NIHR
University of Exeter
Tools for Schools
Belonging and Relating



Belonging and Relating

Welcome to the main page for the Belonging and Relating module. This module is all about supporting your student in their interactions with their peers and other staff at the school.

Browse and select the strategies in this module below:

Consistency in response to rule breaking

This strategy is to help you understand why consistency is important when working with the toolkit student, and to find an easy way for you to remember those steps when in the middle of interacting with them

  • Science
  • Teacher planning activity
  • Classroom guidelines

Catch them out [being good]

This strategy is to support you to give the toolkit student more positive feedback. It requires you to think positively about changes that you can make too!

  • Classroom guidelines
  • One-off that can be re-used

Splat (putting it behind me)

This strategy is to support the student in moving on after a disagreement or conflict

  • Everyday use with toolkit student
  • Classroom guideliens

Social ground rules

This activity is to support you to decide on and set ground rules for the class in terms of social interactions (to promote positive peer relationships for the toolkit students). If you already have a system for this, consider whether any of the suggestions could be added to what you already do

  • Classroom activity
  • One off that can be re-used

Mix it up

This strategy will help you to provide opportunities for children in the class to interact with different peers in structured and unstructured settings

  • Everyday use 
  • Classroom activity

Looking back through time

Students who struggle with attention, hyperactivity or impulsivity may struggle to have insight or reflect on past experiences and interactions without your support. This strategy will guide you to help your student reflect on difficult situations and plan to do something differently next time

  • Everyday use with toolkit student
  • Classroom activity

No child is an island

This strategy is about reducing the use of isolation, exclusion and time-outs with the toolkit student and to give you and your colleagues other options.

  • Science
  • Teacher planning
  • Classroom guidelines

Teacher for Ten

This activity is designed to allow the student you are using the toolkit with to share their experiences and ideas with their peers. It will also support other students to do the same, promoting an inclusive classroom

  • One-off strategy that can be re-used
  • Classroom activity
  • Personalised to toolkit student

Negative No-Nos

This strategy is to help you support the toolkit student when they have had a negative interaction with a peer at school, helping the student to feel in control. There are other strategies in this module that focus on building positive peer relationships, this one is about managing and learning from the negatives

  • Everyday use with toolkit student


Equal contributions

This strategy is to give you ideas about how you can build in contributions from a lot of different students with different needs so that everyone’s voice is heard and your classroom is as inclusive as it can be. It’s about promoting and modelling positive socially inclusive behaviour, and supporting children with individual differences to be an equal peer contributor

  • Everyday use
  • Gathering ideas

Do you really know me?

Strategy for staff to complete to think about and change how you interact with the toolkit student, making the classroom a more positive place for both of you

  • Teacher planning activity

Safe harbours- adults I trust

This activity is for you and the student to identify which adults in the school they already trust and like. This is useful so that you can scaffold them to seek out one of their trusted adults if they run into difficulties when you are not physically present.It may also help you understand why the student might be reluctant to do some tasks or activities around the school 

  • Personalised to toolkit student
  • Everyday use with toolkit student (after initial set-up)

Strong influencer

This strategy is to support you to identify constructive ways in which you can let out the frustration you may feel with managing students who can behave in challenging ways

  • Teacher activity
  • Gathering ideas

Variety is the spice of life

This strategy is to support the toolkit student to identify potential friends and scaffold them to spend time with those peers

  • Personalised to toolkit student
  • Classroom activity
  • Everyday use with toolkit student


How did we make these strategies?