International Coalition of Girl’s School: Belonging: What the research is telling us

Education has never been short of things to improve. Raise literacy. Lift numeracy. Improve attendance. Strengthen wellbeing. Embed AI. Build resilience. Develop critical thinking. Prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist.

Against this backdrop, belonging can seem almost unremarkable. Everyone agrees it matters. Few would argue that students should feel disconnected, excluded or isolated. Yet the growing body of research on belonging presents a more nuanced proposition. At a time when educators are grappling with rising concerns about student wellbeing, engagement and motivation, belonging is emerging as a concept worthy of closer scrutiny because it appears to be connected to so many of the things schools are concerned with or are trying to achieve.

A study conducted in partnership with Australian and international academics and published in Nature Mental Health identified connection as one of six core dimensions of positive mental health, alongside meaning and purpose, life satisfaction, self-acceptance, autonomy and happiness. The finding reinforces the idea that belonging is not simply desirable; it’s a fundamental human need.

The significance of this finding lies in what happens when we consider belonging not only as a dimension of wellbeing but also of achievement. That shift in perspective helps explain the importance of the Challenge Success research commissioned by the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS).

Surveying more than 30,000 students in girls’ schools globally, the study examined the relationship between wellbeing, engagement and connection. Students who reported a stronger sense of belonging were more likely to be purposefully engaged in learning and more confident in their ability to cope with challenges. Students who reported lower levels of belonging were more likely to experience disengagement and increased stress.

The Challenge Success findings suggest students may be more willing to invest in their own learning when they feel connected to the community in which that learning occurs. The research invites a different way of thinking about engagement. Rather than asking how learning can be more engaging, it may also be worth asking what conditions make students more willing to engage. Belonging appears to be one of those conditions.

The Challenge Success research also distinguishes between students who are purposefully engaged and those who are merely “doing school”. This distinction is important. A student may be attending, completing tasks, meeting expectations and even achieving well – all without experiencing genuine purpose, connection or meaning in their learning. In many instances this kind of compliance may be mistaken for engagement.

Belonging helps sharpen the distinction between active engagement and passive compliance. Students who feel connected to their school community are more likely to see themselves as active participants in their learning. They are more likely to communicate their needs, contribute their ideas and feel that their voice has a place. This matters because engagement is not simply about learning. It is also about agency and self-efficacy: The belief that one’s actions, choices and effort can influence outcomes.

Students who reported stronger connections to their peers, teachers and school community were not only more positive about their school experience; they were also more likely to be purposefully engaged in learning.

The same pattern emerges in data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Analysis of the 2022 PISA results from Australia and New Zealand found that girls attending girls’ schools were significantly more likely than girls in co-educational schools to report a strong sense of belonging. Seventy-three per cent reported that they felt they belonged at school, compared with 64 per cent of girls in co-educational settings.

The value of this finding is not simply the difference itself but the pattern of outcomes that accompanied it. Girls in girls’ schools reported higher levels of academic buoyancy, greater confidence in mathematics, stronger feelings of safety, lower levels of bullying and more positive educational aspirations. They also achieved higher academic outcomes. These findings show that belonging is consistently present alongside a range of academic, social and emotional outcomes.

The PISA findings are not a simplistic argument about one school type against another. They are more useful than that.
They suggest that when girls report stronger belonging, they also report stronger outcomes across areas that matter such as confidence, safety, aspiration, academic buoyancy and achievement.

That pattern becomes more interesting when viewed through the lens of learned helplessness. A study into learned helplessness examined why some young people come to believe they have little control over their circumstances and eventually stop trying, even when opportunities for success remain available.

It found that school belonging, positive teacher-student relationships and peer acceptance acted as protective factors against learned helplessness. Students who felt accepted, respected and included were less likely to feel powerless and more likely to believe they could influence outcomes. In educational settings, that belief can have profound consequences. When students conclude that effort is futile, engagement declines, persistence weakens and confidence suffers. By contrast, students who feel they have a place within their school community are more likely to believe they can influence outcomes and overcome setbacks.

This matters because schools can spend considerable time and resources on engagement when what they could be more effective addressing belonging. Efforts to make learning more engaging may struggle to gain traction if students do not first feel that they matter, are valued and have a place within the school community. Seen in this context, belonging begins to look like a factor associated with a wide range of educational outcomes. Belonging is associated with engagement. It is associated with confidence. It is associated with agency. It is associated with achievement. And it may just be as important to academic wellbeing as it is to mental wellbeing.

Collectively, these studies suggest that belonging may be a foundational condition underpinning many of the outcomes schools seek to achieve. Rather than sitting adjacent to learning, belonging appears intertwined with the ways students engage with learning, respond to challenge and develop confidence in their own capabilities. Schools have long recognised belonging as an important element of a positive school experience. It features prominently in school values, strategic plans and marketing materials. What the research increasingly suggests, however, is that belonging is more than a wellbeing aspiration. It may be a significant contributor to how students engage with learning, respond to challenges and ultimately succeed.

References

Challenge Success and International Coalition of Girls’ Schools. (2025). Raising Her Voice: Strengthening Student Well-Being and Engagement Through Connection in Girls’ Schools.

Iasiello, M., van Agteren, J., Ali, K. et al. (2026). A Delphi consensus study on the dimensions of positive mental health. Nature Mental Health, 4, 746–753. https://doi. org/10.1038/s44220-026-00617-5 Mission Australia. (2024). Youth Survey 2024.

Raufelder, D., and Kulakow, S. (2022). The role of social belonging and exclusion at school and the teacher–student relationship for the development of learned helplessness in adolescents. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 59–81.

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