[ Create an inclusive environment in your school

Building Belonging

A collaboration between Huntington Research School and Red Kite Connect exploring the evidence base, implementation and school approaches to developing positive relationships and a sense of community. This conference will cover why belonging matters, what schools can do to enhance their provision and how other schools have embarked on their own journeys.
Huntington Research School
Building Belonging
Key details
Suitable for
All phasesAll roles
When
4th March 2026
1:30pm - 4:45pm
Can’t make this date? Contact us to be notified of the next course date
Where
Online
Price
£90
  • Overview
  • Programme
  • Speakers

This online conference for leaders and teachers will focus on:

  • Why belonging is important to schools
  • What schools should evaluate when considering belonging in their school
  • Exemplification of how other practitioners and schools have implemented strategies for their contexts

Full access to all recordings will be provided after the event.

1:30pm Keynote: Why belonging matters in school
  • From Isolation to Inclusion: The Power of Belonging with Jonny Utley, TEAL Academy Trust, and Julie Kettlewell, Huntington Research School 

2:15pm Workshops: What is the priority for your context

Participants are free to select their workshop to support exploring priorities:

  • Engagement and belonging: Insights and learning from the national pupil engagement research cohort 2024-25 with Steph Hamilton from Impact Ed: In 2024-25 ImpactEd Group led a national commission examining engagement as a lead indicator of outcomes, facilitated by The Engagement Platform (TEP). We conducted 3 national census windows across the year and supported over 100,000 young people to take part. In this session, we’ll dive into the national insights and understand how engagement measures (including understanding belonging) has been used by leaders to shape decision making and strategy, sharing practice from benchmark beating schools.
  • Poverty Proofing the School Day with Jane Elsworth from Huntington Research School and Ancha Stoodley from Poverty Proofing: A case study of Huntington Research School's experience of Poverty Proofing with Children North East and how they have built belonging for their most disadvantaged learners. The session will explore how Huntington implemented this approach for their context and their learning from the experience. 
3:10pm Workshops: How to implement approaches to supporting belonging

Participants are free to select their workshop:

  • Three Relationships for Belonging with Mark Miller and Shahnaz Bi from Bradford Research School: In this session we will explore three relationships that can help us to build belonging: relationship with self, with others and with the curriculum. We will hear a case study from Dixons Music Primary of the role of ‘family dining’ in enhancing these relationships and building belonging. 
3:55pm Final Session: Carr Manor Case Study

All participants to return to the main room for Carr Manor share their journey of belonging in a through-school in Leeds.

  • Putting inclusive values into practice: where everyone is connected to a trusted adult with Tom Shaw from Carr Manor: Developing belonging begins with a commitment to inclusive values. Tom explains how these are operationalised at Carr Manor Community through small group pastoral structures. Drawing on research in relational, restorative and trauma informed practice he highlights the outcomes that have been delivered and the opportunities for schools to use their current resource in a different way to deliver more outcomes for children. 
4:45pm End
Jonny Uttley
[ Keynote: Why belonging matters in schools
Jonny Uttley
Jonny Uttley is the CEO of The Education Alliance Multi-Academy Trust (TEAL). As a National Leader of Education, he has worked with schools in many different contexts and is committed to a school improvement approach that puts real ethical leadership at the heart of our system, so schools create cultures in which staff genuinely thrive. He is also an elected member of the DfE Advisory Board for Yorkshire and the Humber, a trustee at SHINE and a visiting fellow at the Centre for Young Lives, leading the development of their education policy.

In 2020 Putting Staff First: A Blueprint for Revitalising Our Schools was published, co-authored by Jonny and John Tomsett.
Jane Elsworth
[ Workshop: What Huntington Research School has identified as priorities
Jane Elsworth
Jane is a Deputy Headteacher and has had a number of secondary phase senior and middle leader roles in her career. She is a geography specialist and has over 25 years of teaching and leadership experience. Jane has led Huntington Research School since 2018 and has been a member of a number of EEF and DfE working groups, for example, The Pupil Premium Strategy and effective implementation practices. She is the point of contact for queries about supporting the Pupil Premium Strategy, effective implementation, whole school CPD and strategic partnership opportunities with Huntington Research School.
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