Through work with our Student Leadership group of students, our wonders about belonging and identity continued towards:

To what extent will activating student voice by student leaders promote inclusivity and belonging in non- instructional settings?

We were anchoring our ideas around the question, what is going on for our learners?

How might peer influence encourage students to share their ideas and opinions on inclusivity and belonging at our school?

Are there structures and processes in non-instructional school settings that exclude students from participating in activities and social communication?

Questions for scanning were co-constructed with our student leaders after discussing the following:

Why do we need student leadership at school? What is the role of student leadership? How can we gather student voices from the rest of the school community? How might we effectively be representatives of the voices of all the students at Blair? 

We co-constructed a list of scanning questions that ask what students need at Blair in order to feel included and have a sense of belonging in non-instructional settings. Student leaders decided the best way to discover how students felt would be an anonymous survey. In addition, they would like to survey the teachers as well.

Questions for students:

Do you feel included in recess/lunch activities at school?

Yes: 102          No: 9               Sometimes: 24

Total: 135

Do you have friends to play with outside at recess/lunch?

Yes: 118          No: 5               Sometimes: 13

Total: 136

What ideas for activities/projects would you like student leadership to promote at school to help you feel included?

What helps feel included at school?

What doesn't help you feel included at school?

What do you enjoy at school?

Question for teachers:

What activities would teachers like to see led by student leadership?

Our hunch: through the anonymous survey that many students participated in, most feel connected to and included by peers during non-instructional time at school; while a few still do not.  Our school community still has work to do to have everyone feel included and connected.