School climate and belonging

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There is a saying in management that you should ‘measure what matters’. I think school climate and school belonging matter – mainly because they are vital factors in student wellbeing and academic success. School climate refers to the overall social, emotional and physical atmosphere of the school, while school belonging is the student’s perception of being known, accepted and valued within their school environment. One of the key factors that contributes to school climate, of course, is school bullying.

If you need convincing about the relationship between school climate and student mental health, I recommend you read the wonderful systematic review published a few years ago by Jill Aldridge and Katrina McChesney from Curtain University, available here. 

How do we measure school climate? There are a range of commercial operators that offer this service, but they can be expensive and may not tailor their ‘product’ to the needs of your school. There is also a stack of freely available tools on the internet that you can access and use, or at least, use as inspiration for your own measurement of school climate. Below I will list a few examples. I am not necessarily endorsing any of these – you need to work out what is right for your school. At least, however, they offer a starting point from which you can get a feel for what these instruments look like.

1. The School Climate Measure:  This tool has been developed over the past 15 years or so and helps schools understand the perceptions of students and teachers of different aspects of the school climate.

2. The Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale: This is a brief (18 items) and intuitive assessment of a student’s sense of belonging to their school.

3. Bully Stoppers: Bully stoppers is a survey tool offered by the Victorian government. Actually, it offers a suite of survey tools for students, teachers and parents/carers that assist schools gain insights into the school’s environment, with a special focus on bullying and safety.

4. ED School Climate Survey: This is a survey used by the US Department of Education, National Centre for Education Statistics. It is more comprehensive than other surveys but may give you a good overview of different areas of school climate to investigate.

5. The Classroom Belonging Scale: I don’t know anyone who knows more about school belonging than Dr Kelly-Anne Allen at Monash University. With Vicki McKenzie, she has developed a belonging scale to check in with students about their perceptions of the student-teacher relationship. This scale may be particularly relevant for primary aged students.  

You will find many more tools freely available on the web. If you agree that schools should measure what matters, and you think wellbeing – and its associate, school climate – matters, I encourage you to investigate further. 

 It is a sad reality that as many as 50% of young people with genuine mental health concerns are not identified and are not getting suitable professional assistance. Not only is this a concern for the emotional distress it causes the young person, but such emotional and behavioural concerns will interfere with their academic progress. 

At Macquarie University, for over a decade we have been developing school-based mental health screening tools to aid in the identification of these students, and ultimately to help direct them to appropriate help in the community. 

The BEACON (Brief Evaluation of Adolescents and Children Online) is a mental health screening tool for students to do in school. It aims to identify students who may be going through a difficult time and need additional support. It has a version for younger students (Years 4&5) and older students (Years 6-12).

The Child RADAR and Youth RADAR are emotional health screening tools designed for use with primary or high school populations. Rather that directly asking students about ‘symptoms’ of mental health concerns, the RADAR is based on a combination of risk and protective factors associated with the development of mental health difficulties. They consists of six subscales, each with five items, School Connectedness, Family Relations, Academic Success, Peer Acceptance, Sporting Interest, Acceptance of Appearance.

You can access the BEACON and RADAR screeners through our website at Macquarie University. We offer separate documents with the questionnaires and for the scoring instructions. While you are there you might be interested in various other scales and factsheets for schools, teachers and young people that have been developed at the University. Special mention to resources about student stress developed by Prof Viviana Wuthrich and her Study Without Stress program).

My Mind Check is a voluntary and evidence-based digital mental health and wellbeing check-in for Australian schools for students from Foundation to Year 12. It is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and delivered by Macquarie University. My Mind Check is a complete package of student mental health check-ins, including how to follow-up with students of concern and how to link them with resources in the community. Special mention to Dr Lauren McLellan, Director of My Mind Check and Professor Ron Rapee AM, who is the Scientific Advisor on this project.