School Climate
Facilitating an optimal learning environment characterised by instructionally supportive interactions, social-emotional support and positive classroom management.
Teacher and Learning | Safety | Community | School Environment
School Belonging
School belonging is an important part of School Climate, and is typically defined as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow, 1993).
Encouraging school belonging in students is associated with a myriad of wellbeing outcomes, including increased: social, emotional and physical wellbeing, academic performance and achievement, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience, and positive classroom behaviour (Allen et al., 2017; Allen et al., 2018; Allen & Kern, 2020).
A recent meta-analysis looking at the predictors of school belonging in students found the largest effects for were for teacher support – that is, students who believe they have a positive relationship with their teacher, and that their teacher is caring, empathic and fair and help to resolve problems ,are more likely to experience a greater sense of belonging at school (Allen et al., 2018).
Activities to enhance school belonging in the classroom include:
Knowing Your Students
Cultivating belonging by getting to know your students - e.g., greeting them by name at the door, surveying them about their wants and needs as a learner.
Ball of String
Start by holding the ball and sharing something about yourself (be lighthearted and creative!). Hold the end of the string and invite a student to share something funny or unusual about themselves. Throw to the next student and so on, until a web of string is formed and everyone is holding the string. At the end, comment that each student has their own unique story, but we are all interconnected and we need to look out for and support each other. You can also highlight the areas where there is lots of string forming a thick ‘web’ – where we are strongly connected and supported, we are more likely to withstand adversity as a group (Allen & Kern, 2020).
About Me Activity
Invite students to write a brief letter to their teacher (or mentor) about themselves. What would they like you to know? Include what they like in a class/learning style, don’t like and what they want to achieve from your class. This can be done in written or survey format (Allen & Kern, 2020).
Radio Host
Allow yourself to be interviewed by students. Allow time for brainstorming ideas, and be genuine and authentic (within professional boundaries; Allen & Kern, 2020).
Human Bingo
Write down a persons name in your class/year group for each box for example, 'someone who can be silly with me'. Teacher reads out all students names in no particular order of that class/ year group. First to match a row wines.
Mentoring
Mentoring with a focus on relationship building and built in choice of mentor or intentionally selected mentor to mentee/s
*Note these ‘getting to know you’ activities are particularly helpful with new classes/students
