DANIEL TALBOT, ASSISTANT HEADTEACHER, THOMAS TALLIS SCHOOL, UK
MATTHEW J EASTERBROOK, READER IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX, UK
Understanding educational inequality
Thomas Tallis School is a large comprehensive school in south east London serving a diverse student body of over 2,000 students. Like many schools, we face a persistent disparity in outcomes between students eligible for pupil premium funding and their peers (Education Policy Institute, 2025). As with most complex educational issues, the causes of this gap are multi-determined. However, public discourse sometimes relies on deficit-based explanations, including low aspirations or anti-intellectual community cultures. A growing body of research instead highlights additional social and psychological mechanisms that can influence learning.
Concepts such as stereotype threat (the situational pressure experienced when individuals risk confirming a negative stereotype about their social group), alongside research on implicit bias and identity compatibility, suggest that classroom interactions and expectations may not always be experienced equally by all learners. Recognising these factors reframes underachievement not as a student-level deficit, but as something shaped by institutional contexts and practices, and therefore open to professional reflection and improvement.
This article reflects on how research into belonging, identity and social-psychological barriers informed a whole-school approach to addressing educational inequality at Thomas Tallis School. Drawing primarily on work by Easterbrook and Hadden (2021), it outlines how this research shaped our understanding of educational disadvantage and the changes that we made in response.
The challenge of belonging in school
What this body of research suggests is that as students move through different phases of education, they begin to negotiate questions about who they are and what they might become. These questions are necessarily open-ended. However, this indeterminacy also means that students look to others for cues about who belongs and who succeeds within educational settings.
For some students, these comparisons may draw on a history of negative experiences of education within the home or local community. In such cases, students may come to view academic success as misaligned with their identity, reducing their sense of belonging and engagement in learning.
Encouragingly, a range of evidence-informed, low-cost interventions have shown promise in addressing these social-psychological barriers (Walton, 2014). These ‘wise interventions’ aim to disrupt unhelpful interpretations of educational experiences and support students to cultivate a sense of belonging. However, their effectiveness relies on contexts that are reactive and supportive, and in which interventions are rooted in a deep understanding of the specific barriers faced by their students.
Applying belonging research at Thomas Tallis
In order to move beyond abstract discussion, we began by developing a shared understanding of these ideas across the school. Working in collaboration with a team of social psychologists from the University of Sussex, we prioritised professional learning for senior and middle leaders, focusing on the social psychology of belonging and its implications for practice. This created a foundation for wider staff engagement and grounded our approach in a common language
and conceptual framework.
Alongside this, we sought to better understand the experiences of our students. We used a survey to explore perceptions of belonging and identity. The findings suggested that pupil premium students were significantly more likely to report lower levels of belonging – for example, in response to statements such as ‘People from families like mine tend to do well at school’ and ‘I feel like I belong at this school’. These patterns were explored further through focus groups and interviews, which provided a more nuanced picture of how these perceptions were experienced in daily school life.
This diagnostic work informed a series of changes to classroom practice. Rather than focusing on isolated interventions, we aimed to shift underlying norms. For example, greater emphasis was placed on normalising difficulty and setback, recognising that some students may interpret challenges as evidence that they do not belong. Developing low-threat, supportive and inclusive classroom environments became a key priority. Drawing on research highlighting how social class can influence teacher assessment (Doyle et al., 2023), we increased the use of anonymised summative assessment to reduce the influence of prior assumptions, alongside more deliberate strategies to ensure that classroom questioning is distributed equitably across students.
At a whole-school level, we also considered how belonging is communicated through structures and opportunities. This included a commitment to ensuring that co-curricular activities more accurately reflected the school’s pupil premium cohort. In addition, we introduced values-affirmation activities and developed a Year 7 transition resource in which older students shared their experiences of adapting to secondary school. These approaches were designed to provide relatable role models and reinforce the message that success is attainable for all students.
Positive signs of impact
Early indications are encouraging. Participation in co-curricular activities has increased, with pupil premium representation on trips rising from 15 per cent to the cohort average of 37 per cent, and in clubs from 19 per cent to 28 per cent. There were also modest improvements in Key Stage 4 English and mathematics outcomes for this cohort.
While these changes cannot be causally attributed to any single intervention, this work reflects an attempt to reposition belonging not as an optional enhancement, but as a core condition for learning. In this sense, addressing social-psychological barriers is not an addition to existing practice, but a necessary component of equity-focused school improvement.
There are at least three key areas in which teachers and schools can consider practical implementations. First, normalise struggle and challenge to prevent students from interpreting setback as a signal that they do not belong. Second, review and audit assessment and questioning practices to ensure participation and mitigate bias. Finally, ensure that enrichment is an entitlement for all, with opportunities actively promoted to those least primed to take them up.
