Module 10: Building an Effective Culture
“He waka eke noa.”
“A canoe we are all in together.”
Module Objectives:
Upon completion of this module, middle leaders will be able to:
- Define the characteristics of a positive, inclusive, and high-performing school culture in the New Zealand context.
- Identify their role in shaping and maintaining school culture within their team and across the kura.
- Apply strategies to foster psychological safety and open communication, encouraging collaboration and innovation.
- Promote culturally responsive practices that ensure all learners and staff feel valued, included, and empowered.
- Contribute to a culture that champions continuous improvement and professional growth.
- Evaluate current team or departmental culture and propose practical steps for enhancement.
School culture is often described as “the way we do things around here.” It’s the unwritten rules, shared values, beliefs, and practices that shape daily interactions and the overall feel of a school. As a middle leader, you are a crucial architect of this culture within your teams, influencing everything from staff well-being to student outcomes. A positive, inclusive, and high-performing culture is foundational to a thriving learning environment.
Understanding School Culture:
School culture impacts every aspect of school life, from how decisions are made, to how conflicts are resolved, and how success is celebrated. It influences staff morale, student engagement, and ultimately, learning outcomes. A truly effective culture fosters a sense of belonging for everyone, encourages risk-taking and innovation, and prioritises continuous improvement.
Key Elements of an Effective School Culture:
- Positive Relationships: Building strong, respectful, and trusting relationships among staff, students, and whānau is the bedrock. This involves genuine care, empathy, and effective communication.
- Inclusivity and Equity: Ensuring that every individual feels valued, respected, and has a sense of belonging, regardless of their background, identity, or needs. This includes actively embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles and culturally responsive practices.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: Encouraging staff to work together, share ideas, support each other, and collectively solve problems. This breaks down silos and strengthens collective efficacy.
- Innovation and Growth Mindset: Fostering an environment where experimentation is encouraged, learning from mistakes is embraced, and there’s a collective commitment to continuous improvement and new approaches to teaching and learning.
- High Expectations and High Support: Setting ambitious goals for both student achievement and professional practice, while providing the necessary support, feedback, and resources for individuals to meet those expectations.
- Psychological Safety: Creating an environment where individuals feel safe to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, and offer ideas without fear of negative consequences. This is crucial for innovation and honest feedback.
Your Role as an AP or DP in Shaping Culture:
As a school leader, you have significant influence over the micro-cultures within your team or part of the school you have responsibility for. Your actions, decisions, and communication style contribute directly to the “way things are done.” You can foster an effective culture by:
- Modelling desired behaviours and values.
- Actively listening to your team members and addressing their concerns.
- Creating opportunities for collaborative decision-making and problem-solving.
- Championing inclusivity and celebrating diversity.
- Providing constructive feedback and opportunities for professional development.
- Recognising and celebrating efforts and successes.
Task:
Cultivating Culture in Your Kura:Reflection on the forum: describe one aspect of your current school’s culture that you believe is particularly strong or effective. How does it contribute to collaboration, innovation, or performance. Also identify a specific area within your school’s culture that you would like to enhance to promote greater collaboration, innovation, or inclusivity. Identify one concrete strategy you could implement to begin fostering this change.
Post your collaborative response on the forum (max. 150 words).
Assessment:
- Forum Post: Your response outlining a positive aspect of your school’s culture and a strategy for culture enhancement and its rationale.
Resources:
- Understanding School Culture:
- Educational Leaders – School Culture: https://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/ (explore sub-sections like “Leading cultural change” and “School culture”)
- Fostering Inclusive Culture:
- Inclusive Education (TKI): https://inclusive.tki.org.nz/ (explore sections like “Developing an inclusive classroom culture” and “Inclusive teaching practice guidance”)
- Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand – Tātaiako: https://teachingcouncil.nz/content/tataiako
- https://www.edutopia.org/article/creating-positive-school-culture/
2 Responses
One element of our school’s culture that is particularly strong is its high expectations and high support. Our school sets high standards for both students and staff so as to build on the traditional success of our learners and our staff members. The school has considerable professional development on a regular basis, is always ahead of the PD curve in terms of Structured Maths/Literacy approaches, Curriculum changes, Reporting changes and this is great to be part of.
Our school runs a number of intervention programmes for students that need either support or enhancement and does this very well with highly resourced programmes and well trained teacher aides. Our teachers collaborate well in collaborative spaces (2 classrooms max) and support each other in planning and pastoral care of the children.
The challenge with these high expectations is ensuring the psychological safety of our staff and their wellbeing. There is a slight underlying theme across the staff of exhaustion, safety to speak out, allow vulnerability and admit mistakes. Honest feedback is also missing. Being new it has been an interesting year to sit back and observe how our staff relate (or don’t relate) and how they experience our school on a daily basis – highly differing points of view. I believe our staff culture lacks a lot in terms of inclusivity/equity for both students and staff and it is an area where we can develop further.
My intention is to champion inclusivity and celebrate diversity/neurodiversity, model expected behaviours/values and actively address the team’s concerns.
Cultivating Culture in Our Kura: One strong aspect of our school’s culture is our celebration of diversity. As a Catholic and highly multicultural school, we honour all languages and cultures—recently expanding to include Filipino Language Weeks and, for the first time this year, a South East Asian Language Week. This shift reflects the evolving makeup of our school community. Our inclusive approach fosters collaboration and pride among students, staff, and whānau, strengthening relationships and engagement across the kura.
An area we could enhance is staff collaboration across cultural initiatives. While celebrations are rich, deeper cross-team planning could amplify their impact. A concrete strategy to foster this is establishing a “Cultural Champions” group—representatives from each team who co-design inclusive events and share cultural insights. This would promote innovation, shared leadership, and a stronger sense of unity.