✅ Classroom Belonging Checklists
Practical Belonging Checklists for SEMH Classrooms: Building Connection, Safety and Identity in Schools
👋 Welcome to SEMH Education
I post weekly strategies and insights for professionals supporting children with social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs.
I’m Kieran, a former teacher and current Education Officer. Each week, I share evidence-informed tools, practical advice, and real-world reflections to help you create safer, more inclusive learning environments.
📌 In this post: Four practical belonging checklists you can use to audit and strengthen connection in your classroom.
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🏠 Belonging Isn’t a Bonus, It’s a Baseline
You can have the best behaviour policy in the world. You can have a calm, structured timetable and evidence-based interventions in place. But if a child doesn’t feel like they belong in your classroom, none of it sticks.
Belonging is the quiet foundation beneath everything else: engagement, regulation, progress, resilience. It’s what makes a child think, “This space is for me. These adults see me. I’m safe here.”
For children with SEMH needs, insecure attachment, or trauma histories, belonging doesn’t happen by accident. It has to be built, intentionally and relationally, one small interaction at a time.
This week, I’m sharing four belonging checklists you can use to reflect on your practice, audit your environment, and strengthen the sense of connection in your classroom. These aren’t about perfection, they’re about noticing what’s working and what might need tweaking.
Let’s dive in.
✅ Checklist 1: Relational Belonging
Does every child feel seen, known, and valued by an adult?
Belonging starts with a relationship. Children need to know that at least one adult in the building genuinely cares about them, not just their behaviour or their attainment.
Ask yourself:
☑️ Do I greet every pupil by name each day?
☑️ Have I had a 1:1 conversation with each child this week (even just 30 seconds)?
☑️ Do I know something personal about each pupil? (e.g. their interests, worries, strengths, family structure)
☑️ Do I follow up after difficult days with repair conversations, not just consequences?
☑️ Am I using relational language?
“I noticed you seemed a bit flat today, everything okay?” vs. “You’re off-task again.”
Quick Win:
Set a goal to have one meaningful, non-academic chat with three pupils each day. Log it discreetly if it helps you track who you’ve connected with.
📌 Linked to: DfE Keeping Children Safe in Education and the emphasis on trusted adult relationships as a protective factor for vulnerable pupils.
✅ Checklist 2: Physical Environment Belonging
Does the classroom feel like it’s for them, or just tolerating them?
The physical space sends a powerful message. Is this a place where children with SEMH needs can regulate, feel represented, and access what they need without shame?
Ask yourself:
☑️ Are there visual reminders that all pupils belong here? (e.g. diverse images, interests represented, work displayed from all ability levels)
☑️ Is there a quiet space or regulation zone pupils can access without asking permission?
☑️ Are sensory tools available and normalised? (fidgets, ear defenders, weighted lap pads, wobble cushions)
☑️ Can pupils see themselves reflected in the books, posters, or resources?
☑️ Is there a visual timetable or “what’s happening today” board?
☑️ Are basic needs quietly accessible? (water, snacks, tissues, period products)
Quick Win:
Create a small “regulation station” in your room: a box with sensory tools, a calm corner with cushions, or a poster with breathing techniques. Let pupils know it’s there for everyone, not just “certain children.”
✅ Checklist 3: Identity and Voice Belonging
Do pupils feel like their identity, culture, and experiences are valued here?
Belonging means being able to bring your whole self into the room. For children from global majority backgrounds, neurodivergent pupils, or those who’ve experienced marginalisation, this can be fragile.
Ask yourself:
☑️ Do I actively learn and use correct pronunciations of pupils’ names?
☑️ Are there opportunities for pupils to share their culture, identity, or interests?
☑️ Do I use language that affirms diversity? (e.g. “some families have…” vs. assumptions about home life)
☑️ Am I mindful of how my curriculum or examples might exclude certain pupils?
☑️ Do pupils have a say in classroom decisions? (seating, rewards, routines, topics)
☑️ Have I checked in with LGBTQ+, SEND, or EAL pupils about whether they feel safe and included?
Quick Win:
Run a simple “pupil voice” activity: “If you could change one thing about this classroom to make it feel more like yours, what would it be?” Act on at least one suggestion.
✅ Checklist 4: Academic Belonging
Does every child believe they can succeed here, regardless of starting point?
Belonging in the classroom isn’t just social, it’s academic too. Children need to feel like learning is accessible to them, that struggle is normal, and that their progress matters.
Ask yourself:
☑️ Do I celebrate effort and progress, not just outcomes?
☑️ Are tasks differentiated in a way that doesn’t stigmatise?
☑️ Do I use language that normalises mistakes and builds resilience?
“That’s tricky, let’s figure it out together” vs. “You should know this by now.”
☑️ Do pupils have access to scaffolds, visual supports, or alternative ways to show understanding?
☑️ Am I checking in with pupils who are “coasting” or quietly disengaging?
☑️ Do I model my own learning and mistakes?
Quick Win:
Try a “learning pit” or “struggle is learning” poster in your room. Explicitly teach that challenge is a sign of growth, not failure.
🌟 Final Thought: Belonging Is Built in the Margins
You won’t tick every box on these lists, and that’s okay. Belonging isn’t a one-off audit, it’s an ongoing practice of noticing, reflecting, and adjusting.
But even one small change, learning a child’s correct name, adding a regulation tool, following up after a tough day, can shift how safe and seen a pupil feels.
For children with SEMH needs, that feeling of “I belong here” might be the difference between engagement and escalation, between staying and leaving, between trying and giving up.
This week, pick just one checklist. Choose one action. Notice what shifts.
Belonging isn’t built in the big moments. It’s built in the smallest ones, over and over again.
Let me know which checklist resonated most, I’d love to hear how you’re building belonging in your setting! 👇
📬 Did You Miss These?
✋ 5 Misconceptions About Trauma-Informed Practice
Trauma-informed practice has become a buzzword in many schools, but what does it actually mean?
And more importantly, what does it not mean?
Let’s bust five common myths I often hear in staff rooms, training sessions, and policy documents 👇
🏫 Designing the School Day with SEMH in Mind
Think back to your last staff training day. The one where lunch was late, the agenda overran, or you didn’t get a proper break. By the afternoon, your head was spinning, your legs were restless, and your patience? Wearing thin.
Now imagine you’re 10 years old, have additional needs, didn’t sleep last night, and nobody explained why the timetable changed.
School structure matters, not just what we teach, but how we pace the day can significantly affect a child’s emotional regulation and readiness to learn. If a child isn’t in a learning-ready headspace, it doesn’t matter how good the lesson is, they won’t retain as much information as if they were learning-ready.
As adults, it’s our job to ensure things run as smoothly as possible. This isn’t always achievable, so explaining and adapting is important. The tips below will support all children when the unexpected happens and plans change!
🚦Teaching Boundaries to SEMH Pupils (Without Shame)
What do we mean, then, by using shame to teach boundaries?
It’s a lot more common than you think, and I guarantee you’ve probably used it in your early days of your teaching career. I know I have.
Think of a scenario where you’ve witnessed a child invade another’s physical, emotional or social space. Have you ever used one of the following methods in an attempt to teach the child that what they’ve just done is wrong:
Kieran, I love this checklist so much! I am a school principal thinking about how to prevent educator burnout over on my substack, Regenerative Schools. And most of the items on your list apply to me building teacher belonging, too! It’s so interesting just how much alignment there is between building classroom culture and adult culture in a building.
I have one addition to your list: holding clear, consistent, and compassionate boundaries. When a classroom is chaotic or kids are allowed to be mean to each other without accountability and restoration, then kids don’t feel like they belong because they feel like they have to protect themselves. Same is true for teachers, which is what I wrote about here: https://open.substack.com/pub/regenerativeschools/p/having-hard-conversations-in-regenerative?r=6kxkx2&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
I’m interested in your feedback on that essay and if you agree with my assertion that boundaries create culture!