Someone to turn to
An adult who knows the student well enough to notice, and pulls up a chair before anything goes wrong.
A conference session
Belongingby Design
How a school can make sure every student has someone to turn to, a way to be heard, and a path to repair when harm occurs.
See the slides
Where we begin
A group chat turns on a student overnight. What would they need from school the next morning?
The session opens with one student’s story, told in a corridor. Before any theory, we give the room a moment to answer that question for themselves.
The answer
Advisory
Open Session
Restorative practice
A school can design for belonging through three deliberate decisions.
A way to be heard
A simple, repeatable protocol that gives students real influence over what happens next. You’ll try it live.
A path to repair
When harm happens, a clear way back into the community, for the person harmed and the person who caused it.
How the session runs
One student, one clear claim, one substantial activity.
The session moves from a story that makes us care, to an answer we can repeat, to a practice we can carry back to school.
- 1
Open in the corridor
A short, dramatised story of one student and one group chat, then a pause to think.
“What would this student need from school the next morning?”
- 2
Give the answer aloud
Someone to turn to. A way to be heard. A path to repair when harm occurs.
- 3
Show the decisions Live Pop-Up
The chair for advisory, the card for Open Session, the doorway for restorative practice. At the card, we stop and run a Pop-Up Open Session together, then debrief one documented school decision: what the team saw, and what they’re still working out.
- 4
Close in the circle
A minute to write down one change you could make.
“What could you change in your school that would give students more power to make room for one another?”
Speakers
The people behind the session.
Resources
Take it back to your school.
Before you go
What could you change that would give students more power to make room for one another?
Take a minute. Write down one change.
Stays on this device only.