Is being a welcoming school enough?
When I trained as a headteacher (principal) nearly 20 years ago, I was challenged to consider the following: “Imagine a child walking through your school’s gates for the very first time.” This thought-provoking question must stand at the heart of a Christian leader’s actions.
Perhaps the child is nervous, holding tightly to their parent’s hands. Perhaps they speak minimal English. Perhaps they have specific needs that mean navigating the school day will be different. Or perhaps they are a new member of staff, entering a community where everyone else already knows one another.
What do these newcomers experience?
Most schools would describe themselves as welcoming. We open our doors, smile, and introduce ourselves to try to set people at ease. These moves matter. But as Christian educators, we are called to consider a deeper question:
Is it enough for someone to feel welcome, or should we be working towards a community where they genuinely belong?
This question sits at the heart of hospitality and radical welcome, a journey I have been exploring through my work as headteacher at Arundel Church of England (ACE) Primary School in England for nearly two decades.
Welcome is the beginning, not the destination
There is a difference between being friendly to someone and creating a culture in which they belong.
A warm greeting on a child’s first day is important. So is introducing a new member of staff, helping a family navigate unfamiliar systems, or inviting someone to join a conversation. Yet belonging is rarely created by one kind interaction. It develops through what happens repeatedly afterwards.
Who remembers their name?
Who notices when they are sitting alone?
Who checks whether they understand what is happening?
Who makes sure their voice is heard?
The first thirty days of someone’s experience in our schools can be significant. We should ask ourselves how intentional we are during that period. Do we have structures that support belonging, or do we rely primarily on the natural kindness of individuals?
Kindness is essential, but it needs to be supported by a culture and systems that help people thrive.
The more challenging question is—What happens when the initial welcome wears off?
Hospitality through a biblical lens
Hebrews 13:2–3 offers a powerful foundation for thinking about hospitality:
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers. …”
The passage immediately connects hospitality with remembering those who are suffering and imprisoned. The biblical picture is therefore bigger than an invitation or a friendly welcome. It draws our attention towards people whose circumstances may leave them vulnerable or excluded.
These verses challenge a common understanding of hospitality.
Conventional hospitality might say: “Come into our community. You are welcome here.”
Biblical hospitality asks a further question: “Who is missing, who is struggling to belong, and what are we prepared to do about it?”
The distinction matters because exclusion does not always happen through deliberate unkindness. Sometimes exclusion is built into our routines, language, expectations, or systems.
A school may be warm and friendly while still being difficult to navigate for a family who does not speak the dominant language. A staffroom may be full of laughter while a colleague regularly eats alone. A child may be physically present in a classroom without feeling that their identity, needs, or contribution truly matter.
Our responsibility is not simply to open the door, but to examine what people encounter once they are inside.
Who gets a seat at the table?
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, tables become places where belonging is made visible.
Jesus ate with people who were excluded or looked down upon. He welcomed those whom others might have overlooked. The table was not merely a place to share food; it became a place where relationships, dignity, and community were experienced.
Jesus’ example leads to a question worth taking into every Christian school: Who has a seat at our table and who finds it difficult to get one?
Consider the new child, the child with SEND, the family from a different cultural or faith background, the uncertain parent, or the member of staff who rarely speaks in meetings.
Being present is not the same as belonging.
We need to move beyond asking how we can help people fit into our existing culture. Instead, we should consider what it is about our culture, structures, and practices that may make belonging harder for them. This is a perspective shift we as a school took when new pupils and staff joined us.
This new mindset moves us from simply offering help towards examining justice, responsibility, and shared participation.
A Christian community shaped by belonging
At ACE, our vision is rooted in the belief that every person who walks through our gates should know that they belong.
Our Christian foundation reminds us that people are not valuable because of their contribution, confidence, achievement, or similarity to us. Each person has dignity as someone made in the image of God.
Our schools, therefore, have an opportunity to model something distinctive: communities where welcome is not reserved for those who find it easy to fit in.
This approach does not mean removing boundaries or overlooking unacceptable behaviour. Radical welcome holds dignity and boundaries together. We can communicate clearly that a person is valued while also maintaining expectations that protect the community.
The invitation is to build a culture where people are not merely guests in someone else’s community, but participants who can help shape it.
Questions for reflection
As you consider your own school or organisation, I wonder—
- What happens during the first thirty days for a new child, family, or member of staff?
- Do our systems support belonging or do we rely mainly on individual kindness?
- Who is physically present but quietly excluded?
- Are there people who find it difficult to access our school’s “table”?
- What might we need to change so that belonging is experienced, not simply promised?
Hospitality begins with an open door. Christian hospitality invites us to consider what happens next.
In Part 2, we will explore how radical welcome can become a practical way of shaping school culture, beginning with the adults in our communities and moving towards shared ownership, voice, and transformation.
