We are a No Outsiders School.

What is No Outsiders?

Someone who feels left-out, who feels like they don’t belong and is not welcome.

We teach that there are no outsiders because everyone is welcome. A four year old understands what it feels like to be left out and does not want to be left out. We are creating classroom environments where no child feels left out; we believe every child needs to be taught that they belong.

"As children grow up, they can sometimes learn that difference is a barrier to friendship. Our aim is to remove that barrier; to quote the Ofsted handbook (2023), we want children to see “difference is a positive, not a negative”. After all, we are all different; none of us is exactly the same; we are all unique. As they move through school, we want children to explore their differences so that they feel comfortable in their own skin. Children should know who they are and feel proud to be who they are, and also know that they are accepted without judgement. No child should feel they have to change who they are in order to fit in." 

So how do we do this? We have an ethos that is backed up by language and behaviour. All children are taught from their first year in school that we are all different and we like that. Wouldn’t the world be boring if we were all the same.  We use picture books where characters are different, and we show that they are also friends and they play together. We make sure there are characters that look different and the hope is children will see themselves reflected in those books; “I am different too and that’s ok”

No Outsiders was created by Andrew Moffat who regularly shares collective worship ideas at no cost to schools. We use these ideas, when appropriate, to explore difference with our children in whole school worship and class work.