When children go to school, they enjoy an environment where they can grow, feel accepted and find a sense of belonging. 

While schools’ primary focus is teaching children, schools play a more significant role in our societies. 

Schools have an influential impact on children and can help break down barriers created by society. 

However, this is only sometimes the case; in this article, we look at how schools can create an inclusive school environment that provides a nurturing environment where all children are accepted and find a sense of belonging. 

Schools must be structured to include all learners

SPARK Schools Professional Development Manager Coralee Van Wyk explains that so much goes into creating an inclusive school environment. This includes how a school structures their classrooms and lessons so pupils can learn and participate together. 

“It’s not just about the school structure. An inclusive school environment is also about accepting scholars from different backgrounds, cultures and religions to your school,” she says. 

South Africa is a diverse country with many cultures. Therefore, schools should encourage diversity and inclusion by ensuring that all students feel welcomed at their places of learning. 

“At SPARK Schools, we create an environment where we accept all scholars regardless of race, gender, and socio-economic background,” Van Wyk says.

She elaborates that an inclusive school environment, particularly in South Africa, is crucial as it brings children of different backgrounds together in a classroom, allowing everyone the same chance to grow, learn, and understand the beauty of diversity in our country.

“This will help us develop cooperation, understanding and collaboration amongst our communities,” she says. 

Here are some tips from Van Schalkwyk on how SPARK Schools create an inclusive school environment for their students: 

• We create a supportive, respectful environment: linked to our Battelle survey of Belonging.
• We have high expectations of all your scholars. It’s about creating an environment where scholars experience hope when they believe their future is promising. Hopeful scholars have clear goals and the mindset and motivation to reach them. 
• We create a supportive peer culture both inside and outside the classroom. This is built in our classrooms through our Social Emotional Learning program- teaching scholars respect and trust each other, using The Toolbox to teach empathy, and reinforcing positive attitudes by encouraging scholars to help each other.
• We encourage teaching, which includes participation from everyone and encourages success. This is done through a personalisation approach by looking at each scholar’s needs and focusing on what they can do and what skills to teach them next to make them successful in their learning.