5 Ways to Create a Sense of Belonging in a New School Year

Children who feel a sense of belonging are more likely to have positive mental health and can focus more on the task of learning. The beginning of a new school year is the ideal time to create a sense of belonging for students. This article offers five suggestions and free downloadable resources to create a sense of belonging in the new school year.

An Ideal Beginning for Establishing Belonging

A new school year is the perfect time to establish a classroom atmosphere that encourages acceptance and belonging. Kids are naturally a bit curious and nervous about how their personalities and backgrounds will mesh with this new group of people. This back-to-school opportunity is a chance to make creating a sense of belonging for students a priority from day one. 

Creating a sense of belonging starts with building strong, meaningful foundations through connection. When kids feel accepted, there are positive mental health effects. When kids feel like they don't belong, they feel isolated, less capable, and unworthy of various opportunities. According to Professor of Educational Psychology and Equity, Dr. Deleon Gray, “Students who don’t feel a sense of belonging often struggle to devote their full cognitive resources to tasks and experience issues with emotional wellness.”

Ways to Begin with Belonging 

We know belonging matters, but how can we help kids feel safe and seen from the first day of the new school year and forward? Here are five ideas:

Morning Meetings

Even if you can only devote 10–15 minutes at the start of each day, a morning meeting can be a great time to touch base with all your students. You can share the plan for the day, any class or school news, ideas, concerns, or spotlights. This is a bonding exercise because everyone is a part of the class family, and each student is a member. This is essentially a team huddle for taking care of common goals. 

Belonging vs. Fitting In

For students to fully understand belonging, they need to know what it is. Read aloud the book B Is For Belonging to launch a discussion. Create a chart that helps students describe what it would look like and feel like to belong. Possible ideas could include:

• Feeling seen and heard
• Feeling included
• Having people ask how you are
• People letting you be you
• Not having to impress

It’s also important to discuss the difference between “belonging” and “fitting in.” You could create a T-chart to compare the two terms. Belonging is all about being accepted for who you are. Fitting In is having to change who you are to be accepted. 

This discussion could also include what it means to “other” someone. This is when we exclude someone who doesn’t fit who we would like them to be. Brainstorm ways kids can prevent exclusion and promote acceptance. These discussions go a long way in helping kids to notice when someone is being left out or disrespected.

You can also choose several points in the school year to share a Belongingness Scale to see how students are feeling. This information can be helpful to see if you have students who are feeling lonely or excluded.

Kindness Notes

Discuss how students can be intentional about noticing the good things others are doing in the classroom. Model how to give a sincere compliment. Share this kindness note activity with your class.

Choose a day of the week to take 10 minutes and have students write a kind note to another student anonymously. Maybe you could make it a “Thoughtful Thursday” or Friendly Friday” activity. You can provide students the person they will be writing to, so that eventually every student will have the opportunity to write to and hear from every student in your class.

Collect the notes and then hand them out at the start of the next day. After students read their notes, they can be saved in a special folder or envelope throughout the year if desired. This is a great way for students to see the positive traits others see in them. It also gives kids the chance to notice and appreciate the good qualities others exhibit.

Seating Arrangement

Each Friday, have students submit the names of four students they would like to sit by. (They need to know that this does not mean their requests will be honored.) This gives you good information about who is being left out, never requested, or suddenly rejected. Knowing this and discovering patterns can help you strategically plan seating, partnering for projects, class social emotional learning lessons, and individual talks you may want to have with kids.

On Mondays, assign your new seating arrangement that causes kids to sit by different people. Kids learn how to work alongside all different students when we put them in these new social constructs each week. Kids also know and understand that it is temporary. If they are sitting by someone who is somewhat challenging to be around due to behavior issues, they know it isn’t permanent. This helps build their tolerance and compassion skills. 

Empty Desk

Most years, teachers have a student (or more than one student) who moves in during the school year. If there is ever a time a student may feel like they don’t belong, it is a transition like this. New students often feel anxious about how they will be accepted on top of dealing with whatever circumstance caused the needed move in the first place.

Having the empty desk in the room, ready to go, shows this student you have been waiting for them all year. Rather than feeling like an inconvenience, they can feel like the class now has its missing piece!

This empty desk prepares the current students all year long as well. They have the anticipation that a student will probably be joining their classroom community. It helps with the acceptance that your class will be growing and changing during the year.

There are many more activities you can do to foster a sense of belonging in the beginning of a new school year and throughout. Investing time and energy in creating a sense of belonging in the new school year will support students in the essential tasks of learning and making friends all year long.