Key Findings: Surveys & Focus Groups

Where available, context research is provided in callout boxes.

• Student Experiences: For Grades JK-6 students, parents/guardians reported that the majority (80-90%) of students experienced positive social interactions. Grades 7-12 students reported that 92% felt they were treated with respect and 77% felt school rules were fairly applied. Pertinently, students in focus groups commented about how much they appreciated having access to co-curricular and extracurricular activities that would not be available to them outside of Branksome Hall. Feelings of respect, belonging, and fairness of rules were more prevalent among those who identified with a dominant social identity generally defined in this context as wealthier, white, Christian or Catholic, heterosexual, cisgender and able-bodied rather than historically marginalized groups. Students also felt there was room for growth in soliciting and implementing student ideas to improve the school.

• Peer and Adult Support: Most Grades 7-12 students (80%) reported having peer support. Younger, wealthier, white, heterosexual and cisgender students who were not new to Branksome, as well as students with disabilities, reported higher levels of peer support. One third of respondents felt that they had an adult to go to for problem-solving, with higher support reported by Grades 11-12 students who identified as wealthier, white, heterosexual and cisgender. In the Junior School, parents reported that it was easy for their children to make friends and that teachers were generally respectful and listened to parents’ concerns. Parents did, however, express concern that teachers lacked formal training in responding to issues of inequity and suggested further professional development was needed.

• Sense of Safety: In general, Grades 7-12 respondents reported they felt safe at school (60-80%). However, fewer were sure the school would protect them from online harassment/cyberbullying (34%). Most students felt a degree of safety from cyberbullying but indicated some confusion in knowing what to do if they experienced it. Parents of JK-6 students expressed a strong sense of physical and emotional safety. Across the school, East Asian respondents felt a lower sense of physical safety than other groups.

• Social Inclusion and Belonging: In general, Grades 7-12 students felt welcome (76%) and included (75%) at Branksome Hall. Notably, 25% of students felt they were less frequently included at school. Factors that can impact inclusion are a sense of belonging and feeling that one matters to others. In general, Grades 7-12 students reported feeling like they matter to adults (61%) or peers (63%) in the school. Feelings of exclusion were more pronounced among Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) students who reported heightened feelings of isolation because race and racism issues were not regularly discussed or addressed. A similar sentiment was expressed by parents/guardians of JK-6 students who are racially minoritized. There was also a correlation between those with more social privilege and increased feelings of belonging. Alums reflected that while most felt included, their school experiences were very heteronormative, and that diversity and inclusion has increased over time.

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School belonging is defined as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow & Grady, 1993, p. 80) and in particular focuses on meaningful and ongoing relationships with peers and teachers (Slaten et al., 2016). Student belonging presented a challenge across the education sector long before the pandemic began. For example, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Student Census (2018) found that almost one third of students struggled with belonging at school. A recent study of the independent school sector found that 73% of students in the U.S. and 66% in Canada reported feeling a sense of belonging in school (Gulla et al., 2022), similar to what was found at Branksome. During the pandemic, cultivating a sense of connection and belonging became more difficult, with 50% of students saying their connections with other students and with teachers decreased, and 32% saying their sense of belonging has decreased (Challenge Success, 2021 ).

• Mental Health and Well-Being: For Grades JK-6, the majority of respondents had positive views of their child’s well-being. Over two-thirds (70%) of Grades 7-12 respondents reported feeling stressed, and they suggested a partial connection to the highly rigorous academic curriculum. Grades 7-8 students reported less stress, more positive responses, and more opportunities to talk about mental health. Cisgender, heterosexual and day students reported better mental health than transgender, gender-diverse and LGBTQ2S+ students. Respondents who perceived themselves as being “very well off” were more likely to report “rarely being happy.” Further, this group was more likely to state they “never” talked openly with peers about supporting each other’s mental health and “never” had opportunities to learn about mental health. Generally, students across demographic groups felt that more opportunities to learn and talk about mental health were needed.

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There is evidence to suggest that student stress is on the rise and has increased significantly during the pandemic. The Peel District student census (2018) found that 35% of students reported high levels of stress or pressure. However, more recently, TDSB found that 60% of students reported being under a lot of stress (Cameron & Presley, 2021), similar to students at Branksome Hall. In their U.S.based research, Challenge Success found that as far back as 2009, 70% of students they surveyed reported high levels of school-related stress. In 2021, they found that 56% of students reported that their level of stress (Pope, 2009) had increased even more during the pandemic (Challenge Success, 2021). Parental expectations, high amounts of homework, frequency of assessments, and lack of sleep are all enduring factors.

• Social Justice and Representation: Of Grades 7-12 students, nearly half (46%) indicated agreement with seeing their own culture, identity and background in what they were learning about in class. However, students who identified as wealthier, white, Christian or Catholic, heterosexual, cisgender and able-bodied were more likely to indicate feeling like their identity was represented and that they were treated with respect. Only 6% of racialized alums reported that they often or always saw themselves reflected in class material when they were in school, suggesting representation has grown over time. Parents of JK-6 students were unsure about the level of representation of different groups in the curriculum, and auditors noted they would benefit from more information. Focus group participants were excited about changes made to the curriculum over the last year, describing them as “impactful for students.”

• Experiences of Boarding Students: Boarding students were more likely to be racialized than day students (76% vs. 41%), and thus the findings regarding boarding students should be reviewed also from the lens of what minoritized students are sharing about their experiences. When the audit was conducted in 2021, boarding students reported that they were less likely than day students to feel included or respected. They were more likely to find it harder to make friends, with 28% responding they found it somewhat hard vs. day students (14%), and were more likely to disagree that they had a peer to go to for help with problem solving. BIPOC alums also recalled feeling a divide and they, alongside parents, wished to have stronger relationships between day and boarding students.

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Research on the experience of boarding students is rare, however a study by Pfeiffer et al. (2016) examined the experience of students across 15 high schools in Germany, 297 of whom were boarding and 404 of whom were day students. Boarding students were found to have significantly lower rates of peer integration. The researchers recommended that schools should implement measures to support boarding students in gaining access to peer groups. A qualitative study on the experience of Chinese international students in U.S. high schools also reported that social interaction with day students was challenging for boarding students due to cultural differences, shyness, language barriers, and lack of common interests (Brooks, 2017). Min’s (2022) research in the Canadian boarding school context suggests that the communal living environment can play a role in the development of strong friendships with other boarding students, but is no guarantee of healthy social-emotional adjustment, especially if they face discrimination from day students due to language proficiency or racism. Boarding students often cope with the lack of belonging by either assimilation (giving up their culture in order to fit in) or double-marginalization (becoming both invisible due to their cultural differences and hypervisible during racially-charged incidents), and therefore need a strong social support network of both peers from their cultural group as well as the dominant cultural group to develop a balanced bicultural identity.

Collectively these findings revealed several areas of strength and opportunities for improvement relating to students’ experiences of the school environment, interactions with their peers and teachers, and feelings of inclusion and belonging. Anima offers their analysis and interpretation of these findings in the following section.