In a world often marked by division, it’s vital to spotlight kindness and compassion. Here, ASCL members share inspiring stories of young people learning about empathy, hope, and belonging. 

Shared values

Symbols, flags, and the meaning of community

When St George’s flags began appearing across our town, pupils had questions and some families felt uneasy. One parent wrote to say he no longer felt he belonged on his own street. We chose to address it directly.

I began with parents, explaining that we would approach the issue through belonging, not politics. Staff were briefed and tutors prepared for structured follow-up discussions. In assembly, I spoke about symbols and context, but also about my own story: my parents arriving from Ghana, my wife’s Lancashire farming roots, and our Cheshire-born children – all threads in the fabric of modern Britain. I also shared that I had recently decided not to attend a Christmas gathering in a nearby town because I didn’t feel entirely comfortable – something I hadn’t experienced for decades.

Our focus was visible leadership and cultural clarity. Whatever flies beyond our gates, inside them every child belongs – and every voice matters.

Manny Botwe
Headteacher, Tytherington School

Shared learning, shared growth

Two years ago, our school began a partnership with a local school for deaf children that has no post-16 provision. What began as a practical collaboration has become something far more meaningful.

Our post-16 partnership with Heathlands School in St Albans has demonstrated how difference can be a genuine strength. Deaf and hearing students have learned alongside one another, forming real relationships and developing practical ways to communicate and work together. The impact has been mutual. Students have grown in empathy, confidence, and respect – not through lessons about inclusion, but through shared experience. The partnership has challenged assumptions on all sides and helped young people see one another more clearly, and more generously.

Rich Atterton
Assistant Head, The Marlborough Science Academy

Growing valued citizens

As a Pupil Referral Service, our students are not always those people first associate with positive stories or community cohesion. Yet these experiences are central to rebuilding young people who often arrive feeling undervalued and defined by failure. Many join us after permanent exclusion. We know that restoring self-confidence and helping them grow into valued citizens means encouraging them beyond their comfort zones.

Through our curriculum, students contribute to their community, often working with local primary schools. In one school, they cleared woodland, created footpaths, and built an outdoor classroom with a reading area. They celebrated its completion with pupils, sharing hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows around the firepit they constructed. At a nursery, they built and planted planters to brighten outdoor spaces. They have also partnered locally to plant trees that support pollination and have taken part in beach clean-ups, where they observed the nearby seal colony.

The pride on their faces at the end of each project, and the way they engage positively with children and adults, shows that every young person deserves opportunities to develop skills, feel valued, and belong within their community.

Lisa Balderstone
Head Teacher, South Cumbria Pupil Referral Service

Singing breaks down community barriers

“Love is in the air, everywhere you look around.” That was one of the songs we sang at our annual Valentine’s karaoke event in the main hall this year. Singing is a powerful mood enhancer and, as far as I am aware, singing romantically is even more so in my school, and so, we sing whenever we can.

We have had the Valentine’s karaoke for a few years now and participants include me and an assistant principal knocking out the Robbie Wiiliams and Nicole Kidman version of Somethin’ Stupid, for the entertainment of the crowds. Such fun.

The weeks after Christmas can be brutal in schools, particularly at social times, and community cohesion can be in very short supply after the fifteenth successive day of relentless lunchtime rain, but singing in the rain is a glorious feeling and I find it makes everyone happy again, at least until period six.

There is nothing to unite a crowd more than a good old sing-along, be it Sweet Caroline or Don’t Look Back in Anger, and it’s a great way to break down community barriers and bring the school together. So, if we’re looking for a way to make our school community bond, we often turn to the microphone and watch the smiles spread. After all, when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.

Carl Smith
Principal, Casterton College, Rutland

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