Belonging and being: developing inclusive ethos.

Educating students with refugee and asylum seeker experiences has become an added responsibility for school leaders worldwide. Disruptions of war, conflict, famine and drought force millions of people to leave their homelands in search of improved opportunities of a better life for themselves and their families. This research investigates and describes the strategies of one school principal who implemented the principles of the SCARF (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness) model to guide his strategic planning and to create an ethos of belonging, care and wellbeing as a priority for his school community, despite their many degrees of personal, cultural and religious differences. This case study reports the perceptions of staff and parents and the comments of the principal as captured through surveys and semi structured interviews. The positive impact of the strategies developed by the principal and implemented in collaboration with his staff and community provide a snapshot of leading for inclusion. It lays the foundation for further investigations into the potential of the SCARF model to inform and guide school leaders in their interactions with diverse school stakeholders and illustrates how one school principal successfully used this model to build an inclusive school ethos for diverse cohorts of refugee and asylum seeker communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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