Do children belong?
Measure what pupils actually experience — not what adults assume they experience.
AVAILABLE NOWFREE FOR SCHOOLSUK-WIDE
Attendance · Belonging · Possibility
The belonging framework schools do not need to wait for.
A complete, interactive school belonging system from the National Attendance Portal — leadership self-evaluation, anonymous pupil voice, a 0–100 Belonging Score, live analysis and an improvement plan in one place.
✓ No pupil names✓ Save across devices✓ Share a pupil survey link✓ Print-ready report
WHY THIS EXISTS
The DfE framework did not arrive in 2026. Schools still need a way to act now.
The Department for Education said it would publish a new Pupil Engagement Framework to help schools measure factors including belonging, safety, inclusion, relationships, motivation and the value pupils place on school. In October 2026, the DfE confirmed that publication had been delayed until the end of the 2026/27 academic year.
The National Attendance Portal is therefore offering an independent alternative that schools across the UK can use now. It is practitioner-built, free to use and deliberately practical: measure the lived experience, identify who is least connected and turn the evidence into action.
THE NAP TEST
01
02
03
Belonging is not a poster. It is the answer to three questions.
Who does not?
Look below the average. Find the year groups and experiences where connection is weakest.
What changes next?
Convert the weakest signals into named actions, responsible adults and a date to recheck impact.
THE FRAMEWORK
Eight domains. One coherent picture of whether pupils feel they belong.
Six domains describe the pupil experience. Two enabling domains test whether family partnership, leadership and adult practice make those experiences possible.
A SIMPLE PROMISE
“Every child should be able to say: I am known. I am valued. I am included. I am supported. I am challenged. I have influence.”
The adult system around that child must then prove it can partner with families and turn those promises into consistent daily practice.
WATCH · REFLECT · DISCUSS
Belonging begins when we stop seeing an empty chair as only a percentage.
In The Empty Chair, Colin Cattanach explores absence, anxiety, poverty, disconnection and the stories behind the pupils who are not there. Use the film with staff, governors or attendance teams before completing the framework.
Watch The Empty Chair ↗If YouTube search results vary, choose the video titled The Empty Chair on the C Cattanach channel.
SCHOOL SELF-EVALUATION
Score the lived reality — not the policy folder.
Rate 40 indicators from 0–4. Every indicator asks for evidence and a next step, so the score remains connected to observable practice.
0No evidence1Emerging2Developing3Secure4Embedded
YOUR SCHOOL PROJECTOne simple code saves and reopens the framework on any device.
Keep the school project code within the leadership team. Pupils use a different survey code and can never open the leadership review.
Local autosave is active. Deploy on Netlify to enable secure cross-device sync.
INDEPENDENT PUPIL VOICE
One school. One survey code. As many pupil responses as you need.
The pupil survey is completely separate from the leadership self-evaluation. Every response is attached to this school through a dedicated survey code and collated automatically into the leadership dashboard.
Independent by design. Pupils do not see the school self-evaluation, scores or leadership judgements. The survey asks for no name, email address or UPN. A valid school survey code is required before a response can be submitted.
YOUR PUPIL SURVEY CODECreate a school project first
Share the link or code with pupils. Every valid submission is stored against this school project.
Create the school project
The framework creates a school project code and a separate pupil survey code.
Share one pupil link
The code is built into the link. Pupils can use phones, tablets, Chromebooks or computers.
Responses collate automatically
The same link can be reused for every pupil. Refresh the dashboard to pull in the latest responses.
LIVE ANALYSIS
Your school Belonging Score — out of 100.
The overall score weights pupil voice at 60% and adult self-evaluation at 40% once there is a meaningful pupil sample. Until then, the dashboard shows a provisional adult score.
—/100
OVERALL BELONGING SCORE
Not yet scored
Complete the school review and collect pupil voice.
NAP BANDING
A score should tell you what to do next.
These are NAP framework bands, not official DfE grades. They are designed to create a common improvement language.
90+ SHOWCASE PRACTICE
High scores only count when the evidence is deep and consistent.
NOT YET MET
A school is highlighted as NAP Showcase Practice only when the overall score is at least 90 and the strongest practice is visible across pupil voice, domains and consistency. This is an NAP benchmark — not a national statutory threshold.
Domain scores
Adult vs pupilWhat needs attention first?
Auto-prioritisedYear-group pupil voice
Shown where n ≥ 10| Year | n | Score | Band |
|---|
Response distribution
All survey itemsIMPROVEMENT PLAN
Measure. Listen. Act. Recheck.
The three lowest domains are brought into the action plan automatically. Add the change you will make, who owns it, the evidence you expect to see and the review date.
1MeasureSelf-evaluation + pupil voice
→2UnderstandFind the gap beneath the average
→3ChangeName the adult practice that changes
→4RecheckReturn to pupils and evidence
WHAT 90+ LOOKS LIKE
Belonging is visible in ordinary moments.
Showcase practice is not about a special “belonging initiative”. It is visible in everyday relationships, curriculum access, transition, routines, pupil voice, family partnership and the speed with which adults notice disconnection.
Named adults notice change early and can describe strengths, barriers and context.
SEND, disadvantage, identity or circumstance do not create a weaker school experience.
Pupils can point to decisions or routines that changed because adults listened.
Contact is relational and early, not only triggered by problems or absence.
Pupils experience challenge, participation, recognition and credible routes to future success.
Survey evidence, observations, attendance, behaviour and casework tell a coherent story.
EVIDENCE & USE
Use the score as a conversation starter, not a label.
DfE research published in August 2026 examined school belonging and attainment at age 16, while DfE pupil voice data in March 2026 found around four in five secondary pupils reported belonging every day or most days. The NAP tool is designed to help schools go beyond a national average and understand their own lived experience.
