Building Belonging: The Language of Inclusive, Multilingual Schools

Anna Leaman
1 day ago
6 min read

Updated: 18 minutes ago

What research tells us about belonging (and how visionary school leaders can scale inclusion through language) by Anna Leaman, drawing on research by Ponsford (2025) and the Global Equality Collective (GEC)

Why does "belonging" still elude us?

Walk into almost any school and there are visible signs of commitment to inclusion: values displayed on walls, wellbeing initiatives embedded in school life, and staff working tirelessly to create safe, welcoming classrooms. Yet, despite this visible dedication, too many students still feel unseen.

According to the Global Equality Collective (GEC) Inclusion Index, which draws on over 26,000 student and staff voices across more than 350 schools, only one in two students say they genuinely feel they belong at school. In communities that pride themselves on strong pastoral care and high expectations, that figure should give every leader pause.

As Ponsford (2025) demonstrates in Intentional Inclusion: Investigating Equitable Education and Intersectional EdTech, belonging is not a “nice-to-have”; it is the foundation of learning. When students do not feel understood or represented, they participate less and internalise a quiet message: this space isn’t for me.

Through the GEC’s Kaleidoscopic Data and Inclusion Index research, it has become clear that belonging cannot be measured solely through attendance or attainment. True inclusion depends on how people connect. The GEC applies Social Capital Theory - bonding, bridging, and linking relationships - as the lens for understanding these connections.

Belonging, in this sense, is relational infrastructure: it grows through the strength and quality of connections between learners, teachers, and leaders.

What Belonging Really Means

Dr Nicole Ponsford’s (2025) research finds that belonging is the product of intentional inclusion - built through leadership, language, and lived experience rather than programmes or interventions.

Across the GEC Inclusion Index, schools where belonging scores are high tend to demonstrate balance across the three social capital layers:

Bonding capital – trust and connection within groups, such as classroom relationships or peer networks.
Bridging capital – connections across difference, where learners, staff, and families engage across backgrounds, languages, or beliefs.
Linking capital – inclusive leadership and decision-making that connects communities to wider structures of influence and support.

When these three forms of capital align, inclusion becomes embedded, not episodic. Belonging becomes visible in the daily interactions that communicate, “You are part of this.”

Language sits at the heart of this process. It is both the bridge and the bonding agent: the way students access learning, form identity, and build trust with those around them.

The Missing Lens: Why Language Is the Architecture of Belonging

Findings from the GEC Inclusion Index reveal that one of the most powerful yet overlooked levers for belonging is language itself.

Every subject carries its own linguistic demands - the vocabulary, sentence structures, and reasoning patterns that shape access to knowledge. The GEC’s Kaleidoscopic Data shows that over a third of SEND learners and one in five multilingual students report that they “understand the ideas but not the words.” These are not gaps in ability but gaps in connection - breaks in bonding capital.

The same issue appears in leadership and family communication. Over 30% of staff in GEC research said that policies, newsletters, and reports are written in ways that assume shared fluency. When language excludes, belonging erodes.

Schools that view language as part of their social infrastructure - linking and bridging across groups - report measurable gains in engagement, trust, and wellbeing. When leaders treat language as architecture rather than intervention, belonging becomes structural and sustainable.

The Language-as-Asset Reset

GEC research highlights that multilingualism is one of the most under-recognised assets in schools today. The new Nationality and Language Demographics tool within the GEC Platform allows schools to see the real scope of their linguistic diversity - and to use that insight to build both bridging and linking capital.

Students who move between languages daily demonstrate empathy, adaptability, and cross-cultural problem-solving: the same qualities that underpin inclusive learning environments. When schools explicitly value these skills, students’ confidence, participation, and self-identity strengthen.

In Inclusion Index case studies, schools that adopt a Language-as-Asset approach consistently show higher levels of trust and belonging. As one student explained:

“It feels like the school only values English. Sometimes it would mean a lot if teachers showed interest in other languages or cultures.”

(Student Voice – Representation and Identity, GEC 26,000 Voices, 2025)

This reframing strengthens teaching too. When educators plan with linguistic access in mind, classroom clarity improves for all. When school leaders communicate inclusively - using translation tools, visual supports, and community ambassadors - families feel informed and respected.

In short, when schools build bridging and linking capital through language, belonging deepens across the system.

Building Belonging: Leadership in Action

Across GEC research, the most inclusive schools demonstrate that belonging is not an outcome of goodwill but of leadership literacy. Ponsford’s (2025) framework and the GEC Inclusion Index both show that inclusive leadership is expressed through the active cultivation of social capital.

Bonding capital – Leaders prioritise trust and relational care within their teams and classrooms. In practice, this means modelling inclusive language, ensuring staff feel heard, and embedding psychological safety.
Bridging capital – Leaders create structures that connect difference. Curriculum reviews, staff training on intersectionality, and community events that celebrate linguistic and cultural identity all build connection across groups.
Linking capital – Leaders ensure that inclusion informs governance, policy, and accountability. This includes auditing communication for accessibility and aligning improvement plans with belonging metrics.

As one teacher in the 26,000 Voices dataset reflected:

“Our school talks about inclusion, but the language in policies and meetings doesn’t always match that. We need to think about who understands the messages we send.”

(Staff Voice – Leadership and Communication, GEC 26,000 Voices, 2025)

Facing Realities – Sustaining the Work

The GEC’s longitudinal findings show that sustaining belonging is not about doing more but about doing together. Schools under pressure from inspections, workload, and competing priorities often lose momentum when inclusion is framed as an additional task rather than as social capital—the fabric that holds everything else together.

Sustained inclusion grows through simple, relational actions that build those three layers of capital:

A culture audit that examines how language and communication shape belonging across the community.
A curriculum review that maps whose stories and perspectives are represented.
Anonymous surveys and then leadership discussions about linguistic access, ensuring that all voices - students, staff, and families - are heard and understood.

Over time, these micro-actions strengthen connection, consistency, and trust. What emerges is not another initiative, but what Ponsford (2025) describes as intentional inclusion - a living culture of belonging that endures.

Conclusion

The combined research from Ponsford (2025) and the GEC Inclusion Index offers a clear message: belonging is built through relationships, systems, and language that communicate value and understanding across all layers of social capital.

Language connects these layers. It bonds people through shared understanding, bridges difference through empathy, and links communities through leadership. When schools use data for inclusion—from nationality and language demographics to Kaleidoscopic Data voice analysis—they move belonging from aspiration to evidence.

Creating a Language of Belonging begins with one reflective question:

Where might language be creating invisible barriers in our school?

From there, small, purposeful actions - a culture audit, a curriculum review, or a stakeholder discussion about linguistic access - can begin to close those gaps. Every clear word strengthens connection.

The most successful multilingual schools of the next decade will not merely manage diversity; they will cultivate belonging through it. Their classrooms, staff rooms, and corridors will speak one collective message: You are part of this story.

When a school learns to speak belonging - with clarity, care, and confidence - everyone has a voice in the community it creates.

Let’s Build Belonging Together

If this piece has sparked ideas for how your school could strengthen belonging through language, we’d love to work with you.

For a limited time, schools can access a 15% partnership discount when they:

Become a GEC Member School (or Trust) — working with Dr Nicole Ponsford and the Global Equality Collective team to benchmark, plan, and embed intentional inclusion through the GEC Platform and your own Inclusion Index; and

Book inclusive multilingual CPD with EAL Inclusive, including the Language-Led Literacy programme — a practical, research-informed approach to multilingual reading and language-aware teaching.

Together, GEC and EAL Inclusive support schools to grow into confident, inclusive communities — where every learner is seen, heard, and understood in every language they use.

📩 To find out more or arrange a conversation, get in touch:

The GEC — office@thegec.education EAL Inclusive —anna@ealinclusive.com.