List of contributors
Foreword – Ellie Costello, Executive Director, Square Peg
Preface
Chapter One - Belonging, if - Inclusion, exclusion and the Homo Sacer - Tier Blundell
Chapter Two - Children Seeking Sanctuary - Megan Greenwood
Chapter Three - ‘Shakespeare Must Have Been a Black Girl’ – Diversity and curriculum design - Jonathan Lear
Chapter Four - ‘A Bit Less Alien’ – Belonging and the bereaved child - Lucy Lynch
Chapter Five - Belonging More by Attending Less – the benefits of flexischooling - Sarah Sudea
Chapter Six - Literacy Without Limits - Reframing reading, writing and oracy through inclusion - Dr Sarah Moseley
Poem One - Our Name Is Not a Burden - Afifa Khanam
Chapter Seven - The Attendance Problem Isn’t An Attendance Problem - Mark Goodwin
Chapter Eight - ‘I Know You All Like Me’ – On intentional inclusivity - Rob Metcalfe
Chapter Nine - Don’t Say the P-Word! – LGBTQ+ awareness in the conservative school setting - Andy Low
Chapter Ten - Belonging, Curiosity and the Radical Forces of Inclusion - James Searjeant
Chapter Eleven - The Invisible Ones – Supporting autistic girls in education - Cathy Wassell
Poem Two - A Seat at the Table - Afifa Khanam
Chapter Twelve - You Belong Here: Cultivating Value, Voice and Cultural Belonging in All Schools - Gemma Hathaway
Chapter Thirteen - Invisible Barriers – Supporting ethnic minority teachers - Rhia Mutombo
Chapter Fourteen - ‘I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means’ – Inclusion beyond rhetoric in international schools - Nigel Winnard
Chapter Fifteen - Belonging begins at home - How parental engagement creates inclusive schools - Karen Dempster and Justin Robbins
Chapter Sixteen - Achieving Belonging by Dismantling Hierarchies in the Curriculum - Bennie Kara
Chapter Seventeen - What's Right With You? - Happiness, belonging and the Finnish perspective - Dr Kaisa Vuorninen
Poem Three - We Walked Into School with Quiet Shoes - Afifa Khanam
Chapter Eighteen - Prejudice, Labelling, and Low Expectations – Challenging teacher assumptions – Dr Elizabeth Farrar
Chapter Nineteen - The Lonely Child - Mihaela Beatrice Sirbu
Chapter Twenty - The Hidden Exclusions of Quiet Compliance - Julia Hancock
Chapter Twenty-One - Thirteen Reflections on Belonging, Authenticity and Allyship - Alison Kriel
Chapter Twenty-Two - Inclusion by Intention - An inclusion champion in every classroom - Dr Nicole Ponsford
Chapter Twenty-Three - Breaking the Silence – Speaking out on inclusion and identity - Ian Timbrell
Chapter Twenty-Four - Belonging, Identity and the Educational Binds of Poverty - Professor Ceri Brown
Chapter Twenty-Five - I, (Older)Teacher - Elaine Fenech
Chapter Twenty-Six - Teacher Bias, Ethnicity, and Perceptions of Mental Health in Schools - Dr Maddi Popoola
Poem Four - The Question Beneath Our Skin - Afifa Khanam
Chapter Twenty-Seven - A Fish In Water – Belonging in the Early Years - Ruth Swailes
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Finding Common Ground - families and schools working together so that children thrive - James Harris
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children - Rich in the wrong currency - Sarah Fell
Chapter Thirty - Holding Courageous Conversations - Hannah Wilson
Chapter Thirty-One - Belonging and Neurodiversity in the Inclusive Classroom - Katie Goodwin
Poem Five - Refugees and the Hostile Environment - Afifa Khanam
Chapter Thirty-Two - Love is Not an Intervention - Zoya Wallington
Chapter Thirty-Three - Muslim Belonging in Education - Anti-Muslim hate, curriculum reform and ethical Safeguarding Practice - Dr Javeria Khadija Shah
Chapter Thirty-Four - You Don’t Know Me Yet – Cultivating belonging for new Sixth Formers - Laura Newell
Chapter Thirty-Five - Limb Difference in the Classroom - Jane Hewitt
Chapter Thirty-Six - Learning Through Dialogue – Unselfing, belonging, and the power of conversation - Susan Kyne Andrews
Chapter Thirty-Seven - I Care; You Care; We Care – Building cultures of inclusion, diversity and wellbeing in Schools - Nina Jackson
Chapter Thirty-Eight - ‘Say it Again, Only Whiter’ – Rethinking EAL - Rory File
Chapter Thirty-Nine - Learning About versus Learning to Be – How character education can support inclusion- Melodie Harmer
Poem Six - Across Two Classrooms - Afifa Khanam
Chapter Forty - Peer Coaching – the glue that connects the whole school community - Jackie Beere, OBE
Chapter Forty-One - Behaviour, Attendance and Belonging – The six principles of the Healing Way - Stephen Logan
Chapter Forty-Two – ‘Here I am’ – Belonging and Authentic Oracy - Rachel Higginson
Chapter Forty-Three - Wired to be Loved - Dr Debra Kidd
Index
Biography
Ian Gilbert is an award-winning education writer and editor as well as an international speaker, innovator and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of the education platform Independent Thinking, an organisation he founded in 1993. He is the author of Essential Motivation in the Classroom 3rd ed (Routledge, 2025) and Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve Got Google? (Routledge 2014) and has written or edited multiple books for the Independent Thinking Press. He is currently based in Finland.
‘This much needed book carries a wealth of insight that will help every school think carefully about its own work in ensuring all children and families belong. A must for every staffroom’.
- Mick Waters, Educationalist and author
‘Without a sense of belonging, everything a child learns is built on damaged foundations. This powerful and wide-ranging book shows how schools can get those foundations right for all children’
- Ben Walden, Director, Contender Charlie
