DfE study links school belonging to nearly a full GCSE grade across eight subjects

Linked PISA and National Pupil Database analysis of 16-year-olds in England found lower attainment among students who said they did not belong at school, even after prior attainment, demographics and bullying were taken into account

New Department for Education research links stronger school belonging with higher GCSE attainment in England

Students who strongly disagreed that they felt they belonged at school recorded Attainment 8 scores almost eight points lower than those who strongly agreed, according to new Department for Education research on 16-year-olds in England.

The analysis, by Pallavi Banerjee at the University of Cambridge, linked responses from PISA 2022 with National Pupil Database records covering prior attainment and GCSE results.

After accounting for factors including key stage 2 attainment, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, gender, special educational needs and reported bullying, students who strongly disagreed that they belonged at school scored 7.72 points lower on Attainment 8 than those who strongly agreed.

The DfE describes that gap as equivalent to almost a full GCSE grade across eight subjects.

The research does not establish that feeling a stronger sense of belonging causes higher attainment. PISA was administered in the same academic year that most students in the study completed their GCSEs, and the analysis is limited to students of this age.

What it does show is a clear association that remained after several other factors were taken into account.

Bullying did not account for the whole attainment gap

Researchers also tested whether bullying explained the link between belonging and attainment. Removing bullying from the model made little difference. The estimated Attainment 8 gap between students who strongly agreed and strongly disagreed that they belonged moved from 7.72 points to 8.01 points.

That suggests reported bullying was not the only factor sitting behind the relationship. Bullying itself varied sharply for some groups. Students with special educational needs reported significantly higher levels of bullying than non-SEN students, with the difference statistically significant.

White students also reported higher bullying scores than Asian students, with that gap statistically significant. Differences between boys and girls, and between students eligible and not eligible for free school meals, were not statistically significant.

The study uses a PISA bullying index based on students’ own responses about experiences including being mocked, excluded, threatened, pushed around or having belongings taken or destroyed.

Those figures therefore capture reported experiences rather than independently verified incidents.

Girls and SEN students reported lower school belonging

School belonging was not evenly distributed either. Among students who answered the direct question, “I feel like I belong at school,” 66.4% of boys agreed or strongly agreed, compared with 58.09% of girls.

For students with special educational needs, 56.62% said they belonged at school, compared with 62.98% of non-SEN students. The difference was at the threshold of statistical significance.

Free school meal eligibility showed a similar pattern. Some 58.2% of FSM-eligible students reported belonging, compared with 63.18% of students who were not eligible, although that gap was not statistically significant at the 5% level.

Ethnicity produced another notable result. White students were less likely to say they belonged at school than Asian or Black students.

Around 60.26% of White students reported belonging, compared with 70.17% of Asian students and 72.13% of Black students. The White-Asian and White-Black differences were statistically significant.

Across the full valid sample for the direct belonging question, 63.08% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they felt they belonged at school.

How belonging was measured changed the result

The researchers tested school belonging in two ways. The first used the single direct question asking students whether they felt they belonged at school. It was this measure that produced the strong association with Attainment 8.

The second used PISA’s broader six-item belonging index, which also covers experiences such as loneliness, friendship, social exclusion and feeling out of place.

When that composite measure was used, the relationship with attainment was not statistically significant after prior attainment, demographics and bullying were taken into account.

The study began with 4,763 students from 165 schools in England who took part in PISA 2022. Different analyses used smaller samples depending on which questions students answered and whether linked National Pupil Database information was available.

The final regression using the direct belonging measure and bullying included 2,605 students.

The findings arrive as school belonging moves further into national policy. The government’s 2026 Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, includes plans for schools to monitor wellbeing and sense of belonging by 2029.

The DfE says future work should track students over longer periods and examine other pathways, including attendance, that may help explain how belonging and attainment are connected.