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Belonging: The Bedrock of Inclusive Schools
Belonging: The Bedrock of Inclusive Schools
A passion of mine that I’ve been percolating for some time is the importance of the idea of ‘belonging’ in education. My assertion is that feeling like you belong is the bridge between well-being and inclusion. When you feel like you belong, you feel safe, accepted, and valued. In turn, these feelings result in a learning environment where students feel motivated to try their best, are more willing to step out of their comfort zone and take risks, and are more likely to demonstrate resilience and bounce back when things don’t go quite as planned.
In preparing for a virtual workshop that I will shortly be leading for teachers across Indonesia, I went back to review the results of our GJS student experience survey that we sent out to all Secondary students in semester one.
Student responses to the question, ‘How included do you feel?’:
In the first bar chart, responding to the question, ‘How included do you feel at Global Jaya?’ it is possible to see that the vast majority of students feel varying degrees of inclusion; some students feel extremely included, whilst others report feeling somewhat included from time to time. Delving further into their responses, it is possible to discern that, for our students, inclusion is synonymous with acceptance, open-mindedness and being ‘invited’ to participate.
Overall Wellbeing - Student-Reported:
Perhaps not surprisingly, the student responses to the prompt, ‘Please rate your overall well-being in connection with your student life at Global Jaya’, demonstrated a similar spread of responses to the question about inclusion. Here, we again see a right-shifted ‘bell-curve’ response, with most of our students feeling like their well-being is well supported at GJS.
According to the more detailed responses, two main school drivers significantly impact student well-being: barriers in connection to teaching, learning and assessment and students' interactions with others. Additionally, 86 students identified that their well-being is dramatically influenced by the extent to which they feel like they belong to a community.
As our thoughts return to our school-wide action plan, and we consider how to continue to strive towards our goal of all students feeling included, with a balanced sense of well-being, and that they belong at GJS, the path forward becomes more apparent.
Supporting community culture and wellness requires a collaborative approach where each of us must play our part. Here, I return to the student experience survey results to illuminate our pathway forward.
The survey results make clear that all stakeholders must make active and intentional contributions towards this goal:
Students Can:
Communicate openly and acknowledge all students
Be open-minded and non-judgmental of one another - recognise that strength is to be found in our diversity
Show empathy and compassion in their interactions - both online and face-to-face
Invite all students to participate
Teachers Can:
Make their classrooms inclusive spaces where the relationships and emotional environment are understood to be integral to the learning process
Give opportunities for every child to experience success
Ensure that assessments are scheduled and structured in such a way as to ensure that students are set up with the best possible chance of success
Reinforce to every student that they are seen, heard and valued for their contributions and for who they are
School Leadership Can:
Ensure that school structures, policies and processes reinforce inclusive practices in support of student wellbeing
Ensure that the IB programmes are implemented with fidelity in that they support a balanced, holistic education that connects learning to the real world and, therefore, help students to see the relevance of what they are learning and feel like what they are doing in school is meaningful
Ensure that the physical and emotional environment promotes a culture of safety, respect for diversity and the importance of our school’s values and beliefs
Parents Can:
Read and be supportive of school policies and practices
Communicate and collaborate with the school as partners in the child’s growth
Reinforce respect for diversity, the need for compassion and the importance of integrity
Reflecting on our current practices, I emphasize that every one of these bullet points has already been actioned somehow. While we are already on our way to creating the kind of community and culture that we all envision and hope for, this is an ongoing process that requires tenacity, vision and collaboration.
The purpose of sharing these reflections and listing these suggested actions is to provide each of us with a set of beacons to be guided by. Because we still have students who do not yet always feel like they belong, we have more work to do as a community. Working together towards these goals will ultimately make a difference to these students - to our children - and will ensure that every child feels like they belong in our school.
Empowering Students to Problem Solve!
In connection with our mission, at Global Jaya we value the importance of, ‘providing experiences through which the knowledge and skills necessary to encourage problem solving are developed.’
For this reason, we believe that it is important to provide students with factual information about physical and psychological changes that they can expect during puberty. It is our belief that, when provided with this information, students are equipped with the necessary knowledge that they can use in order to better navigate teenage years and make informed choices that keep themselves safe.
On February 2nd, Dr Emily and Ms. Maizan presented to all students in years 7 and 8 regarding puberty and reproductive health.
We are grateful to the Good Practice clinic for assisting us in our efforts to ensure that the information that was conveyed to students was entirely factual and was provided by professionals in the field.
Empowering Parents Too!
We also welcomed all interested parents for a presentation later on the same day, in order to help parents to know what to expect from their children as they navigate puberty! Parents were given guidance and suggestions for how to navigate the hormonal roller coaster whilst still keeping the relationship with their teen intact!
It is our intention that by providing parent workshops, we are not only working in partnership but we are also empowering parents with the knowledge and skills that they need in order to problem solve parenting challenges along the way!
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