The Belonging Collective

A Guest Blog by Kelly Earnshaw

Why belonging matters

In primary schools, belonging is the bedrock of learning. These are the years when children take their first steps into education, form their earliest friendships and begin to see themselves as learners. If a child feels they don’t fit in—whether that’s being left out on the playground, not having anyone to sit with at lunch, coming from a different country or not seeing their family represented in classroom life—their confidence can dip and their learning can suffer.

We’ve all seen how a child who feels unsettled may struggle to concentrate, or how one who feels invisible may withdraw. That’s why our goal is simple but vital: to make sure every child feels welcomed, connected, and that they truly belong in their school community. This led us to create an audit tool for our schools with access to resources to support school staff.

What we’ve learned from others

The importance of belonging is well backed by research. Studies highlighted by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) show that children’s social and emotional development directly affects both their wellbeing and their academic progress. Meanwhile, The Children’s Society has found that when children feel they belong, they are more resilient and better able to cope with challenges.

We’ve also been inspired by what’s happening in many of our Trust schools already. From buddy systems where older pupils help new starters, to daily check-ins that give every child a voice, our schools are showing that small, intentional practices can make a big difference. These insights shaped our thinking as we developed our Trust wide framework.

The Welcome, Connect, Belong Framework

To turn the idea of belonging into something practical, we created the Welcome, Connect, Belong audit tool. It’s built around three clear steps that staff and pupils can easily put into practice:

1. Welcome – Making sure every child feels noticed and valued from the moment they arrive. A smile at the door, a personal greeting, or a shared morning routine helps children feel safe and ready to learn. Welcome packs which can be translated into other languages help families to feel welcome from day one. We’ve also begun to record welcome messages for our websites in the six most commonly spoken languages across our Trust schools. We also use this welcome time to complete some baseline assessments so that we build from an individual’s starting point.

2. Connect – Building strong relationships within the classroom and across the school and beyond. This might be through circle time, paired learning or older pupils supporting younger ones as buddies or welcome ambassadors.

3. Belong – Creating a school culture where every child sees themselves reflected and celebrated. Inclusive books and displays, opportunities to share home traditions and class rituals all reinforce the message: you are an important part of this community.

Our audit tool provides schools with a framework to assess their current approach as well as linking to an ever evolving bank of resources and easy-to-use ideas and prompts, such as:
– Morning check-in questions to help children express how they’re feeling.
– Guidance for reviewing classroom resources to make sure they represent the diversity of pupils.
– Ideas for inclusive celebrations that draw on the backgrounds and interests of every child.

– Examples of welcome packs

-Resources which have already been translated into a range of languages

– Sample policies

It’s designed to slot into daily practice, not to add extra workload.

Impact – What we’ve seen so far

Even in these early stages, the changes are clear. Teachers report calmer starts to the day when children are welcomed individually. A Year 2 pupil recently shared, “I like it when my teacher says hello to me every morning—it makes me feel happy.”
We’ve also seen how the Connect step has led to us updating book corners with more diverse stories and how this has sparked curiosity and respect for difference. We’ve seen children sharing books and developing an understanding of other cultures.  Under Belong, events such as heritage days, celebrating Refugee Week and Black History Month have led to a sense of belonging for all.

Perhaps most moving has been the testimony of a parent who arrived in our community after fleeing the war in Ukraine with her daughters. In a video interview, she explained how anxious they all felt on their very first day, walking into an unfamiliar school. But she described how the warm welcome—staff greeting them by name, pupils showing them around, and teachers making space for their language and culture—helped her primary aged daughter settle quickly and start to thrive. She said, “school staff helped each day, each minute really … very soon she was happy to be at school. Teachers used translators, gestures, pictures to help.’

Stories like this remind us that our Welcome, Connect, Belong framework is not just theory—it is lived experience for families who need it most.

Reflections and next steps

The biggest lesson so far is that belonging is not a one-off initiative. It’s a culture. Welcome, Connect, Belong gives schools a simple structure, but the real power lies in making belonging part of everyday life.

Our next steps are to gather more stories from schools, refine the audit tool with feedback, and share what works widely. Our hope is that belonging becomes the golden thread that runs through every classroom across St Christopher’s Multi Academy Trust.

When children and families are welcomed, when they connect and when truly feel that they belong—they don’t just attend school, they flourish.

Kelly is a headteacher in Plymouth and leads on the ‘Welcome, Connect, Belong’ Framework for St Christopher’s Trust