Best Practice

Creating the we: Ideas for building pupils’ belonging in school

Inclusion Pupil wellbeing Pastoral issues
A sense of belonging might just be key to reducing absence and inspiring pupils to want to be in school. Jean Gross offers some practical ideas for how primary schools can set about building what she calls the ‘we’
The importance of belonging: Research has shown that pupils’ scores on a test measuring belonging were strongly related to attendance, much more so than measures of anxiety, wellbeing or grit - Adobe Stock

Pupils’ sense of belonging, or school connectedness, is increasingly talked about in education circles – particularly in relation to the absence epidemic, which education secretary Bridget Phillipson described as “the canary in the coal mine for belonging in our country” (DfE, 2024).

Belonging can be defined as “the extent to which children feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow, 1993).

An important research report (ImpactEd, 2024) found that pupils’ scores on a test measuring belonging were strongly related to attendance, much more so than measures of anxiety, wellbeing or grit.

The test asked pupils to say how much they agree with statements like: 

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