A sense of belonging helps students Thrive at school

Of all the variables that determine how well young people finish school, there’s one that may be more powerful than the rest. It’s not academic achievement, socioeconomic status or supportive parenting (although these are important too).  

It’s a sense of belonging.  

This is the latest finding from the Thrive initiative, a multi-institutional research collaboration that includes the UTS Human Technology Institute, which is leading Thrive’s AI and data science efforts. Thrive’s goal is to support young people to finish school well, not just to complete Year 12, but to emerge with skills and knowledge, a sense of wellbeing and the capacity to be an active member of the community.  

The Thrive program’s ambitions are being realised through the application of world-first mathematical, computer science and statistical machine learning approaches. Drawing on a wealth of government, school and lived experience data, Thrive’s social and data scientists are working together with schools and families to untangle the complex causal relationships that impact on education outcomes.   

To date, the UTS team has graphed the array of factors that contribute to finishing school well. It’s here that “sense of belonging” first emerged as a central influence in the student journey.    

“Attainment of Year 12 is critical, it’s a key driver of a young person’s future opportunities,” says Professor Sally Cripps, a leader in Bayesian machine learning and AI, who heads the UTS Thrive team.

“What’s exciting is that the maths has enabled us to uncover the importance of a sense of belonging as a driver of Year 12 attainment. Thrive is showing us how the system can better support students to reach Year 12 and succeed beyond it.”