Teachers play a key role in helping students feel they ‘belong’ at school

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) released a report on Australian students’ sense of belonging in school in May. It described as “disturbing” some of the differences in Australian students’ sense of belonging between male and female students, students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds.

ACER stated:
While the majority of Australian students feel a sense of belonging at school, there is a solid core of students who do not feel this way – roughly one in five, or five students in the average classroom.