Belonging.
It’s been said more in staff meetings over the last year than perhaps the previous six. I think that’s exciting – but in one way a little worrying.
Here’s why.
15 years ago, I spent a day at Jamie’s Farm with Founder Tish Feildon. I was keen to learn about how to engage disadvantaged learners (research for my first start-up).
Tish and Jamie’s Farm are absolute masters at this.
Recently, I read a blog post by Tish. If you haven’t read it, please do (via her profile on LinkedIn).
Tish writes about a common occurrence at Jamie’s farm: A teacher visiting the farm watches one of their pupils and barely recognises them.
The ‘problem child’ seems completely different. Motivated. Collaborative. Kind. Completely at home in themselves.
The teacher says: “I don’t recognise that child.”
This raises a question we don’t ask often enough. Not “why is this child struggling?” but “what conditions are we creating that means they can’t show us who they really are?”
Belonging is having a moment.
The SEND White Paper puts it front and centre. The Schools Minister has been explicit: inclusion is now a whole-school obligation, not the SENCO’s problem to solve alone.
After years of a SEND system rated “poor” by over half of all families who use it, something is changing.
The DfE held a ministerial briefing in January for SEND experts and advisors.
In a live poll, they rated the current SEND system an average of 1.7 out of 5 for accessibility. 51% rated it the lowest option: poor.
That’s not a system in need of tweaking. That’s a system that has failed the children it exists to serve.
And at the heart of that failure is a simple truth: children cannot learn when they don’t belong.
But here’s the thing about belonging.
It’s slow. It’s relational. It can’t be bought off a shelf or delivered in a one-day INSET.
Tish Feildon puts it perfectly: “Belonging can’t be delivered through a short-term initiative. It has to be created through practice.”
The danger, right now, is that belonging becomes the next buzzword. The new display board in reception. The PSHE lesson in Term 1. A policy rewrite that looks the part.
We’ve seen this before. Every few years, a term captures the moment. Then the moment passes, and the children who needed something real are left with something performative.
That cannot happen here.
I started SENshine because I watched this happen at close quarters.
I felt alienated in my own schooling and did not achieve my potential. Later, after 10 years in tech, I started a business working with disadvantaged pupils.
Again and again, I saw children who were clever, curious, and full of potential being failed. Not by their teachers, who were working incredibly hard. But by a system that wasn’t built to help them be seen.
SENshine began because I believed technology could change that. Not by replacing human relationships, but by improving the conditions for them.
When a SENDCO is drowning in paperwork until 9pm every night, she’s not failing at belonging. The system is failing her. And through her, it’s failing every child who needed her attention that day.
Likewise for a teacher lacking the confidence or know-how to support a child with unusual needs. This is a systems issue.
Our platform, Embrace, was built around these realities.
The mission is simple: every learner should feel that they belong.
What does belonging actually require?
Jamie’s Farm has been working on this for 17 years with over 18,000 children. Their answer is worth sitting with.
When children feel safe, valued, part of something meaningful, and surrounded by adults who hold high expectations with genuine warmth, they flourish. Every time.
That’s not magic. That’s what belonging looks like in practice.
And notice what’s missing from that list. There’s no mention of resources. No mention of diagnosis. No mention of paperwork.
It starts with people. It starts with culture.
Which is why the new reform agenda, for all its focus on systems and accountability, keeps coming back to the same word: relationships.
For school leaders, this is the work.
The SEND reforms are landing. Ofsted is already inspecting differently. The expectations around inclusion are getting sharper.
But compliance will not create belonging.
Instead, as Tish argues, we need:
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- Relational structures: consistent routines, policies, and emotionally safe environments.
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- Relational practice: adults trained and supported to co-regulate, to listen, to build trust.
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- Community connection: e.g. families involved, not just informing them.
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- Evidence-informed knowhow: access to expert guidance – when it is needed, not 6 months later.
A challenge to carry into this week.
Think about a child in your school who your staff don’t quite recognise yet. The one who hasn’t shown you what they’re capable of.
Ask what conditions they need. Not what diagnosis. Not what provision. What conditions.
Then ask honestly: are we creating those conditions? Is our system helping us do that? Or is it getting in the way?
Belonging isn’t just a word worth using. It’s a word worth building around.
If we do it right, this moment could be genuinely different.
Let’s not waste it.
Ben Holt is the CEO and co-founder of SENshine, which builds the operating system for inclusion in schools. SENshine’s platform, Embrace, supports school leaders, teachers and support staff to collaborate and work more effectively with families, councils and specialist services.