You belong in lots of places before nine o'clock: home, a class, a school, maybe a team, a friend group, a town. Belonging is not the same as having a say. Today you map the places you actually sit in, then mark where your voice counts and where it does not.

Three ideas before you build.

2. Influence is not only a title. A student on the student council holds a role. A student who is listened to in class, who organises a team chat, or who is asked by a coach how training should run can have influence without a badge.

3. Places nest. Your class sits inside a year group, inside a school, inside a local area, under a local authority (your county or city council). Family and friend groups sit in that wider picture too. On the map you will build next, each place sits inside another, and you mark how much say you really have: none, some, or a lot.

Build your own map in the interactive activity. Drag each place onto the one it sits inside, working from you out toward the local authority. On every place, mark how much say you actually have: none, some, or a lot. Be honest. A place you love can still be one where you have no voice.

Look back at your map and talk these through with a partner, then be ready to share one answer.

• Pick one place you marked none. What would have to change before you had some say there?
• Pick one place you marked a lot. Is that because of a role you hold, or because of how people there treat you?
• Where did your map and your partner’s map disagree on the same kind of place?

You can now:

• tell belonging apart from having a say
• map the everyday places and institutions you sit inside, from you out to the local authority
• mark where you have none, some, or a lot of influence, including influence that does not come with a title

Next time you will trace how a real decision moves through groups in your own school.