Belonging on a Budget: Staffroom Stories from In My Kitchen with Yvonne
In the latest episode of In My Kitchen with Yvonne, click here to go straight to it, and don’t forget to subscribe and like, host Yvonne is joined by Fozia Nisar, Headteacher at Lift Montgomery School, for a conversation that quietly dismantles one of the biggest myths in school leadership: that creating a culture of belonging requires more money, more staff, or more time.
It doesn't. It requires intention.
The Golden Thread
Fozia is clear from the opening: belonging is not a programme. It's not a laminated sheet in the staff room. It's the warm smile at the school gate. The teacher who says good morning and means it. The corridor that says you are seen here.
"If children don't feel like they belong, they're not going to be in a place of learning.", Fozia, Staffroom Stories, In My Kitchen with Yvonne.
She calls it the golden thread and the power is that it costs nothing to weave. It just has to be chosen, every day, by every adult in the building.
You Can't Track What You Don't Measure
Here's the uncomfortable bit. Grades are easy to track. Belonging isn't. But Fozia has a method and it starts with being brave enough to ask.
Pupil voice surveys. Anonymous. Structured. Specific.
Questions like: Do you feel your teacher cares for you? Three or four questions that, when analysed properly, reveal patterns no lesson observation ever will.
"Hearing the things you don't want to hear will move your school mountains."
Don't just run the survey. Analyse it. Look for the pattern underneath. And put it formally in your School Improvement Plan. That's how you give it leadership scope.
The Note That Changed Everything
Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of Harris Federation, took a group of students to Oxford. He wanted to expand their world. They sat there unmoved. Confused, he spotted one child pass a note to another. He asked to read it.
It said:
"There's nobody here like us. What the heck are we doing here?"
This is what happens when representation is invisible. Children cannot aspire to what they cannot see.
The careers fair with diverse faces.
The trip to KPMG.
The decision to ensure the person at the front of the room can look like them. These are leadership decisions not optional extras.
The Mentor Who Doesn't Need Extra Time
Fozia's school has an attendance intervention for children below 90%. Not punitive. Not extra meetings. Just this:
Each child gets a mentor. And the only job of that mentor is: when you see them, see them.
Each child gets a mentor. And the only job of that mentor is: when you see them, see them.
Say hello. Give a high five. Make them feel noticed. That's it.
They've used their sports coaches to do it the adults children gravitate to naturally, with less pressure attached.
The result?
Children feel connected.
Staff feel part of something bigger.
Belonging becomes a whole-school responsibility, not just the headteacher's.
Lift the Barriers. Open the Doors.
One sentence on the staff room wall of every school in the country?
"Lift the barriers. Open the doors. That's our job. It's our privilege." Fozia
Shift the conversation. Away from Ofsted. Away from the grade. Back to why every person in that building chose to be there. That's what keeps you going. That's what prevents burnout. And that's what creates a school children genuinely want to come back to.
Looking Ahead
The takeaways from this conversation are as relevant to NQTs as they are to headteachers and trust leaders:
Belonging is not an add-on. Put it in your SIP. Give it leadership scope.
Representation shapes aspiration. What children see shapes what they believe is possible for them.
You don't need a bigger budget. You need intentional choices, made every day, by every adult in the building.
Real Talk, Real Schools, Real SOLUTIONS
In My Kitchen with Yvonne continues to hold space for the conversations that aren't always happening in CPD sessions or leadership conferences. The ones that cut through.
As Fozia puts it, it's not about adding more. It's about making sure the right things are already being talked about.
"It's the people already on the ground. How could you bring them into the culture?"
One Big Change
Track a child. One child. A whole day.
From the moment they walk through the gate to 3:30pm. Who spoke to them? Who smiled? How did they feel by the end? Then go back to your leadership team and describe that day.
You won't need a new strategy after that. You'll know exactly what needs to change.
Missed the episode?
Rewind, reflect, and rediscover how the simplest leadership decisions a smile, a survey, a high five in the corridor build the schools children want to attend and adults want to work in.
Want to listen further or share ideas with your own school leadership team?
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Click here to watch the full episode on how to lead a school with mission at the helm.
Yvonne
LocaeRise: Change, handled well.
Next Step for School Leaders:
Explore how other schools are structuring retention support without overloading their teams.
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P.S. Want to connect with Fozia for more wisdom? She’s happy to connect via LinkedIn or through the Lift Montgommery website. And don’t forget: sometimes the smallest shift re-ignites your whole mission.
Next week: We welcome Marcelo Staricoff to talk about values based education based on his book the Joy of Not Knowing, where he will be describing the framework to develop a Learning to Learn Week - Your perfect 1st week of the year . Don’t miss it!