Belonging: Resources for Primary Schools
School belonging is the “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment”
Goodenow and Grady (1993)
Belonging is an important aspect of any community, but schools in particular play a unique role in fostering child, adolescent, staff and community belonging.
A strong sense of school belonging contributes to positive school culture for students and staff. Student belonging allows students to feel accepted, respected and valued, leads to higher engagement and motivation in their learning and builds social and emotional skills.
A suite of resources are available to promote belonging in the classroom. These resources are curriculum-linked and have been developed for lower primary (years 1-3) and upper primary (years 4-6).
Belonging Classroom PowerPoint
- Introduce students to belonging and the importance of feeling a sense of belonging.
- Identify where students feel like they belong.
- Identify and promote places and groups within the school students can go to increase their sense of belonging.
- Emphasise the importance of including others.
Belonging Classroom Activities
- Get to know your students with the All About Me activity.
- Help students identify where they feel they belong and how they could find a sense of belonging with the How I Belong activity.
- Assist students to connect and foster a sense of classroom belonging with the Scavenger Hunt activity.
- Tie it all together and get students to complete the My Self Portrait activity to display in the classroom.
*Activities have been developed and differentiated for different year groups (years 1-3 and years 4-6). Adapt the resources to suit your students’ abilities.
Lesson Notes and Lesson Overviews are provided to guide teachers through slides, activities and key discussion points.