Community level strategies
A sense of belonging can extend to the wider community. Schools can build partnerships with the broader local community, in collaboration with families, as a shared commitment to create an environment where all students feel connected to support networks outside the school.
Partnerships with students’ families can foster a sense of belonging for the whole school community. Schools can enhance students’ connection to the school by collaborating closely with parents and caregivers.
- Opportunities for families to engage with the school: Schools can provide ample opportunities throughout the year to welcome families onto the campus and form connections with staff. Formal events to facilitate this connection can include:
- Transitions days to welcome Year 6 students who are entering high school
- Regular meetings for students and parents in each year group, especially for those in Years 10 to 12 to discuss education pathways and career planning
- Parent information evenings tailored to topics that interest them, such as cyber safety for children
- Literacy and numeracy workshops to provide families with practical strategies to work on with their children at home
- Parent teacher interviews
- Celebrating student achievement: Schools can organise special assemblies to acknowledge student successes and invite families to join this celebration. This can include opportunities for parents and caregivers to join teachers and students at special ceremonies, such as awards breakfasts.
- Including families in school life: Schools can invite families to take part in meaningful school activities such as excursions, reading groups and staffing the school canteen.
Parent engagement is just so important with the sense of wellbeing. You’ve got to create a school that is welcoming to the entire community and find all those ways to keep bringing parents in. That’s probably the strongest way to get the sense of belonging going.
Lambton High School
We’re about education and our responsibility to the kids. Everything we do with the community is trying to make a connection. If the parents feel like they belong, then the kids are more likely to feel like they belong.
Epping Public School
Schools are uniquely positioned to act as a central point in advocating for students’ wellbeing and connecting families with relevant external services. This is especially relevant for regional, rural or remote schools with a tightknit local community.
Drawing on external programs: Schools can draw upon external providers to run different programs to holistically address students’ wellbeing and boost their sense of belonging. The wellbeing programs can be targeted for students, with different topics for each year level. Examples of topics include healthy body image and the importance of proper sleep. A range of guest speakers and related workshops can be allocated for each topic to make the programs engaging and practical.
One thing that we’ve noticed was needing to be able to engage better with the community by getting in external providers. The student leadership made it really clear to us that they would prefer external providers to come in and deliver content for us. They feel like they get more from that.
Lambton High School
The one we’re doing now is called the Resilience Project. We’re going to launch it for our school, but our main objective is community; we want sporting groups, health services, local businesses and youth services all talking the same language. It’s going to be a community-based project.
Temora Public School