Hilary Spencer, CEO, Ambition Institute
At last year's CST conference, Owen Eastwood asked us to consider what it is to belong. He talked about a primal need hard-wired within us – that compelling sense to work and thrive together for a common purpose.
It's great to see belonging at the heart of this year's conference.
As school and sector leaders, we are the ones who establish the environment where everybody feels they are a part of something: where they’re able to perform at their best, feel valued, and are empowered to make a difference. Belonging matters for our organisations, our sector and the children who rely on us.
My organisation is one of many supporting the education sector – we offer professional development to teachers and leaders to help them to become more expert, with a particular focus on the most disadvantaged children.
We have long been advocates for equality, diversity and inclusion, but our discussions in recent months have turned much more towards the question of belonging. We have grown a lot as an organisation over the last year, and one of the most important things we are aiming for is to be an organisation where everyone can be at their best.
We have people living and working across the country, with different backgrounds and personal characteristics. We have people from a range of different professional disciplines: people who are teachers and school leaders; public servants from different sectors; and a wide range of technical expertise in research, communications, technology, finance, design, human resources, strategy, governance and partnerships.
Bringing together people from a huge range of backgrounds has enormous potential – the different technical expertise and the sharing of ideas from different starting points has real power. But it also means we have to work hard to build a shared identity, and a culture where people feel they are able to contribute their views and perspectives, and where that is both safe and welcomed.
We also work hard to try and foster a sense of belonging through our programmes. We have about 50,000 people learning with us at the moment and, whilst there are many common experiences, everyone brings their own starting points and hopes and needs. We try to make sure that our materials and mechanisms draw on the best evidence and are designed to be inclusive from the outset, and that our facilitators are supported and encouraged to create an effective environment for everyone to focus on their learning. An important design principle for our new Initial Teacher Training programme is that principles and practice around inclusion are ‘built in’ and not a ‘bolt-on’. We are continually trying to make sure that our work reflects these values and that we keep getting better.
It's important to so many of us in sector that the children and young people we support are able to thrive and flourish through their education. We’re able to build on a strong legal framework around equality, and there is a much clearer and more widespread understanding of the importance and value of diversity in society than even ten years ago.
But for some of our children and for some of the adults in our organisations, there is still a sense of not quite fitting in, or that you are operating in a system that isn’t designed for people like you. That inhibits people being able to participate and contribute to their fullest, and means we’re not creating the conditions where they can really achieve their potential. And that means that we’re not drawing on the full range of talents and views and experience in our society, because something is holding people back.
So as the saying goes, if diversity is being invited to the party but inclusion is being asked to dance, then I think belonging is being able to immerse yourself in the music and dance to your heart’s content.
