Building Community at Blair is important to us. We want ALL of our students to feel confident with their own Identity and feel a strong sense of Belonging at Blair. To gather more data, we conducted a survey in February 2025 to ask our students about their experience at school. Through school-wide involvement, we were very pleased to have had 238 out of 242 students respond to the survey!

We had 9 questions in our anonymous student survey, some of which are listed below, with the results:

When I am in my classroom, I feel like I belong. (yes, no, sometimes)

We noticed that 125 students always feel that they belong in their classroom, and only 5 responded that they don’t feel that they belong in their classroom. We were wondering what it means that 106 students only sometimes feel that they belong in their classroom, and what circumstances led a few students to share that they didn’t feel that they always  belonged in their classroom?

During recess and lunch, I feel like I belong. (yes, no, sometimes)

During our outside recess and lunch time compared to within the classroom, more students felt that they belonged (146 students) and more students also felt they didn’t belong (8) whereas less students (83) felt that they only sometimes felt a sense of belonging during this unstructured time.  During this outside time we understand that students are more free to choose to connect and engage with a variety of desired activities and peers and thrive in this type of situation, and others may find this unstructured time more challenging to connect with activities and peers without adult support.

I feel proud of who I am. (yes, no, sometimes)

When asked if students feel proud of who they are, 140 responded yes, 11 responded no, and 86 responded sometimes. We want students to feel a sense of pride in their accomplishments and their identity, and noticed that 11 students indicated that they didn’t feel that way about themselves. We wonder if more work around exploring our own identity, sharing with others, and celebrating others' identity might build self-confidence and acceptance of our selves as an individual and as a learner.

I feel safe sharing who I am. (yes, no, sometimes)

But, when asked if students felt safe sharing who they are, compared with feeling proud of who they are, fewer students (119) indicated yes, more students (22) indicated no, and 95 indicated sometimes. We recognize that it is more challenging to share who you are to other people (publicly) than it is to just feel proud of who you are (independently).  We believe that sharing about yourself is a skill that can be practiced and improved with time and increased self-confidence.

At my school, I can name ____ adults care about me. (Drop down list of 0-5)

It is important to us that students feel that could name adults at Blair care about them... and 237 out of 238 indicated that they could!  103 students could name 5 or more Blair adults that they believed cared about them; 34 could name 4 Blair adults; 46 could name 3 Blair adults!  We are pleased with these results, as students knowing that the adults care about them and their success as learners is a pillar for academic success.

Next Steps: we feel encouraged that so many students seem to be connecting to and showing understanding with our School Story work around Identity and Belonging!  Through our continuation of Blair Cares common language, and structured activities around Kindness, Identity, and Belonging, our community largely feels connected, which directly supports our students and their learning.  We know that there are a few students who still indicated (anonymously) that they might not feel a sense of belonging in their classroom or school, or feel comfortable sharing about themselves and their identity, and we will continue to focus our support towards individuals who might be vulnerable or need extra time from Blair adults.