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.
The business of trust is certainly something we engage with when leading others, building teams and identifying schools we want to work in. Extending this to the classroom seems logical.
Of course, this work does not come without barriers. Young Minds and UK Youth have produced a report showing that, in general, teachers are not considered trusted adults by young people – “perhaps because the structures and expectations of education impact on their ability to build these types of relationships with students” (Young Minds & UK Youth, n.d.).
Trust in the public space – including trust in policing and government – is also low at the moment and headteachers all over the country can tell us about increases in parent complaints and distrust.
Another finding in the Young Minds/UK Youth report was that pastoral staff were considered to be trusted adults. Where a “trusted adult” is identified as someone who “listens without judgement, agenda or expectation” we can perhaps understand why teachers might not always be seen in this way.
In my own GCSE or A level classroom, I am the facilitator who corrects students, and my agenda is directly linked to the curriculum delivery and exam specification – judgement and expectation cannot be avoided.
However, the report also defines a trusted adult as someone who has the “sole purpose of supporting and encouraging positivity within a young person’s life”. So, the nuance is to be judgemental and have expectations in the classroom that are rooted in supporting and encouraging positivity.
Chapter 7 of Nick Hart’s book outlines key features of trust in teams. Again, while he is writing about staff, I suggest these also apply to students in the classroom and I give attention to four of these features in particular.
1, Vulnerability
Admitting mistakes and areas of growth, as well as accepting input to improve your practice.
Admit when you make a mistake in your teaching or planning. In RE and PSHE, we often use statistics and current affairs, but these can become quickly outdated. All of our students have personal devices, so I often ask a student to fact-check me during a lesson.
You can also encourage and welcome feedback on the new strategies you have tried. It can be helpful to say: “I saw Ms Pilkington do this in her lesson and I thought it was a great idea. Let’s try it today and then discuss which method we think works best for us.”
Another way of gathering feedback is to use a form for students to give marks out of five on various elements of the lessons – such as quality of feedback, structure of tasks, time given for task completion, and usefulness of homework.
Welcome observations as regularly as possible. Invite staff from other departments and at various points in their careers to give you feedback; not only does it make your teaching better, but it also shows the students that you understand that learning is a journey and look outwards to improve, just like they do.
Equally, when I conduct a learning walk and speak to students, I ask questions like:
- What one thing do you do in this classroom that you think makes it a great space to learn in?
- If there was one thing you wished your teachers never did, what would it be and why?
Showing students that you are willing to grow and improve, regardless of how experienced you are, shows that you want to be the best you can be for them.
A final point about vulnerability, which underpins all of the suggestions, is the acceptability of getting it wrong. It does not break trust with students if you accidentally leave a resource on your office desk, forget to upload a resource one lesson, or go back to re-teach something because it didn’t go well the first time.
Mistake-making is part of life and often the best way to learn – and being transparent about this is far more valuable in building trust than lying or avoiding confrontation altogether.
2, Healthy conflict
Nick Hart proposes “lively, interesting meetings” and I suggest the same goal could be set for our lessons.
Tackle challenging questions, welcome debate, and show students that this is a space where their views matter. When I first trained as a teacher, I fell into the trap of leaving all of the analytical discussion until the end of the lesson. This often meant that the most exciting part for the students happened right as they left the room. The plenary often, as a result, felt rushed and the learning wasn’t always embedded.
In a year 12 lesson recently, I tried adding a textbox to a handout entitled “evaluative issues arising” and encouraged students to complete this as we progressed through the content of the lesson. It meant that they were building the foundations of a lively, interesting essay alongside developing core knowledge.
Healthy conflict, in my opinion, should be planned for and also responded to. I have written previously in SecEd about how to have challenging conversations with students.
3, Commitment
We need to cultivate commitment from our students and a sense of direction – a shared agenda and clear communication are key ways of achieving this.
Ensure students understand where you are taking them. Knowledge organisers, scheme of work outlines, exemplar work, and maintaining a balance between the big picture and the detail are all ways of doing this.
Involve students in decision-making, such as homework deadlines (where appropriate) and offering feedback on pedagogy and/or content.
Communicate clearly with students with reasonable notice. For example, if you have a planned absence, let the class know about it when you see them so that they know what is coming and that you thought about them as part of your absence planning.
Communicate carefully and clearly with students. Ensure your language is clear and specific – particularly if praising or sanctioning a student. Communication is a key part of structuring tasks, too. The method of feedback used, the way in which success criteria are shared, and the wording of questions in discussion are all examples of this.
4, Holding to account
Use praise openly and avoid excessive bureaucracy.
Use the school behaviour and reward system consistently. Reward points can be incredibly powerful, but if given out inconsistently or as a behaviour management tool rather than as recognition of achievement then they lose their value. Subsequently, students stop trusting you as a leader in the room.
Equally, the behaviour system must be employed to hold students accountable. It is important that you say what you mean – and mean what you say.
Nick Hart also writes: “Holding to account is often portrayed as having a difficult conversation, but that is the last stage.” He adds that we should employ other activities first.
In the classroom, this can mean reiterating the school values, adjustments of seating plans, offering one-to-one support after an assessment has not gone as well as hoped, or a well-timed phone call home.
Simplify feedback and recording of data/targets for students – it must not be an admin or evidencing task but instead must be done with their progress as the main purpose. Feedback and data should be shared with a view to encouraging and supporting the student’s growth. If it becomes about reporting and judgement, trust will break down.
Final thoughts
Belonging and building positive relationships are terms that I have heard and used extensively in my teaching career. Shifting the focus to particular aspects of this – including trust – gives us a sharper focus.
We can’t undo the seemingly low levels of trust in the public space and certainly can’t use a checklist of tools to make trust appear overnight. But incremental changes can improve the culture of your classroom and school.
- Sanum J Khan is assistant headteacher at Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Find Sanum’s previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/sanum-j-khan
Further information & resources
- Hart: Creating a Strong Culture and Positive Climate in Schools, 2022.
- Young Minds & UK Youth: Someone to turn to: Being a trusted adult for young people, n/d: www.youngminds.org.uk/media/by3o0aru/someone-to-turn-to-report.pdf