Dorset professionals hear children’s thoughts on ‘Belonging’

Two days of conferences, both with the theme of ‘Belonging’, were held at Durlston Country Park recently for those working in education, health, the emergency services and the community and voluntary sector to look at how they could improve the lives of young people in Dorset through the work they do.

Young people from Dorset also attended each day and helped to lead some of the sessions.

The conferences, organised by Dorset Council, both opened with a heart-warming video of some of Dorset’s young people who spoke about belonging. They described ‘feeling safe’, ‘being part of a jigsaw’, ‘finding your people’, ‘being included’ and ‘being understood’ as well as the physical places they belonged like in their room, at the stables, at their dance class, at school and at home.

Three individuals standing on stage posing for picture

This was followed by a series of speakers each day who gave their own thoughts about belonging, why it was so important and how everyone in Dorset could help young people feel a better sense of belonging.

Councillor Byron Quayle, portfolio holder for children, education, skills and early help, said:

“Hearing from our young people at the conferences really brought the subject of ‘Belonging’ to life and reminded me of my own experiences.  They have told us really clearly how important it is to belong and we will be weaving that through all the work we do over the coming years.

“Having a sense of belonging is crucial to our young people feeling safe. Being safe at home and in the community is one of our seven priorities so we really do take this seriously.

“Belonging takes many forms but everyone fits somewhere, no matter what their characteristics, and it is our job to help our children and young people find that somewhere and feel safe.”

Stephen Twigg, independent chair of the education board, spoke at the Education Conference. After the event he said: “The Dorset Education Board is committed to high quality education for all children and young people. We are working on three priority strands of work, a pledge to students across Dorset, how best to recruit and retain staff, including teachers, and the need for a broad curriculum including high standards in Maths and English.

“The Board has been listening to young people in Dorset as we develop our work, and the importance of “belonging” has been a clear and consistent theme throughout. We are determined to ensure both high education standards and inclusion for all, including children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.”

Individual standing on stage speaking in to microphoneOther guest speakers talked about the subject of Belonging related to their experience and areas of work. Richard McCann, author of Just a Boy and founder of The iCan Academy, was truly inspirational in the personal story he told about overcoming adversity and maintaining positivity and hope to achieve happiness.

He asked the delegates to understand that people, including children, make mistakes and that they should not be discounted for making a mistake. It is by making mistakes that we learn.

He also told the delegates to never underestimate the potential that lies within each and every one of them and to pass that message on to the young people they worked with.

Hannah Woodhouse, Regional Director for the Department for Education in the South West, talked about the importance of our young people being in school, which is something that Dorset Council will be doing lots of work on next year to encourage communities to think about school attendance as everyone’s business.

Each day was rounded off with a session led by young people from Dorset, aged between 10 and 17, who set the delegates the task of making a pledge about how they would nurture a sense of belonging for children and young people in the work they do. The pledges were written down and will be followed up by the group.

 

 

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