When we talk about belonging in education, are we truly living it or just writing it into policy documents? In this episode of The Kitchen Table, we sit down with Dr Ilene Winokur to explore what belonging actually looks like in practice, from classrooms in Kuwait to refugee communities in Kenya.

Ilene has lived in Kuwait since 1984 and has spent more than 35 years working at the intersection of education, storytelling and belonging. A professional learning consultant, author and global mentor, she supports teachers around the world, including refugee educators, and has published two books centred on belonging. Her work is rooted in one core belief: connection changes communities.

In our conversation, she shares her personal journey of moving to Kuwait at 29, learning Arabic to connect with her mother-in-law, and later navigating the loss of her citizenship while still holding onto her sense of home.

What We Explore

- Personal vs Professional Belonging: Why the relationships we build at home and at work shape us differently, and why both are essential in schools.

- Creating Space That Feels Safe: From greeting students at the door to co-constructing classroom norms, the practical ways teachers can nurture trust and voice.

- Belonging Beyond the Mission Statement: How leaders can align culture, policy and everyday behaviour so inclusion is lived rather than laminated.

Ilene reflects on walking school corridors as a principal and noticing how her own emotional state influenced the building. It is a powerful reminder that belonging is embodied. It is relational. It is felt.

If you are building community in a classroom, a school or beyond, this conversation will both challenge and steady you.

Connect with Phil Banks

thebelongingcollective.blog

Connect with Mohamed Abdallah

Drawbridge Collective | Mohamed Abdallah | Substack

Connect with Danielle Lewis-Egonu

Danielle Lewis-Egonu | Substack

The Kitchen Table are grateful to our sponsors Magma Maths, Zen Educate, St Christophers Trust, Cygnus Academies Trust, The Reach Foundation and it is produced by Urban Podcasts.

Mo and I have been circling this debate for a long time. I talk about belonging. He talks about mattering. And if we’re honest, we’ve both walked away from conversations thinking, I like him, but he’s wrong. So today at The Kitchen Table, it’s just the two of us finally putting it on record.

This is not just a word game. It’s about what we actually want students and teachers to experience in our schools. Is it enough to feel included? Or do we need to feel significant, relied upon, even missed?

What We Explore

- Belonging and Mattering Defined: Where they overlap, where they differ, and why being noticed and missed might be the real shift.

- The Achievement Debate: What the research says about attainment, dropout rates and whether belonging truly changes outcomes.

- Culture in the Everyday: How small relational moments, not big declarations, shape identity and long-term wellbeing.

This conversation reminded us that schools shape identity as much as they shape grades. When someone feels invisible or replaceable, the consequences are serious. When they feel valued and significant, something shifts.

If you’re leading a classroom, a team or a whole school, this episode is an invitation to look closely at the moments that quietly define your culture. Because the cost of getting this wrong is too high, and the impact of getting it right can echo far beyond the classroom.

Connect with Phil Banks

thebelongingcollective.blog

Connect with Mohamed Abdallah

Drawbridge Collective | Mohamed Abdallah | Substack

Connect with Danielle Lewis-Egonu

Danielle Lewis-Egonu | Substack

The Kitchen Table are grateful to our sponsors Magma Maths, Zen Educate, St Christophers Trust, Cygnus Academies Trust, The Reach Foundation and it is produced by Urban Podcasts.

This is exactly why we created The Kitchen Table. In this episode, we sit down with Dr Lisa Cherry to explore what it really means to care for the people who care, in schools and services that are holding more than ever before. From trauma-informed practice to leadership vulnerability, from exclusion to belonging, this conversation is honest, searching and deeply human.

Lisa shares how her own cancer diagnosis reshaped her thinking about organisational care, why self-care on its own is never enough, and what leaders must model if psychological safety is going to be more than a poster on the wall.

Dr Lisa Cherry is an author, researcher and international trainer who has spent over 35 years working across Education and Children’s Services. She supports schools, services and wider systems to rethink how they respond to the legacy of trauma, combining academic research with professional expertise and lived experience. Her work has reached more than 35,000 people globally across education, health, adult services and criminal justice. Her MA research explored the long-term impact of school exclusion on care experienced adults, and in 2024 she completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford examining how care experienced adults who were also excluded from school make sense of belonging. She is the author of Conversations that Make a Difference for Children and Young People, The Brightness of Stars, Weaving a Web of Belonging and Caring for the People Who Care.

What We Explore

- Caring Beyond Tokenism: Why wellbeing hours and helplines mean little without cultures that genuinely protect and value staff.

- Belonging as a Turning Point: How exclusion, care experience and education shaped Lisa’s journey and why one teacher can change a life trajectory.

- Vulnerability as Leadership Strength: Why modelling help-seeking and repair after rupture is the foundation of psychologically safe organisations.

We reflect on moral injury in schools, rising exclusions, the weight carried by safeguarding leads and pastoral teams, and the danger of placing all the responsibility on individual resilience. Lisa reminds us that trauma does not sit only with children. Adults in our systems carry their own histories too, and ignoring that reality comes at a cost.

There is something powerful in her phrase that educators are “there in waiting”. That the conversation you have today may not show its impact for years, but it still matters. That belonging is not soft or sentimental, it is structural. And that if we want people to stay in caring professions, flexibility, supervision and relational cultures are not optional extras.

If you lead in education, health or any caring profession, this episode invites you to look again at how you hold your people.

Connect with Phil Banks

thebelongingcollective.blog

Connect with Mohamed Abdallah

Drawbridge Collective | Mohamed Abdallah | Substack

Connect with Danielle Lewis-Egonu

Danielle Lewis-Egonu | Substack

The Kitchen Table are grateful to our sponsors Magma Maths, Zen Educate, St Christophers Trust, Cygnus Academies Trust, The Reach Foundation and it is produced by Urban Podcasts.