All children speaks to me of belonging. All children should be able to see themselves in our schools and in our systems. All children should have their voices heard and their experiences validated. All children should be able to access the support necessary to achieve agency, and all children should be challenged towards this end.

All children includes children with significant learning need, with attachment difficulty, with adversity in life…as well as all other children. Meeting the needs of All Children is probably the most exacting standard of all the HEART values, simply because of the competing demands it embodies.

As leaders, when we review the statistics around our systems of inclusion, we need to see all our children in that system – receiving the rewards and recognition they deserve, and getting the help they need, in classrooms and buildings that are calm, focused, supportive and alive. Our systems should expose and recognise need. If, as leaders, teachers and key workers, we discern that a group of children is over- or under- represented in any area, the responsibility lies with us to first understand that phenomenon and then to address it both immediately and over time. Ask yourself – whose voice is not being heard? Why? How can I amplify their voice? What bias might I need to be alert to?

In the busy-ness of a thriving school, it is easy for a child to be missed. We the leaders need to be the Arthur Christmas of our school, not only noticing but sounding the alarm if “A child has been missed!” [watch this scene; it’s brilliant]. We need to devise systems of the appropriate scale to ensure regular human interaction – not by chance but by design – regular connection and regular recognition. We need to be the noticers and our radar needs to be attuned to the needs of the cohort and the child: every child.