What Is Community Capability and Why Does It Matter?
Updated: Aug 27
Educational Insight
Our Educational Insights explore practical ideas and evidence-informed thinking that help schools create meaningful opportunities for children to develop Community Capability and contribute to thriving school communities.
Children are part of communities from the very beginning of their lives.
Their family. Their classroom. Their friendship groups. Their sporting teams. Their school. Their House.
And throughout their lives, they will continue to become part of new communities - at work, in neighbourhoods, through interests and activities, and in the wider world around them.
So alongside everything children learn at school, there is another important area of development worth considering:
How do children learn to be part of a community?
At Our House Spirit, we describe this developing capacity as Community Capability - the ability to actively participate in, receive from, contribute to and positively influence the communities we belong to.
What is Community Capability?
Community Capability is a child's developing capacity to:
Participate
Take an active part in the experiences, opportunities and life of a community.
Receive
Accept support, encouragement, ideas, friendship and contribution from others.
Contribute
Recognise that they have ideas, strengths, actions and qualities that can add value to the community around them.
Positively influence
Understand that their words, choices and actions can shape the experiences of others and help strengthen the community they are part of.
These capabilities develop through experience.
Children need opportunities to practise joining in, working with others, receiving encouragement, sharing ideas, taking responsibility, contributing their strengths and recognising the effect they can have on the people around them.
Over time, these experiences help children understand something important:
I am part of this community, and how I participate in it matters.
Belonging grows through community experience
Belonging is an important part of children's experience of community.
It grows through relationships, shared experiences and the repeated opportunities children have to participate, receive from others and contribute something of their own.
A child who is welcomed into an activity experiences community.
A child who receives encouragement from an older student experiences community.
A child whose idea is listened to experiences community.
A child who helps someone else experiences community.
A child who contributes towards something their group achieves together experiences community.
These moments may appear small, but together they help children experience what it means to have a place within a community.
Belonging therefore becomes something children experience through community life - and Community Capability helps them increasingly take an active role within it.
Children need opportunities to contribute
One of the most powerful shifts can occur when a child moves from seeing community as something provided for them to recognising that they can shape it.
I have something to contribute here.
For one child, contribution might mean sharing an idea.
For another, it might mean encouraging a younger student, helping organise an activity, welcoming someone into a group, listening carefully, creating something, solving a problem or simply choosing to participate.
Contribution can look different for every child.
What matters is that children have authentic opportunities to discover that their presence, choices and actions can add value to the communities around them.
This is also where Community Voice becomes particularly meaningful. When children have opportunities to express ideas, listen to others and then participate in bringing shared ideas to life, they experience their capacity to contribute rather than simply being asked for an opinion.
Positive influence is leadership
As Community Capability develops, children can also begin to recognise the influence they have on others.
Their enthusiasm can encourage participation.
Their words can help someone feel welcomed.
Their actions can strengthen relationships.
Their ideas can improve an experience.
Their example can influence what others choose to do.
This is an important foundation for authentic student leadership.
Leadership is the ability to positively influence the experiences of others.
And that is something every child can begin to develop.
Why House Communities provide such a valuable opportunity
Schools already contain many communities, but House Communities offer something particularly valuable.
They bring children together across year levels, classrooms, friendship groups, interests and abilities.
Importantly, they can also provide continuity - a community children remain part of as classrooms, teachers and year levels change throughout primary school.
Within an intentional House Community, children can have repeated opportunities to:
participate alongside different people
receive encouragement and support
contribute ideas and strengths
build relationships across year levels
celebrate together
take responsibility
lead experiences
encourage others to participate
work towards shared goals
celebrate the contributions of others
These are real community experiences.
When they happen regularly and intentionally, a House can become much more than a colour, sporting team or points system.
It can become a place where children practise being part of a community.
Developing capabilities for life
Primary school provides children with thousands of experiences of being with other people.
Within those experiences lies an opportunity.
We can intentionally help children develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions they need to participate in communities, receive from others, contribute what they can offer and positively influence the experiences of those around them.
These capabilities matter within a classroom.
They matter within a House Community.
They matter across a school.
And they will continue to matter as children become part of many different communities throughout their lives.
At Our House Spirit, this is what we mean by developing Community Capability.
It is helping children discover:
I can participate.
I can receive from others.
I can contribute.
I can positively influence.
And through those experiences, children begin to understand the important role they can play in strengthening the communities they are part of.
