A highly readable book offering a message of hope for education in an uncertain world.

Compassionate Leadership for School Belonging draws on forty years of international research and professional practice to show how schools can be places of safety and fulfillment, even in the most difficult of circumstances. When belonging is a school’s guiding principle, more young people experience a sense of connectedness and friendship, perform better academically, and come to believe in themselves; their teachers feel more professionally fulfilled, their families more accepted. The originality of this highly readable book lies in its scope. It offers international analysis from the OECD alongside insights from the author’s extensive research in schools, powerfully supported by observational vignettes and drawings from the children, young people, and teachers who have been her co-researchers. The book reveals patterns of dislocation, disaffection, and exclusion, and highlights the points of intervention in policy and practice needed across school systems to create the conditions for school belonging. The methodologies, concepts, and research tools offered can be used by practitioners and researchers in their own contexts and to guide school leaders towards creating their own places of belonging.