My research has focused on how students attending a weekly Warhammer Club at their secondary school perceive their sense of belonging in school, through a lens of Gee’s (2004) affinity space theory. There is much literature on the topic of belonging in schools, and how a sense of belonging has become recognised as a tool for enhancing and improving student outcomes (Donnelly et al., 2019; Graham et al., 2019; Palikara et al., 2024). However, much of this research focuses on this sense of belonging being created through extracurricular sporting activities, which may or may not be inclusive of all students in the school (Morgan et al., 2024). My study focuses on the Warhammer Club I run in my own school context, where I have consciously curated a wholly inclusive environment for all students. Established three years ago, Warhammer Club has housed a variety of students from different inclusion groups: SEND students, LGBTQIA+ students, as well as those students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are eligible for Pupil Premium and Free School Meals, and inclusion has always been important to the ethos of the club. My study used a focus group of students that attend Warhammer Club to foreground the student voice. I then transcribed this data using an intelligent verbatim approach, and used thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2022) to explore student responses. From this, I argue that the Warhammer Club helps students to feel a sense of belonging in the secondary school, which impacts both their enjoyment of school and is a factor which students report motivates them to attend school regularly. This research situates Warhammer Club as an important affinity space within the UK secondary school and provides a basis for the argument that it should be afforded the same status as other, more traditional, forms of extracurricular clubs.
Author bio
Matthew Davis-Wright is an MA student at Keele University and a science teacher in a UK secondary school, serving a socio-economically disadvantaged area. A lifelong Warhammer enthusiast, he runs a school Warhammer club, combining his passion for education, inclusion and tabletop gaming, to engage and inspire students.
