At St. John Vianney, we strive to provide a welcoming, caring environment, whereby each member of the school community feels wanted and secure. There is robust evidence of the impact of a sense of safety, belonging and well-being on student performance and engagement.

We aim to ensure our children and young people feel that they belong to, and are a valued part of, our school community and their relationships within St. John Vianney are positive, consistent, and based on trust and mutual respect. We strive to help children and young people develop healthy relationships with their peers – through good quality relationship education, an effective whole-school bullying policy, and through peer support programmes.

A sense of belonging is linked to improved attendance and for our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education, it is vital that they attend on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.

Strategies to create a sense of belonging in school can be shown to be linked to: increased student motivation, improved academic achievement; reductions in student absenteeism; increased staff wellbeing and motivation and other positive social outcomes including health and wellbeing. (UCL Institute of Education IOE)