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.

Part one can be accessed here:

How do we bring the right people into our culture – the right colleagues, families, governors?  How do we go about creating more of what we love?

I think that if you are clear, and you communicate effectively what you believe in and stand for, you attract people, don’t you?  You appeal to parents.  You attract potential members of staff.  You attract people who want to get involved in governance at the school.  So it’s about understanding and communicating your culture.

As a head, whenever I was involved in staff appointments, I always enjoyed the process.  One of the great pleasures of the role is getting the right people in the right seats on the bus, to quote Jim Collins.  You need to be discriminating, insightful and aware.   It isn’t a ‘group-think’ thing – you don’t just want people who think the same.  But in terms of ethos and values, there needs to be a coherence, a consistency, an alignment.

I was also very mindful that when we made an appointment – an internal appointment, certainly, but external, too – you delighted one person when you offered them the post, but you disappointed the others.  Every unsuccessful applicant for a job in your school is a potential ambassador for the school.  You want them out there in the wider community (perhaps the international community) saying, ‘I’m disappointed, because it’s a great school and I would have loved to work there, but they treated me well, and it was a clear, transparent process.  It was positive and constructive, they gave me feedback, and I felt better about myself at the end, even though I didn’t get the job’.  When you communicate clearly it’s good for recruitment because people see it’s a school that values its staff, grows its staff, develops its leaders and invests in people.  ‘That’s where I want to be.’

So whether you’re a parent, a pupil, a governor, or a member of staff, if schools get culture right, it has a lot of spin-off benefits.

How can we keep developing our culture? Is it through induction, staff development, professional review?  Is it a question of tinkering, or do we sometimes need a reset?

It depends what you inherit, doesn’t it?  It goes back to the question of the legacy you step into.  I do quite a lot of work with new heads, and aspiring heads, and I think it’s sometimes useful to say, as an incoming head, ‘When did we last have some kind of audit of how our marketing and communications are working, or how our governance is working?’

Actually I don’t much like the word ‘audit’!  I prefer ‘review’.  It’s giving you a baseline.  What’s working well and what could go better?  What are people’s perceptions?  Sometimes we are so close to our schools that we can’t clearly see how well things are working and where we could perhaps improve.  As a new leader it’s a really good opportunity to say, ‘Let’s just stop and take stock.  Let’s get some external expertise to help us to see more clearly and then let’s respond to what we learn.’  We evaluate, we review, we consider, we discuss and we think: that’s going really well – we could do more of that.   That could work better, so what can we learn?  What ideas can we tap into?  What do we need to develop?  We avoid complacency and avoid thinking, ‘That’s how it’s worked before.  That’s how it’s always been done, so therefore that’s how it should always be done.’  We’re much more challenging of ourselves – are we hitting the mark?  Is our culture well known, well-articulated, fit for purpose, or is it really time for some evolution now?

Vision and values don’t stay absolutely still.  They do evolve.  They respond to changes in society, new challenges, and, again, it’s good to be nimble and adaptable.  So I think we need to see that this is a constant work in progress.  Even if you come into a school where everything seems to be wonderful, it won’t be!  One of the things I say to new heads is, ‘Don’t go in and try to reassure people by promising that you’re not going to make any changes.  You have no idea what might need to be changed, and sometimes things will come out of the woodwork because people are thinking: new head, new chance to raise this issue again and get something done…’

The pace of change needs not to be too rapid – don’t frighten the horses – but it needs not to be too slow, either.  You do need to make your mark, have an impact, leave the school stronger than you found it.  That’s the legacy I think every new head should leave behind them, but I would also expect my successor to go on and make the school stronger still.

There was a brilliant blog post I read last week by @Southgloshead (on Twitter). It was called ‘Whakapapa: Reflections on our moment in the sunlight’.  Whakapapa is a Maori belief that we stand arm in arm with those who went before us and those who will come after us.  We currently stand in the sunlight, as our ancestors did before us, and future generations will do when our moment in the sun has passed.

It’s about humility, recognising that we stand on the shoulders of giants, respecting what has happened in the past.  My school was founded in 1882, as many girls’ schools were then, in the Victorian era, by some amazing, driven, talented women who believed that the education that boys had enjoyed for centuries should be enjoyed by girls too.  I think we need to be mindful of that, rather than thinking we are the source of all the good ideas, every innovation and initiative.  Really we are here for a relatively short time.  I was a head for ten years.  My school had existed since 1882 and I hope it will continue to exist for many years to come.  We are important, but not so important that we should dwarf or overshadow the achievements of others.

When we come to school culture, what about the idea of measurement?  Can we, and should we measure it?

We have to be careful.  In the past we have fallen into the trap of valuing what’s measurable, rather than what’s important.  Some of the things that are important are very difficult to measure.  I think that school culture – vision, values, beliefs, priorities – are difficult to measure and evaluate.  But the danger is that if we don’t review and evaluate what we do, and then adjust and adapt in the light of what we learn, we may not achieve what we hope.

I’ve already mentioned the idea of getting in expertise from outside to help us review where we are.  We can do surveys ourselves, although I think with the advent of Survey Monkey we’ve all got a bit carried away with surveys and there is such a thing as survey-fatigue!  But we can easily gather views from staff, pupils and parents.

I like conversations – focus groups, discussions – I like listening, noticing, building your awareness. In my first term of headship I had twenty minute discussions with individual members of staff.  I got through the whole staff.  It took a lot of time, but I learnt a lot, and it also sent out the message that I wanted to know.  I want you to tell me – give me the benefit of your knowledge and understanding of the school.  I asked people to tell me one thing about the school they hoped might change in my tenure, and one thing they hoped would never change.  I learnt about niggles and frustrations and opportunities to improve but also I learnt about what was valued – the USP of the school, if you like.  And I remember one member of staff, a part-time member of the PE department, who said, ‘Before I tell you my two things, can I just say that I’ve been here for 11 years, I’m a parent as well as a teacher, and I’ve never had a one-to-one conversation with the head before – and I’ve certainly never been asked what I think about the school.’  After she’d gone I thought, ‘This was worth doing, for that comment alone’.  It sent a message that I was keen to evaluate, I wanted to learn and build on what I found out to make the school even stronger.

So my answer is yes.  We should measure culture.  We should evaluate and then act on the information we get.   We need to be visible, approachable, human, interested.  We should do exit interviews with every member of staff who leaves – an honest appraisal of what’s gone well, what they’ve been disappointed or frustrated by.  Use that information to improve what we do.  We have to listen, especially when we don’t quite like what we’re hearing!  That’s when it’s especially important to listen – to students, staff, parents – to everybody.  Because we have a responsibility to try to do the best possible job we can, and to serve the community.  We need to keep adapting and improving, as Dylan Wiliam said, ‘not because we’re not good enough, but because we can be even better’.  We have to embrace that, be responsive and receptive, and model that from the top.

I want to mention Appreciative Inquiry, something I came across in my doctoral reading.  It’s a ‘credit’ model of improvement which says that often if we want to improve things, we will get further if we consider what’s working and how we can do more of it, and not allow ourselves to get obsessed with what’s broken and how we can fix it.  Ask people what they appreciate, what they’re proud of, what they’ve achieved.  Post-pandemic, use the KISS acronym: what do we Keep, Improve, Start and Stop?  And giving ourselves credit is really important.

A former head who was a good mentor to me – she joined our governing body – said one sign of a really good school is where the least experienced member of staff can have an idea or a view and know it will be taken seriously.  Nobody will say, ‘You haven’t earned your stripes yet – get back in your box.’  They will listen, because we can learn from everyone and we need to be open to that.

What are the things you want people to take away from this discussion which should help them in dealing with school culture, whether it’s a new school, a new place or an established organisation?

Michael Fullan is quoted in the book: ‘Culture is the guiding beliefs and values evident in the way the school operates.’  We need to make sure we know our culture should guide, help and direct us – certainly in challenging times, but actually all the time.

Valuing staff is really important.  I know we often say it’s all about the pupils.  I stopped saying that after reading a really good book called ‘Putting Staff First’ by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley.  They make a compelling argument that unless we invest in the staff – teaching and support staff, and leaders across the organisation – we can’t reach the children.  Senior leaders and heads can’t do what needs to be done, giving the pupils what they need and deserve, unless we value and develop staff, giving time, thought and attention to how we recruit, induct and retain staff and how we support their professional development and learning.  Supporting flexible working is part of that.

And in terms of professional review – I don’t really like the word ‘appraisal’, which seems to focus too much on judgement and accountability.  I know we’re all accountable, but professional review, for example if you observe a lesson, shouldn’t be about judging, grading, criticising.  It’s a snapshot.  You can’t accurately gauge how successful learning is by dropping into a lesson to look at the teacher’s performance.  Any observation or review should be about opening a dialogue, encouraging reflection, mutual learning – the person who’s observing learns, as well as whoever is observed – and development: it’s all about development.

So these are three things I think are critical to creating a healthy, strong school culture.

The last question: if you were going to start a new headship, or set up a school anywhere in the world, what’s one thing you would take with you?

There’s a book – I’m an English teacher! I love books – by Robin Macpherson and Kate Jones, called ‘The Teaching Life’.  There’s a chapter in it about working internationally, and they also have a website about working internationally.  I think the book is a very good summary of all the things that matter most, particularly in terms of supporting people’s professional learning and career progression, so I would take that.  And I’d share it.  Because leadership is all about building the capacity and confidence of those we work with and through.  This book will help us to do that.  And if you get that right, other things will fall into place!

The podcast can be accessed on this link: Leading Your International School – YOUR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CULTURE (google.com)