Belonging in Schools After the White Paper
The new White Paper signals that schools will increasingly be expected to monitor pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement. Here are the top five questions about this, and the answers to help you achieve this.
In just 3 years, belonging will become something schools are expected to evidence.
The White Paper Every Child Achieving and Thriving, published in February 2025, sets out a clear direction for the future of education.
By 2029, schools will be expected to monitor pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement as part of creating environments where every child can achieve and thrive. The ambition makes sense. But if you’re leading a school right now, you may already be wondering:
What does “belonging” actually look like in a school setting?
How will this be monitored in practice?
What will Ofsted be looking for?
How are we supposed to measure something that is essentially a feeling?
And how do we do this without creating yet another initiative for already stretched staff?
Across the sector, leaders are welcoming the intention behind the White Paper while also raising practical questions about implementation, workload and resources. Many schools are asking the same thing:
How do we strengthen belonging in a meaningful way — without turning it into another metric or tick-box exercise?
The good news is that the foundations of belonging often already exist within the culture of your school.
The five questions we answer in our brand new resource, reflect the conversations many of you are having right now, along with the answers that can help you move forward with confidence.
What You’ll Discover
Inside our Belonging in Schools After the White Paper resource you’ll find clear answers to the questions many school leaders are already asking:
✔ What the White Paper really means when it talks about belonging and engagement
✔ How schools can recognise belonging in practice
✔ Ways to measure belonging using signals you may already have
✔ Why staff psychological safety is one of the strongest indicators of pupil belonging
✔ How to strengthen belonging without creating another initiative
Why This Matters Now
Within the next few years, schools will be expected to demonstrate that pupils feel connected, engaged and part of their school community.
But belonging cannot simply be introduced through a programme or initiative.
It grows from the culture of the school, the relationships, routines and leadership signals that shape how both staff and pupils experience school life.
This resource helps you translate the ambition of the White Paper into something more practical:
What to look for.
What to pay attention to.
And where to begin.
Who This Is For?
This resource is written for:
• Headteachers
• Senior Leadership Teams
• Multi-Academy Trust Leaders
• School Governors
• Leaders responsible for culture, inclusion or wellbeing
If you're currently wondering: "How do we actually approach belonging in our school?"