Care and Belonging: Is it Enough for School Success?

There has and is still a lot of focus around developing and embedding a sense of care and belonging in every school setting. At a time when young people are becoming more dysregulated, attendance is an ongoing concern and more parents are choosing elective home education, care and belonging are going to be key to getting learners not only back into schools but in a position where they are able to learn. We are after all more likely to go somewhere if we feel there is a genuine sense of caring, that we matter to others and that we feel we belong there as an individual.

This is all reinforced by various models from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the PERMA model of well-being to resilience and self-esteem models. Positive, strong relationships which develop a sense of connectedness and belonging so that we want to be somewhere. The challenge is developing a culture where every individual feels that they belong and are not just surviving but have the potential to thrive.

It is at this point where I am going to say that 100% we need every individual to feel that they matter, others hold them in positive regard and that they belong as a unique individual. But this is not enough. Yes, care and belonging are essential foundations, but they are not in themselves enough. If we go back to Maslow, there are layers above safety and belonging, layers that help us progress to self-actualisation, to achieve something with real meaning in our lives. We need opportunities to grow and develop, we need to know we have the potential to learn more, progress and feel challenged.

Growth and development opportunities are key to building on care and belonging. If young people don’t see the potential for them to grow, develop and be ready for the challenges in later life then this might well lead to frustration, discontentment and absence. How does curriculum content and design and the wider school offer therefore create opportunities for engagement and meaningful growth for our learners? The curriculum needs to be dynamic and interesting with links to real life so that learners can really appreciate the purpose behind the learning they are engaged with.

Equally, how does the curriculum inspire our teachers, so they feel genuine enthusiasm and passion when teaching their subjects? If we want our learners to be engaged, then we need to ensure we create the right conditions for teachers to deliver an inspiring curriculum that enables them to shine in their practice. Whilst we may have a framework for our curriculum how much autonomy do our staff have so that they can flex their approach to really inspire and engage learners. The last thing we need is a curriculum that inhibits creative practice and results in ‘autopilot’ teaching where content is delivered the same regardless of context.

Having a job is not enough, we need our staff to feel they can grow, get better and learn more about pedagogy and other aspects of education. All our staff need to feel motivated to do their best every day, gaining a sense of achievement and pride in what they are doing. Our school environment and culture needs to support that intrinsic drive to excel which is built on a strong foundation of belonging and feeling valued. To this end, having high quality professional development opportunities are essential. This is not just about offering training or development driven by leaders but supporting training and development that is demanded by our staff. Yes, we need a framework so that training and development complement whole school development, but can we also support greater autonomy. Autonomy where adults are choosing how and where they develop so that they are more committed, owning and taking full responsibility for their continuous improvement.

Finding purpose and meaning are equally essential for our staff and learners alike; to see the overall journey they are on with their practice and learning. In some respects, this requires a shift away from viewing education from a utilitarian perspective. Yes, effective learning prepares us for later life but not just to exist in a functional manner but to thrive, grow and find a deeper meaning to our lives. A combination of knowledge and skills can inspire us to greater things in life not just the next exam, qualification, course or job. Knowing that developing a diverse range of skills that are valued and matter in the real world also helps with motivation and a desire to engage. They support us in getting closer to where we feel a greater moral purpose and sense of achievement in what we are doing across our lives because what we are doing matters so much to the lives of others.

If we can articulate the real purpose behind education and develop systems and a curriculum to make this a reality, we get a workforce which has greater motivation, engaged with higher levels of morale. We also get learners being engaged by passionate practitioners who are eager to do things differently, thinking creatively in order to inspire and enthuse learners. Learners will want to attend and engage because what they are doing makes sense and resonates with them. They aren’t attending lessons, they are engaging with subjects that have meaning and purpose, supporting their holistic development and not measuring them as units of exam data.

The real challenge is moving beyond binary thinking or overly simplistic models. Yes, care and belonging are hugely important but in themselves they are not enough to improve the current state of education. They are perhaps a good starting point but if we truly understand human behaviour then we know there has to be more than feeling comfortable and safe in a place where we belong. We need to know that we can grow, develop and find a deeper meaning behind all our efforts.
How can we develop our education system so that we offer daily opportunities to feel inspired, to be in awe. What can we create so that learners and staff alike are excited about attending each day. We need to adopt different thinking which takes into account the real extent of the challenges education is facing right now. Using the same thinking and tweaking the same approaches is not going to be sufficient in making a real impact. What got us to where we are is not going to be enough to get us out of this crisis. Let’s dispense with the approaches that compartmentalise groups of learners and issues.

We need inclusion for all, not approaches that result in silo working and fragmentation. Let’s stop putting learners into homogeneous groups based on a crude understanding of their needs and contexts. This hasn’t got us anywhere over the past decade despite billions of pounds being spent.

Let’s focus on great pedagogy and classroom practices built around dynamic curriculums, supported by strong leadership at all levels. Understand needs at an individual level to inform practice not pathologize, label and either segregate or isolate. The leadership challenge is going for radical change which creates an environment which supports, develops and grows staff and learners alike.

Care and Belonging – knowing we all belong and matter in our schools.
Growth and Development – opportunities to learn, evolve and be challenged.
Purpose and Meaning – understanding that efforts are contributing to a greater good with a clear moral purpose.