drives engagement, collaboration, and psychological safety. Across all contexts, it supports better mental and physical health.
Belonging does not happen by accident. It emerges when people feel seen, valued, safe, and connected through meaningful relationships.
Shaping Intention Into Impact
The Ripple Effect reminds us that our actions spread.
The Butterfly Effect reminds us that small moments can change everything.
The Belonging Effect reminds us who those moments land on.
When intention is grounded in belonging, impact becomes sustainable.
A leader who intentionally creates space for voices to be heard doesn’t just improve a meeting – they shape culture. An educator who signals “you matter here” does not just support a student – they alter a future. An organisation that prioritises belonging doesn’t just retain people – it unlocks potential.
This is the heart of the Belonging Effect: intentional actions that create human impact, often far beyond what we can measure. Because when people belong, the ripples are positive, and the butterfly effects change lives.
Emotional Labour: Who Looks After the DEIB Leaders?
Written by Hannah Wilson
Founder and Director of the Belonging Effect (formerly Diverse Educators).
DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) leaders are often positioned as the moral and emotional anchors of their organisations. They are asked to hold space for harm, advocate for systemic change, educate others, and respond to crises – frequently while navigating their own lived experiences of marginalisation.
Yet a critical question is often overlooked: who looks after them?
As organisations expand their DEIB commitments, many are failing to invest in the sustainability of the people doing this work. The result is a growing pattern of compassion fatigue, burnout, and attrition among DEIB leaders – costly not only to individuals, but to organisations themselves.
The Unique Load DEIB Leaders Carry
DEIB leadership is not just strategic or operational work – it is deeply relational and emotional. DEIB leaders are often:
- Exposed to repeated accounts of trauma and discrimination
- Expected to respond calmly to resistance, denial, or hostility
- Asked to educate while also advocating
- Share their lived-experience honestly, vulnerably and generously
- Positioned as both insiders and outsiders within organisations
- Hold responsibility without proportional authority or resourcing
This cumulative load is rarely acknowledged in job descriptions, performance metrics, or wellbeing strategies.
Compassion Fatigue Is Not a Personal Failing
Compassion fatigue occurs when sustained exposure to others’ distress depletes emotional and psychological resources. For DEIB leaders, this can show up as:
- Emotional exhaustion or numbness
- Reduced empathy or motivation
- Cynicism about organisational change
- Withdrawal from relationships or work
Importantly, compassion fatigue is not a lack of resilience or commitment. It is a predictable response to prolonged emotional labour without adequate support.
Burnout and the DEIB Attrition Problem
When compassion fatigue is left unaddressed, it often leads to burnout – characterised by exhaustion, detachment, and a sense of ineffectiveness. Many DEIB leaders respond by leaving their roles, shifting careers, or exiting organisations altogether.
This attrition creates a revolving door effect on the DEIB strategy:
- Knowledge and trust are lost
- Strategies stall or reset
- Work is redistributed to other leaders to carry even more load
Organisations then misdiagnose the issue as a “pipeline problem” rather than a care and support problem.
Coaching, Mentoring, and Supervision as Sources of Support
Supporting DEIB leaders requires intentional structures, not just wellness slogans.
Coaching: Provides a confidential space focused on leadership development, boundaries, decision-making, and navigating organisational complexity. Coaches can help DEIB leaders reconnect with agency and clarity.
Mentoring: Offers relational support and wisdom-sharing, particularly valuable when mentors have lived experience or have navigated similar organisational terrain. Mentoring reduces isolation and normalises challenges.
Supervision: Creates structured reflective space to process emotional impact, ethical dilemmas, and role strain. For DEIB leaders, supervision can be critical in preventing compassion fatigue and burnout.
These supports are not interchangeable – and ideally, DEIB leaders should have access to more than one.
What Organisations Need to Do Differently
If organisations are serious about DEIB, they must be equally serious about caring for the people leading it. This includes:
- Funding coaching, mentoring, and supervision as core role supports
- Normalising emotional labour as part of DEIB work
- Building realistic expectations and boundaries into roles
- Sharing responsibility for DEIB across leadership – not isolating it
- Measuring sustainability, not just activity
Care is not a “nice to have.” It is a strategic necessity.
Looking After the People Who Hold the Work
DEIB leaders are often asked to model empathy, courage, and humanity in systems that do not always return those qualities. If we want DEIB work to endure – rather than burn people out – we must shift from extraction to care, containment, and collective responsibility.
Looking after DEIB leaders is not separate from DEIB work. It is DEIB work.