Cultivating a Culture of Belonging: From Intention to Impact

Reflections from the Chartered College of Teaching Fellows Webinar

Why should we care about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?

This was the question I posed to Fellows of the Chartered College of Teaching when we came together to explore what it means to cultivate a culture of belonging in our schools.

As educators and leaders, we often talk about the importance of creating inclusive environments where every member of our school community feels valued, respected and able to thrive. But how do we know whether our intentions are translating into meaningful experiences? How do we move beyond policies, statements and displays to create cultures where belonging is genuinely experienced by everybody?

Drawing on Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, I invited participants to begin with their why.

• Why do we need to understand and pay attention to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) in education?

• Why should DEIB be a golden thread running through every aspect of school life?

• Why should DEIB be everybody’s business, in much the same way that safeguarding is?

• Why do our organisations, colleagues and learners need us to understand DEIB and commit to making a difference?

These are not simply rhetorical questions. They invite us to consider our individual and collective responsibilities as educators.

My starting point is that diversity, equity and inclusion are the conditions we intentionally cultivate so that belonging can be experienced.

Belonging cannot be mandated through a policy or guaranteed through a mission statement. It is shaped by our relationships, behaviours, language, environments and everyday interactions.

During the webinar, we explored belonging through four interconnected lenses: society, schools, staffrooms and classrooms. Each provides an opportunity to reflect on our existing practice and identify where change is needed.

1. Belonging in Society: How Do We Develop It?

Before considering belonging in our schools, we need to understand why it matters to us as human beings.

Belonging is a fundamental human need. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs positions love and belonging alongside other essential psychological needs, reminding us that human connection, acceptance and relationships contribute to our wellbeing and development.

But belonging is not simply about being physically present in a space. It is about how we experience that space and how we are treated by the people within it.

I invited Fellows to reflect on their own experiences:

• What does it mean to belong?

• How does it feel when we experience a strong sense of belonging?

• What happens to our confidence, participation and wellbeing when we feel included as an insider?

• Conversely, what happens when we experience exclusion, marginalisation or othering?

Most of us can recall a time when we felt that we belonged somewhere. Equally, many of us can remember the discomfort of feeling like an outsider.

These experiences shape our sense of identity, confidence, agency and connection.

For educators, this understanding is essential. We cannot assume that everybody experiences the same environment in the same way. Our identities, experiences and circumstances influence how we navigate the world and how the world responds to us.

The Equality Act 2010 provides an important legal framework for understanding discrimination and protecting individuals with particular characteristics. However, legal compliance is the minimum expectation, not the ultimate ambition.

Creating a culture of belonging requires us to move beyond compliance towards a genuine commitment to equity, dignity and inclusion.

It requires us to ask not only who is present, but who feels welcome, valued, represented and empowered to participate.

2. Belonging in Schools: How Do We Change It?

Schools are communities shaped by shared values, traditions, expectations and relationships. These elements influence the culture experienced by pupils, staff and families. But how often do we interrogate the relationship between our stated values and our lived culture?

From stated values to lived values

Most schools have a set of values displayed prominently on their websites, walls and in their prospectuses.

We might celebrate respect, kindness, integrity, aspiration or community. Yet the real measure of these values is not how frequently they are communicated, but how consistently they are demonstrated.

I encouraged Fellows to consider:

• What are our school values, and how consistently are they modelled?

• How do these values align with our personal and professional values?

• How explicitly do they communicate our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?

• Would every member of our school community recognise these values in their daily experiences?

A school may describe itself as inclusive, but does everybody experience inclusion? A leadership team may believe it is approachable, but do staff feel safe enough to challenge decisions or raise concerns?

Our intentions do not automatically determine somebody else’s experience.

This is why cultivating belonging requires us to listen, reflect and be prepared to challenge our assumptions.

Reconsidering Fundamental British Values

We also explored how Fundamental British Values are presented and experienced within our schools. Democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs are familiar concepts within the education system. However, it is important to understand their policy origins, including their relationship with the Prevent strategy and the Government’s counter-terrorism agenda. 

This historical context invites critical reflection:

• How do we communicate these values through assemblies, displays, curriculum content and everyday conversations? 

• How might different communities experience the language of Britishness, identity and belonging? 

• Are there tensions between celebrating diversity and defining a particular set of values as British?

These questions are not about dismissing shared civic values. They are about ensuring that our approaches are thoughtful, inclusive and responsive to the communities we serve.

Psychological safety: The foundation of belonging

A further dimension of school culture is psychological safety.

Drawing on the work of Amy Edmondson, we explored what it means to create environments where individuals feel able to speak up, ask questions, acknowledge mistakes and challenge ideas without fear of humiliation or punishment.

Consider the following questions:

• If somebody makes a mistake in our team, will it be held against them?

• Can colleagues raise difficult issues or challenge established practices?

• Are differences welcomed, or do individuals experience rejection for being different?

• Is it safe to take interpersonal risks?

• Can people ask for help without being judged?

• Are individual skills, perspectives and talents recognised and utilised?

Psychological safety does not mean avoiding accountability or difficult conversations. Rather, it creates the conditions in which constructive challenge, learning and collective accountability become possible.

When people feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to contribute their ideas, acknowledge uncertainty and participate authentically.

For school leaders, this presents an important challenge: Are we creating cultures where people feel safe enough to speak, and are we prepared to listen when they do?

3. Belonging in the Staffroom: How Do We Disrupt It?

We often focus our inclusion efforts on pupils, but what about the adults working within our schools?

Staffroom culture can be a powerful indicator of organisational belonging. The conversations we have, the relationships we develop, the assumptions we make and the behaviours we tolerate all contribute to how colleagues experience their workplace.

Drawing on ideas about educator identity explored through Pride & Progress, we considered the relationship between three dimensions of identity:

• Personal identity: Who we are beyond our professional roles, including our experiences, relationships, values and identities.
• Teacher identity: Who we are in the classroom and how we express our professional selves.
• Colleague identity: Who we are in the staffroom and wider school community.

These identities are interconnected, but they are not always experienced consistently.

Some educators may feel confident and authentic in their classrooms but less comfortable expressing aspects of themselves among colleagues. Others may feel pressure to adapt, conceal or moderate elements of their identity to fit organisational expectations.

This raises an important question: How much of ourselves do we feel able to bring to work?

Authenticity should not require individuals to compromise their psychological safety, professional relationships or career progression.

Listening to staff voice

One of the most effective ways to understand staff belonging is to ask colleagues about their experiences.

During the webinar, I shared a series of questions that schools could adapt for staff surveys, listening exercises or facilitated conversations:

• How safe do you feel in our staffroom?

• How included do you feel within our staff body?

• How represented do you feel within our leadership team?

• How diverse were the role models you encountered during your training and professional development?

• How do staff events and social opportunities support your sense of belonging?

• How equitably are opportunities for professional development, responsibility and promotion allocated?

• What else would you like us to understand about your experience of working in our school?

Importantly, gathering staff voice is only the beginning – if we invite people to share their experiences, we have a responsibility to respond to what we hear. This requires humility, curiosity and a willingness to acknowledge that the culture we believe we have created may not be the culture everybody experiences.

We must also recognise that staff are not a homogeneous group. Their experiences may differ significantly depending on identity, role, seniority, working patterns and access to opportunities. Listening to the loudest or most confident voices will not necessarily reveal the experiences of those who feel least included.

Meaningful staff voice requires both psychological safety and visible action.

4. Belonging in the Classroom: How Do We Foster It?

The classroom is where many of our intentions around inclusion are translated into everyday practice.

For learners, belonging is shaped by countless interactions: how they are greeted, whether their names are pronounced correctly, whose stories are represented, how their contributions are received and whether their individual needs are recognised.

We considered the Connected Belonging framework associated with research at the University of Bath and the importance of relationships, connection and participation in fostering a sense of belonging.

A classroom can be welcoming without necessarily being equitable. It can be diverse without being inclusive. It can be well organised without every learner feeling that they matter.

To understand belonging, we need to consider the classroom through the experiences of those who inhabit it.

The Diversity Walk: Seeing our schools through a different lens

One practical activity I shared was the Diversity Walk.

The premise is simple but powerful: imagine navigating your school through the lived experience of somebody whose needs, identity or circumstances differ from your own.

For example, consider the experience of a wheelchair user moving through a typical school day.

• Can they access the school site and enter the building independently?

• Are ramps, lifts, doors and accessible facilities genuinely accessible?

• Can they navigate classrooms and use desks comfortably?

• Are accessible toilets and changing facilities available, appropriate and convenient?

• Can they see themselves positively represented in curriculum materials, books and displays?

• Are displays positioned where they can actually see them?

• Can they participate fully in extracurricular activities and social opportunities?

• Are evacuation procedures designed with their safety and dignity in mind?

This exercise moves us beyond the assumption that a school is inclusive simply because adjustments have been made. It challenges us to examine whether our physical environments, routines and opportunities enable everybody to participate fully and with dignity.

The Diversity Walk can also be adapted to explore other experiences, including those of neurodivergent learners, pupils from different faith backgrounds, children who speak English as an additional language, or those who experience economic disadvantage.

The central question remains the same: Whose experience have we not yet considered?

Student voice: Listening to the learners

Alongside examining our environments, we need to listen directly to the children and young people we teach.

I encouraged Fellows to consider how they might use the following questions to evaluate belonging within their classrooms:

• How safe do you feel in my classroom?

• How included do you feel in my lessons?

• How represented do you feel within our curriculum?

• How diverse are the role models and perspectives we study?

• How do my lessons and classroom environment support your sense of belonging?

• How equitably do I allocate rewards and sanctions?

• What else would you like me to understand about your experience of my teaching, classroom or subject?

These questions invite us to move from evaluating what we provide to understanding what learners experience. They also require us to consider how we gather feedback safely, particularly from learners who may already feel marginalised or reluctant to challenge authority.

We should not assume that silence indicates satisfaction or that participation automatically equates to belonging. A pupil may attend every lesson, complete every task and follow every expectation while still feeling invisible, misunderstood or excluded. Our challenge is to notice, listen and respond.

5. From Reflection to Action: What Do We Do Next?

Throughout the webinar, we returned to the relationship between intention and impact.

Many educators enter the profession because they want to make a difference. They care deeply about the children, colleagues and communities they serve. But good intentions alone do not guarantee inclusive outcomes.

Cultivating belonging requires intentional action, critical reflection and the courage to challenge practices that may unintentionally perpetuate inequity.

Understanding our sphere of influence

We concluded by considering our individual and collective spheres of influence. Not everybody has the same level of authority or responsibility within an organisation. However, everybody has opportunities to influence the culture around them:

• As classroom practitioners, we influence our language, relationships, curriculum choices and interactions.
• As middle leaders, we influence team cultures, professional development and decision-making.
• As senior leaders, we influence organisational priorities, policies, resource allocation and accountability. 
• And as Fellows of the Chartered College of Teaching, we also have opportunities to influence the wider profession through our leadership, scholarship, advocacy and professional networks.

The question is not simply what needs to change, but what we are prepared to do within our sphere of influence.

Moving from passive support to active allyship

Allyship is an essential part of this responsibility. Being an ally is not simply about expressing support for equity or identifying ourselves as inclusive. It is about how we use our influence, opportunities and privilege to challenge exclusion and advocate for others.

Effective allyship requires us to:

• Recognise injustice and take shared responsibility for challenging it.
• Speak up, even when doing so feels uncomfortable.
• Use our access, influence and privilege to create opportunities for others.
• Listen without centering our own discomfort or experiences.
• Acknowledge mistakes, remain open to feedback and commit to learning.
• Take responsibility for our own education rather than expecting marginalised colleagues or learners to educate us.

Allyship is not a title we award ourselves. It is demonstrated through consistent behaviours and meaningful action. It requires courage, humility and accountability. And it reminds us that belonging is not simply about how we experience our own environment, but how we contribute to the experiences of others.

Conclusion: Shaping Intention into Impact

Cultivating a culture of belonging is not a one-off initiative, a policy review or a training session. It is an ongoing commitment to understanding how our schools are experienced by the people within them:

• It requires us to examine the relationship between our values and behaviours, our intentions and actions, and our assumptions and the lived experiences of others.
• It requires us to recognise that diversity, equity and inclusion are not separate from school improvement, staff wellbeing, curriculum development or educational outcomes. They are fundamental to them.

As we concluded the webinar, I invited Fellows to consider some final reflective questions:

• Who belongs in our schools, and how do we know?

• Who might experience our culture differently from the way we imagine it?

• Whose voices are we listening to, and whose voices are missing?

• What are we prepared to change because of what we hear?

• How will we know whether our actions are making a meaningful difference?

Ultimately, belonging is not something we can claim on behalf of others. It is something they must be able to experience for themselves.

As educators and leaders, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to cultivate the conditions in which every individual feels safe, valued, respected and empowered to thrive.

Our challenge is to move beyond talking about belonging and start evaluating how it is experienced. Because cultivating belonging is not simply about what we intend to do. It is about the difference we make.

Shaping Intention into Impact.