This two-part blog post is based on a podcast I recorded for the ‘Leading Your International School’ website, hosted by Barry Cooper, Principal of The Global College in Madrid. I think all the advice within it is just as relevant to school leaders – in fact leaders at all levels – in UK schools.
Tell us about the chapter of ‘Leading Your International School’ which you selected, why you chose it and what your interest in the subject is?
I’m talking about Chapter 6 of the book, on building school culture. Although the book focusses on the international school sector, I think everything the book has to say about school culture is relevant to any school in any context.
I’m interested in what school culture is, how you establish it, and how it might evolve over time, and particularly what that means for a new head coming in and stepping into the legacy of their predecessor. How can they build on what they inherit to keep the school culture strong?
What is the right way to step into the culture of the school where you take up a headship?
Respecting the legacy you inherit is important. In my doctorate I focussed on the transition to headship – making the leap from being a deputy. I had six research participants who were all deputy heads but had all been appointed to headship, so they were in the lead-in period between securing the job and actually taking up the role. I tracked their progress through the final months of their deputy headship and into the first months of their headship.
The dynamic between the outgoing and incoming heads, and what you inherit – it’s never a blank canvas. How you move from ‘inheriting’ the role to ‘inhabiting’ the role and making it your own, putting your own stamp on it – it’s quite demanding. You do need to be mindful of the legacy.
When we go through the selection process we need to be insightful and discriminating. We need to make sure that the ethos we will pick up, if we become the head, is something that aligns with our own principles, our priorities and beliefs.
If someone comes into a new school, perhaps in a new country, where do they go to get a sense of what they are stepping into? And what is the link between the culture of the school and the purpose of the school?
I think culture and purpose are very closely aligned. Both are about what you believe in and what you stand for, what you think education is all about and what makes your particular school distinctive. During the selection process you pick up a lot of information. You talk to your governing body, however that’s constituted – I know in some international schools you can have a different model of governance compared with UK schools – these are the people who are invested in the school, who are in effect your employers. You need to make sure your relationship with them is constructive and positive. Do your reading and research. Talk to people who know the school. The lead-in period is a great opportunity to learn more, to begin to establish yourself, to build your relationships with the wider school community – the staff, the senior team, the governors, to get to know the parents, the students. This is all part of tuning into the context, the culture, the country, the working practices, the customs. I think you need to be very well-informed. You need to try to understand, because that’s what you are building on. I think it takes a degree of humility, because you are not coming in as The Messiah, you are not going to transform everything. You are going to work with the community that’s already there, some of whom may have been invested in that community for a long time and who will know a lot more about the school than you do. You need to get the best from them, working with them. You need to earn their respect.
How important are parents in either dictating the culture, or helping the head and leadership team in developing a new culture?
I would say that no one should ‘dictate’ the school culture – including the incoming head. You don’t come in thinking, ‘Right – I’m the new head and I’m imposing this set of vision and values, these principles and priorities. This is what I believe and so I’m importing a new culture – this is how the school is going to operate.’
You have to be able to build trust, win hearts and minds, get people on board – staff, governors, students and parents, and also prospective parents, those who may be looking to buy into that school community at some stage in the future.
I think we have to listen to parents, to empathise and to try to understand, no matter how demanding some parents may be. Usually they’re motivated by love for their child, which is absolutely how it should be. But they have to respect that we have a different perspective because we’re professionals, and we care about all the students in our school. So we have to find ways of working together.
In the past I think some schools have tried to keep parents at arm’s length, and I don’t believe that’s the right or the reasonable thing to do. They are investing in your institution and they deserve more than that. It is about collaboration and consultation, but ultimately the head and governors will make a decision. If the parents seem to be driving the direction of the school, then I think you’re in trouble.
Do you think leadership needs to change, in order to work in the 21st century?
Leadership is changing, and has been for some time. I became a head in 2000 – we’re 23 years on from that now and I’ve seen leadership change during my time as a head, and in fact during my whole career. I started teaching in 1980. Leadership is more inclusive, more diverse and more research-informed. We know a lot more now about how students learn, and about how successful leaders lead.
I’m a huge fan of flexible working in education. The pandemic made a difference because sometimes things that people said couldn’t be done, we found COULD be done. We had to be able to do things remotely and be more flexible. It’s one way of showing that you value your staff, if you’re prepared to consider flexible working when people need it, rather than thinking that won’t work in education; it’s not good for the students; parents won’t like it; it’s expensive; it will open the floodgates; it can’t be timetabled. I think all those things are myths, and there’s a lot of good case study evidence of how we can be more flexible. Leaders at all levels need to be willing to be flexible rather than trying to squeeze people into tight boxes.
It is starting to happen. Leadership is changing for the better, I would say.
What about online schools? Is there an issue in terms of creating culture when students are scattered and engaging remotely?
Establishing culture with respect to online learning has its challenges, but it can be done. I’ve been doing a lot of online professional development work since the start of the pandemic, and I’m still doing some alongside face to face training now. It can be designed so that it’s warm and human, interactive, with people fully engaged. Relationships can be built, and humour can be there. We have to think about how we can adapt. In an online context we can still ensure relationships are prioritised, that communication is strong, respect is mutual and built on.
In some cases, in a global context, perhaps it’s the only way you can bring people together. When there is the possibility of some face to face interaction at some stage, I think that’s helpful. If I run an online course and have the opportunity to meet participants at the beginning, and perhaps at the end, and have online sessions in between, that blended model works very well.
We have to adapt. Covid was a great example of how something unexpected happened, and we had to pivot very nimbly in order to ensure that students got good provision and parents were supported, and that we focussed on what was important.
Geoff Barton of ASCL put this well in an article in The Guardian early in the pandemic. He said we have to keep asking ‘What matters most?’ I think we still need to keep asking that question. His answer was ‘the human stuff’. And that is central to the idea of culture and purpose.
Is culture something we go to in the most difficult times, for example in the pandemic?
There was some concern in Covid that schools were forced into being operational – it was difficult to be strategic and to look ahead because the future was so uncertain. Michael Pain of Forum Strategy UK wrote a powerful article: ‘Purpose is the new strategy’. He said that at that time we needed to go back to our purpose – to revisit our beliefs, our values and our culture. That would guide us through unchartered waters. And I think schools did exactly that. It’s about knowing what we believe in – as an individual and as an organisation. If all the members of the wider community are aware of what the priorities are – they’ve bought into that, it’s well-articulated, communicated and understood within the school and beyond it – that can be a very powerful touchstone when we hit bumps in the road, because we WILL hit bumps in the road.
There was a quotation from Andre and Warren’s book that I liked: “Culture is the glue that binds people together during tremendous times of need.” If you’re clear about your vision and values, then when you have to make difficult decisions, there is something to guide you. Culture isn’t a ‘nice to have’, a ‘cherry on the top’ – it’s fundamental to the ways in which our schools operate.
Should culture be a ‘USP’, or is that slightly dangerous, taking us down a route of experimentation and taking risks rather than focussing on education and helping students to ‘become’?
I think experimentation and risk-taking are good! If we try to stand still, we inevitably slide backwards. It seems to me that, especially in the independent sector, schools are businesses, and they have to be run in a business-like way because, if they aren’t, they won’t thrive – or even survive in the current climate. There’s nothing wrong with making sure that we’re business-like in our practices if we’re very clear about what it is we believe and we’re clear about our moral purpose.
I do think all schools are different. Sometimes people say, ‘Every school is the same!’ and if you look at website claims it can seem that every school sounds much the same, but I have been in a lot of schools in my life and I would say that every school is subtly different. There is nuance there.
Understanding what distinguishes your school from others, perhaps particularly in a competitive market, is key. Communicating that so that it’s well understood by the people within the school, who then spread the word beyond the school, is really important. If you’re trying to find the right school for your child, it isn’t helpful if all schools try to be the same. If schools are clear about what they believe, what they prioritise, then if it’s not right for your son or daughter, you need to know that. There may be a better option out there. But if it will suit your child – if this school can help your child to be the best they can be, you want to understand that and make a choice based on that. So you have a USP – not in a gimmicky way or a contrived way, but: ‘This is how we live in this school’. It’s not just what you say. Your culture is not just espoused, but it’s embraced. As Mary Myatt, quoting Contender Charlie, has said, ‘Values need to be lived, not laminated’!
How do we understand a school’s culture when we visit?
I think we ‘notice’. We have our antennae finely tuned and we look, listen and learn, sometimes reading between the lines. ‘Leading Your International School’ talks about the power of narrative and of stories. Humans like stories and all schools have their own stories. A school’s culture is encapsulated in the stories it tells. All members of the community contribute to these stories. As a school leader you have a far greater opportunity to shape the narrative than you’ve ever had before. So listen to the stories; ask about the stories. As a head, every time I stood up to give an assembly, or make a presentation to staff, parents or students, I was telling some of my story, and the school’s story about what mattered there and how we lived, treated each other, spoke to each other – our protocols, practices, policies and how they aligned with our story.
I love the quotation in the book from Deal and Peterson: ‘Stories are the language of leadership’. If you’re a leader at any level you need to think about the stories you tell, what you model and how you have the capacity to shape the narrative of the domain in which you’re leading. People need to listen, think and learn and not let their preconceptions get in the way of understanding this is how this school works. This is what it feels like, this is what it believes in, this is what it stands for. Yes, I would be happy working there, or I would be very happy for my children to be educated there.
The discussion continues in part two: here
The podcast can be accessed on this link: Leading Your International School – YOUR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CULTURE (google.com)
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