How can schools become places where everyone belongs, thrives, and is celebrated?

At a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are under attack globally, this timely and engaging book offers a powerful call to action, drawing on a diverse range of contributors to show how belonging plays a crucial role in attendance, behaviour, engagement, and achievement. Edited by award-winning education writer Ian Gilbert, it comprises 45 unique contributions from across the education spectrum, offering practical insights and alternative perspectives on creating inclusive, equitable schools. Topics covered include supporting refugee children, neurodiversity, the Muslim experience, gypsy, Romany, and traveller children, supporting teachers of colour and older teachers in their careers, holding difficult conversations, decolonising the curriculum, LGBTQ+ awareness, limb difference, and much more.

The book serves as both a showcase of what can be done to ensure belonging for all members of the school community and a timely response to the consequences of punitive behaviour control approaches. Taking its place alongside two previous best-selling titles also edited by Ian Gilbert, The Working Class and Square Pegs, this volume completes a trilogy fighting to help schools ensure everyone is welcomed, understood, and successful.

This practical and powerful book will benefit all educators, school leaders, policymakers, and those in academia and social care who want to understand better how schools can serve as havens where there genuinely is No Other.

Ian Gilbert is an award-winning education writer and editor as well as an international speaker, innovator, and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of the education platform Independent Thinking and author of Essential Motivation in the Classroom, Third Edition (Routledge, 2025), Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve Got Google? (Routledge, 2014), and multiple books for Independent Thinking Press.