Best Practice

Belonging in schools: Four ways teachers can earn students’ trust

Quality First Teaching
Building trust with our students is core to creating a sense of belonging in our classrooms and will help to improve both pastoral and academic outcomes. Sanum J Khan looks at four ways to build trust
Trust deficit? In general, teachers are not considered trusted adults by young people ‘because the structures and expectations of education impact on their ability to build these types of relationships’ - Adobe Stock

A lot has been written about the concept of “belonging” in schools and I was recently challenged to consider what this term meant and whether it was appropriate to use.

Did it, for example, mean that one group sets the agenda and owns the narrative, with others able to find their place within that?

To me, it means something different – a collaborative effort to build a community where all are able to thrive. And to me, building and maintaining trust must be at the heart of this ambition.

Nick Hart’s recent book Creating a Strong Culture and Positive Climate in Schools (2022) is about staff teams and leadership. Nevertheless, the frameworks and examples he suggests for staff teams could also be transferred to students.

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