Constructing Culture - October 2025

This month, as the whirlwind of the new academic year starts to settle, let’s take a moment to reflect on the culture that remains around us: the knitted fabric of how things work and how people work with each other. This goes beyond vision and policy. It’s rooted in everyday behaviours and long-established assumptions and expectations. At this crucial time of year for setting standards of all sorts, how much attention are you paying to what this culture is, and to the steps you could take to address any gap between that and what you would like it to be? Whether leading a classroom, a phase /curriculum team, a school or a Trust, leaders - at all levels - play a crucial role in modelling ‘what good looks like’; however, the well-known indicator of 'what people do when the leader isn't there' tells us that designing, building and sustaining culture requires a committed and intentional team effort. 

Firstly, let’s be clear on the benefits of paying attention to this invisible energy force that your people (colleagues, pupils and families) are absorbed into.

For employees, Gallup’s recent research ‘Why Does Workplace Culture Matter Global Indicator: Organizational Culture - Gallup’ concluded strongly that “a connection to culture drives professional and personal results”, highlighting:

Alongside the obvious benefits of “feeling” part of a positive school culture – for morale, wellbeing, and general happiness - there are demonstrable educational benefits. For example, research from the Education Endowment Foundation highlights that schools which “build a culture of community and belonging” see measurable improvements in pupil attendance. Of course, some contexts are more challenging than others, and each school has its own unique set of circumstances; but there remains a responsibility of the adults to set the climate. And like the weather, their level of engagement will affect the mood, behaviour, relationships and outcomes of pupils and colleagues.

In the CST School Improvement Conference in April 2025, Steve Rollett commented in his keynote that culture needs to be intentionally designed and nurtured. Indeed, the CST has now established a People and Culture Professional Community (of which Leadership Edge is proud to be a selected partner) in recognition of the need for ongoing conversation to establish cultures in our schools where people - adults and children - feel safe, happy and heard and, as a result, perform at their best and stay present for longer.

So what can you do to continue to build the habitual behaviours, conversations and relationships which shape how people feel being part of your school or Trust?

As Daniel Coyle explains in The Culture Code, culture does not just happen; it is intentionally constructed through daily actions, shared values, and the way leaders respond to moments of difficulty. Drawing on research from some of the world’s most successful teams, Coyle identifies three key elements that allow communities to build trust, collaborate effectively, and thrive even in the face of challenge:

1. Build Safety

• People need to feel safe and accepted before they will fully contribute.

• Leaders can build safety by showing care and consistently providing inclusive communication, practices that reinforce equity and unity.

  
  

2. Share Vulnerability

• Strong cultures are created when people can admit mistakes and ask for help without fear of judgment.

• Leaders set the tone by acknowledging their own uncertainties and creating space for honest conversations which accelerate trust, making collaboration more effective.

  
  

3. Establish Purpose

• High-performing groups align around a clear, shared purpose that guides behaviour and decisions, reinforced through repeated signals, stories, and actions that keep values alive.

• Leaders play a key role in connecting daily tasks to the bigger mission, ensuring everyone sees meaning in their work.

One of the organisations they profile is Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. While a school and a financial firm may seem worlds apart, the practices at Bridgewater demonstrate what it looks like to take co-creation seriously. There, everyone, from new recruits to senior leaders, contributes to the culture through radical transparency and continuous feedback. No one is exempt. This collective responsibility creates an environment where contribution and growth is embedded in everyday practice. For schools and trusts, the lesson is clear: thriving culture comes from shared commitment and action, not top-down directives. When students, staff, leaders and families all have a voice in shaping how things are done, the school becomes a living, resilient community. 

However, for people to speak-up, they need to know they are safe from judgement. Indeed, the experts’ emphases on safety, vulnerability, and purpose, and an everybody co-constructive approach, resonates deeply with the principles of PURE coaching, where Personal, Unconditional, Relevant and Empowering conversations happen regularly between colleagues, shifting the culture away from a focus on the strength of individual performers, towards developing a community of thriving human beings, bringing their whole self to school every day, in service of one another.

Co-constructing meaningful culture is of course also about who is at the table. In a recent WomenEd Webinar (recording here) chair Dan Morrow neatly summarised the panel’s focus on under-representation at governance and trust leadership level, by echoing their call to “widen the pipeline deliberately and intentionally”. Leora Cruddas reinforced the need to avoid tokenism, noting that this must not become rooted in a target-setting exercise but genuine community representation. Amy Whittall spoke passionately about her Trust's focus on creating an equitable entitlement to knowledge, skills and experience, with Christalla Jamil highlighting that school leaders are the architects of the future. Together, their insights remind us that designing diverse, equitable and inclusive school cultures requires strategic attention to governance, representation, and workforce planning, ensuring fully representative voices shape organisational values and practices.

In considering practical actions, leaders can seek to map both the current and the desired climate and culture. Surveying (in different formats, both formal and informal) governors, staff, students, and families about the values they see in practice versus those they aspire to should highlight areas where the culture is working, as well as areas of misalignment or conflict. Language is key. Crystallising the findings with a simple statement can be a powerful vehicle to galvanise energy around the desired culture eg. ‘We are proud of our xxxx culture’ / 'We proudly strive to create a xxxx culture", and then committing to regularly scheduled re-evaluation. Leaders can then provide or co-create relevant strategies to address gaps, through professional development opportunities, team-working practices, or new communication routines etc. 

As we approach a pause for reflection, here you can watch Manny Botwe - ASCL President 2024-25 (whose school has been working with Leadership Edge since 2020) - pose some thought-provoking questions: What is it that you want to see within your organisation? What do you want conversations and relationships to be like in your school?

To support your thinking around the ideas above, I offer you three more: 

1. What aspects of your school or Trust culture currently support psychological safety, vulnerability and shared purpose, and where do you see gaps or challenges?

2. If your school or Trust culture fully reflected the values you collectively aspire to, what would be different for students, staff, and families?

3. What is one practical action you can take this week to begin co-creating that positive and sustainable change with colleagues, students, or wider school community?

A thriving culture shapes engagement, attendance, wellbeing, academic success, and leadership impact. Building this is clearly not a one-off project but an ongoing reflective practice. Education leaders are privileged to be in the exciting position of guiding communities of people towards creating a culture where trust, growth, belonging, and equity are tangible for every student, employee and stakeholder - designing a microcosm of a positive change for the world at large.

Warmest wishes,

Catherine Hulme

Owner Director

catherine@leadershipedge.org.uk

If you enjoyed this, please share with colleagues.

Connect with us on LinkedIn for more.  

Leadership Edge is a growing team of experienced school leaders who have seen person-centred coaching create high-performing, happy and healthy cultures within our schools. Our mission is to empower other school leaders to create positive workplaces where staff are solution-focused and actively responsible for their own personal wellbeing and professional development.

Our 3-Tier Coaching Accreditation Programme is low-cost and self-sustaining, providing a systematic and structured model for staff across your school to become powerful coaches for each other, enhancing colleague relationships and their feeling of being valued as an individual within a supportive school community.