Humans are social beings who need to belong and be recognised. In other words: we all need to feel that we matter. 

If a student does not feel that they matter to their teachers, they are never going to be as engaged in their school community, or in their learning, as they might otherwise have been. 

This might seem obvious, and yet, in the years since the introduction of the Every Child Matters initiative in 2003, UK education policy has moved away from the language of mattering.

We believe this shift is a mistake, because, as society recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, more of us are becoming aware of just how much mattering, well, matters.

So what exactly is mattering? And how can schools help to maximise the feeling for their pupils

In 1981, researchers Morris Rosenberg and Claire B. McCullough identified three interrelated components of mattering:

• the sense that other people depend on us; 
• the perception that other people regard us as important; 
• the realisation that other people are actively paying attention to us. 

Being a focus of attention is, they suggested, the most central mattering component. And, in 1985, Rosenberg expanded on this by suggesting that mattering also includes the notion that other people would miss us if we were no longer around (Flett, 2022).

Mattering is important in a personal context, an organisational context, and in society. When people feel that they don’t matter, they can become alienated - which has negative consequences for education.

So, how can we ensure that all pupils feel that they matter in school?

1. Reach a collective understanding of ‘mattering’

A good starting point is to talk to children about what mattering means. Teachers and students can work together to develop their own understanding of what the concept looks like in their context. 

Every person has an individual set of criteria they use to judge personal measures of mattering. Drawing on this, schools can collectively determine what counts as mattering - and make sure they acknowledge this definition throughout the school.

2. Make mattering a part of school vocabulary

It’s unlikely that a child would come home and announce: “Mum, I won the Mattering Award this week.” 

But we believe schools should be using the words “matter” and “mattering” in their everyday speech and acknowledgements. It should be the norm to give out mattering awards in the classroom and school assemblies, and to mention these in newsletters. 

Leadership teams are included in the mattering dialogue, and we like the “three stars and a wish” formula when addressing students’ or staff members’ performances. 

For example, a leader might say: “We love the way that you did X, Y and Z. You matter to our school. Our wish is to help you with something that will improve your teaching and learning and, in doing so, make us stronger as a collective. What can the leadership team do for you?”

3. Measure mattering

Teachers sometimes undertake relationship mapping to check the social-emotional learning connections in classrooms. This involves identifying students who do not currently have positive connections with adults, and pairing those students with a supportive adult mentor within the school. 

In a similar vein, it would also be useful for teachers or form tutors to perform “mattering mapping”: recording each student’s perceived level of mattering to make it clear who might need targeted support in this area.

In 2022, researchers Roderick Carey, Camila Polanco and Horatio Blackman created a scale to help examine mattering. The scale is based around three levels of mattering: marginal (low), partial (medial) and comprehensive (high). Through discussion with pupils, teachers can use this scale to identify their perceived levels of mattering and where this perception stems from. For example, a child might say: “I am at the comprehensive (high) level of mattering to this school because of my place in the football team.”

Building on this, schools can develop a mattering action plan for at-risk students.

4. Embed strategies across the school

Your school might already be doing things to drive home the idea that everyone in school matters. Offering meaningful praise, birthday acknowledgements, external award nominations, celebrating success, student report cards - all of these things help to create a sense of belonging and therefore grow the notion of mattering.

However, there are also several strategies that teachers can use in class (or in the staffroom) at an interpersonal level.

Secret friends

In this exercise, the names of everyone in the class are placed into a hat, and each student draws out a name. The person they draw becomes their “secret friend”. Before the end of the week, they need to do something nice for this person, without disclosing their identity. 

Class or staff circles

Staff members or students are allocated another person’s name, and must approach that person and complete the sentence: “You matter to me/us because…” This works well as a “think, pair, share” exercise.

Flip cards

In this exercise, two people are paired together. It could be two students, a student and a teacher or a school leader and another member of staff. On a piece of card, each person should complete the sentence “You matter to me/us because…” and then turn the card over to hide their statement. Both parties then call out “flip”, turn the cards over, and talk about their statements for three minutes.

In recent years, mattering has been squeezed out of education dialogue. But the idea that we matter still colours the quality of every relationship a child has in school and underwrites school culture.

In these troubled times, now is a good moment to reassert the importance of mattering.

Ray Boyd is a school leader, based in Australia. Neil MacNeill is a retired teacher and an education writer