David Rushby is the co-creator of Nautilus, an online school leadership platform that enables schools to accurately self-evaluate their provision using an iPad or tablet. He’s proud to have a career that began as a special educational teaching assistant, before teaching in a large inner-city school in Hackney, east London. David then went on to become a long-serving headteacher, with a proven record of successfully leading large schools in challenging circumstances. David now works with over 600 schools globally, as well as being a school improvement advisor for the local education authority.
After a summer of social and political discontent, and with our children and young people increasingly exposed to more and more online division, now may well be a good time to re-evaluate how we seek to secure the required unity and togetherness in our school settings. With our TV channels and social media platforms broadcasting casual misbehaviours, conflict, accusatory posts and extreme views, how can we then lead a future-proof school that can counter and overcome this?
We may now need to look beyond presenting assemblies, interventions and lesson content in response. I think we now have to seek to create schools with an increased awareness and purpose. To prioritise more strategic experiences of togetherness, security and belonging. To develop an intrinsic sense of right and wrong, connectedness and identity, and to prevent disaffection.
The World is a much smaller place now, where no school can be exempt from promoting diversity. Schools are very good at promoting kindness and togetherness, but I’m not entirely sure if we’ve stopped recently to evaluate how this is done and what the outcomes could look like – knowing what kind of citizens we’re trying to develop, and to know how best to get them there. Your school is the blueprint for your future community, and so how can you strategically secure this direction for your children, families and staff?
To do this, we need to create deeper, more meaningful connections for every child. If we’re going to start with the outcome in mind, let ‘Belonging’ be your goal. Here’s 5 strategies that I have deployed previously in schools to prioritise this. In my view, these had to be designed to be consciously woven into the fabric of our existence and to help us to future-proof our provision, in an ever-changing world.
- Know Your Mission
I’ve created and seen lots of school ‘visions’. I see them on websites and prospectuses. I often see them inherited but seldom reviewed, and always promoting worthy aims and ambitions. I don’t always see how they relate, evolve or function, driving the daily work for all staff. If you can create a vision that permeates a sense of belonging, your team can then subscribe to this. In our school, we thought that it was important to break cycles of disadvantage. It was important in our multi-cultural school that we could indoctrinate a sense of pride and unity. We wanted to nurture a sense of determination amongst the staff team so that we would work together knowing what we were trying to achieve. Having worked with many schools in more affluent areas, I know that it’s the same but different, because it’s only ever about articulating ambition. As we recruited, and grew our team, we were clear about our shared mission. We then relished the invitation to fulfil this vision every day.
- Teach ‘Belonging’
Sometimes in schools, we’re guilty of implying things, but not teaching them directly. We may read a story that has a message about belonging, but we don’t define or teach it. This is no doubt because we want our children to form their own views and opinions, which we see as possibly being more valid. But the truth is, many can’t, or are too young. If you want to quickly build the foundations, explain what belonging is, and why it’s important. It’s a basic human need, but I’m pretty sure that they’re not going to work that one out. In my view, it’s OK to be as literal as possible to get things moving. We had ‘Belonging’ as one of six themes that we covered every year, for half a term. As the children moved from entry to exit, they revisited and developed their understanding over time. It was also taught as the children started in September, to quickly secure a sense of identity, pride and unity. The simple idea that being part of something positive, and larger than oneself, is better than being on your own. We’re not indoctrinating with our views, we’re promoting love and calling out hate. We see potential division in the community and wider world, and we counter this in our school with togetherness.
- Make Religious Education Important
Religious Education can sometimes be undervalued. It can be seen as any other subject when it should be unique. As schools prioritise academic skillsets, RE can lose airtime. Schemes of work or poor leadership can also be problematic. And yet good RE can grease the wheels for everything else to run smoothly. As a former church school headteacher, I would not have understood the power of spiritual growth until I had to lead it. In my view, this elevated everything that we did. In today’s world, not only do children need to find their place, but they also have to understand the place of others. RE has the power to demystify and celebrate any faith, with children finding deep connections and regard for the lives of others. I love the idea of developing this in a classroom from a young age. If I look back at my own education, I went to a very large secondary school where 45% of the students were Muslim. Not once did my teachers explain what fasting was, or why it was important. Racism often existed through ignorance, in and out of school. This is my yardstick when considering what can happen if your RE curriculum is not properly led, read, understood and applied.
- Engineer Friendships
We created an initiative called ‘UNITED’. On certain days every term, all of our children were split up into their houses and then again into classes. That meant that every teacher had a class of children for 4 years old to 11 in their care. Throughout the day, the class would take part in challenges and activities that the teacher had planned specifically to help them to get to know each other. What we were really doing was taking a big school, and making it feel small. This was significant in creating positive interactions, and a legacy of daily wellbeing. It may be entirely engineered, but that’s because it enables every child to ‘feel’ the benefits. This response is key in helping everyone to enjoy the experience, rather than just to hope that it may occur on the playground. Another initiative was to have our own dressing-up days. With a calendar full of charitable events, we thought that we needed something relevant to us. On this day, the children wore something that defined their interests and identity. We played games in classes to guess everyone’s special interests and to learn more about them. On that day, we learned who did Taekwondo, played the Indian drums, came from Poland or loved baking cakes. This was particularly good for developing mutual respect, with some of the more dominant children learning about the special talents of some of the quieter, more introvert children. You just can’t do this when everyone is in school uniform.
- Focus on the little things
I once stood at the door with my new class and said ‘Goodbye’ at the end of the day as they left. I said it to each one and few replied. Some even looked at me funny. The next day, as we lined up to leave, I told them that I would say ‘Have a nice evening’ to all of them, and would appreciate it if they could reciprocate. Every child did. The next day I stood at the door and waited quietly. As the children left, they turned, remembered, and wished me a nice evening, to which I did the same. That was a profound thing to hear from any 7-year-old. These interactions occurred as part of our routine at the start and end of the day. On a morning, we used ‘good morning’, and ‘good morning, how are you?’, to change how people feel. Small exchanges, but ones that indicated that ‘this is your school’ and that we like having you here. I can remember having to manage one particular boy who had been in trouble all day and was now in my care. As the day ended and he headed for the door, he turned to me and said ‘Have a nice evening Mr Rushby’. That touched me. It gave me confidence that others would feel the same about him, as he moved from year to year or school to school.
I will always stand by the fact that no child wants to be on their own. Some great work takes place to intervene where necessary and to provide additional support. It’s important to do everything else first, before relying on interventions. Interventions by definition are largely short-term and reactive, and we must add them in addition to the more fundamental work that we do. I also think that this is different to ‘inclusion’. Inclusion is a strategy that your staff can apply. Unlike belonging, it does not define how a child will ‘feel’.
If your children do not feel a sense of belonging in your school, we know that they could seek this elsewhere. Gangs, extremist groups, and other negative influences can also provide this. Your children belong to your school, cohort, house, class, and friendship groups. We have the opportunity to help every child, family, and staff member to secure an affinity. To reduce vulnerability and risk, and to help everyone to feel accepted and connected to something good.
Belonging is a basic human need and a fundamental right – ‘A principle from which all other needs flow’. – Maslow