The latest PISA findings have sparked discussion about students’ sense of belonging and its relationship with their broader experience of school. Alongside this, the Science of School Belonging research from Monash University brings together international evidence on what helps students feel connected, recognised and valued within their school community.
Together, these findings point to something important: belonging is shaped by what students experience in their everyday school lives.
Relationships matter. Peer culture matters. Opportunities to participate matter. And so does feeling that you are known, valued and able to contribute.
For schools, this raises a practical question:
How do we create more opportunities for students to experience these things?
This is where a student-led approach such as Peer Support has an important role to play.
Peer Support brings students together across year groups, with trained Peer Leaders facilitating structured weekly sessions for younger students. The model creates opportunities for students to connect with peers outside their usual friendship groups, participate in conversations and activities, and develop the social and emotional skills that support positive relationships.
But the value of the model goes beyond the weekly session.
A Year 6 student welcoming a younger student into a group. A Peer Leader listening to another student’s perspective. A student noticing that someone hasn’t had an opportunity to contribute. A group finding ways to include different ideas.
These are small interactions, but they are also opportunities to practise the behaviours that help create a connected school culture. This aligns closely with the Science of School Belonging research, which identifies meaningful opportunities to participate, supportive relationships and positive peer norms as important conditions for belonging. The research also emphasises that belonging develops through repeated experiences across school life, rather than through one-off activities.
Peer Support is designed around this idea.
Its four core concepts – resilience, sense of self, connectedness and sense of possibility – provide a framework for students to explore the skills and attitudes that help them navigate relationships and school life.
And because students themselves have a role in delivering the program, Peer Support creates opportunities for leadership and contribution alongside connection.
That matters for both sides of the relationship.
Younger students have an opportunity to connect with older peers and develop relationships beyond their immediate year group. Peer Leaders have an opportunity to contribute to their school community, develop leadership skills and support the wellbeing of others.
The result is not simply a wellbeing lesson. It is an opportunity to strengthen relationships across the school.
This is particularly relevant when we think about belonging as a whole-school responsibility.
No single program can create belonging on its own. It is influenced by school culture, relationships between students and staff, peer interactions, inclusion, safety and the many opportunities students have to participate and contribute.
But schools can intentionally create more of those opportunities.
Peer Support provides one structured way to do that – bringing students together, giving them a role in their school community and creating space to practise listening, inclusion, empathy and connection.
The current conversation around belonging gives us an opportunity to look closely at the everyday experiences that shape how students feel about school.
Because sometimes, belonging starts with something very simple:
Someone notices you. Someone listens. Someone makes space for you.
And when schools create more opportunities for students to do these things for one another, they are helping build a culture where more students can feel that they belong.
