School culture and climate are “situationally unique” (Stoll, 1999, pg. 9); the influences and factors that lead to the creation of a school culture are so complex that two schools less than 2 minutes from each other can have completely different cultures. The socio-economic and cultural environment which the school operates within has significant bearing on the school culture and accordingly this can present its own advantages and challenges.
According to the decile rating system our school is officially categorized as a decile 9-10 school. Our roll comprises 65% New Zealand European/Pākehā, 22% Māori, 6% Asian and 6% Pacific students. Interestingly these statistics are not too dissimilar from that of the general population in New Zealand, albeit with Maori students making up a slightly larger proportion of our school population.
In contrast to national trends, achievement is high across all groups. Despite strong academic statistics the school has previously acknowledged that the level of inclusion could be increased and in the last three years the school has taken significant steps towards incorporating and celebrating Maori language and culture. This year we were affirmed as a Level 3 immersion school, meaning that Te Reo Maori is used in classrooms 20-30% of the time.
Decile ratings can be deceiving and I am somewhat reluctant to make any wholescale assumptions based on this, however having worked at schools in significantly less advantaged areas both within New Zealand and overseas I can cautiously say that the majority of students at this school are lucky enough to come from homes that have incomes and formal educations above that of the typical New Zealand household. There are of course exceptions to this rule and money only erases some of the issues that young students have to contend with.
A common complaint from teachers at high decile schools is that they have to deal with difficult parents, however on the whole our parent community is highly supportive and this interest and desire to be involved is definitely advantageous when you need parent help or require parents to complete extra learning with their children at home.
Metz (1990) discusses the influence that parent communities’ views on education can have on school culture. There is one area where I feel that the higher decile rating of our school can be somewhat restrictive and that is when teachers are making OTJs or writing school reports. Many hours are spent agonizing whether to put a student ‘at’ or ‘above’ as parents will see a change between the two levels as a drop in achievement rather than a natural progression in learning. This is especially true in the Junior School where a student will often move from above-at-above as the standard they are being judged against changes according to their age. I personally would like to see more parent education about this to build a deeper understanding of the learning process.
The Academy for SEL in Schools (2015) identify the staff of a school, as the most consistent part of a school community as having the greatest degree of influence in creating the school climate. The professional environment at school is a happy, settled and supportive one characterized by the“norms” (Stoll, 1999) of celebration and humour, mutual respect and support. This is despite the school undergoing some significant leadership and staffing changes over the last 5 years. While I personally have only been at the school for three years I believe this positive environment is largely due to the personality of our Principal. While he is certainly not afraid to voice his opinion or make hard decisions when they need to be made he remains friendly and approachable and this sets the tone for the rest of the school. While there could be a greater distribution of leadership he ensures that individual staff members’ opinions are always acknowledged and valued and goes above and beyond his job description to support staff members who are experiencing issues, whether they be personal, professional or health-related.
The professional environment among the teachers is best described using Hargreaves (1995) term “Balkanisation” meaning that “teachers are neither isolated nor work as a whole”. Instead most teachers work in smaller collaborative groups, sharing resources, planning and ideas between classes. The degree of collaboration varies across teams according to the staff members. This seems to be due to individuals’ preferences and habits rather than any personality issues.
While risk taking and innovation are the norms for some staff, these ideas are not necessarily embedded in the school culture. However we have just undertaken the first phase of Michael Fullan’s “Deep Learning” programme and I feel that this a huge step towards drawing our school closer together and taking us further along in our journey as teachers. Perhaps with this next step forward innovation and risk taking will become school-wide norms.
Academy for SEL in Schools. (n.d.). What is School Culture and Climate? Retrieved September 11, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_NvhlcusQ
Hargreaves, D. (1995). School Culture, School Effectiveness and School Improvement. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 6(1), 23–46. http://doi.org/10.1080/0924345950060102
Metz, M. H. (1990). Real School: A Universal Drama Amid Disparate Experience. In Education Politics for the New Century (pp. 75–91). http://doi.org/10.1080/0268093890040505
Stoll, L. (1999). School Culture. School Culture, (9), 9–14. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture
I was interested reading your blog on decile ratings and am in a very similar situation to you in that I have taught in hugely wide ranging socioeconomic schools here and abroad. I do think it's the culutre of the school that makes the difference in the students but also the mindsets of students, teachers and parents.
ReplyDeleteI work in a private school with mainly affluent families or ones who place very high value on education, safety or happiness of their child, so much so that they will spend a large proportion of their earnings to have their children attend. I can relate to the idea of people thinking parents are more intrusive with higher expectations, but in reality I have higher amount of support at home and my expectations of the students are generally shared by the parents. Parents are always keen to help out on projects and trips and generally have good connections to help out with speakers. I usually have 100% attendance at parent interviews and high responses to emails or phone calls when necessary.
ReplyDeleteResearch by Conway (1994) indicates private schools state their own culture rather than form it with the local community. I have also encountered the "self fulfilling prophecy" which indicates a big buy in of the culture. Sometimes when I have sat down in parent interviews parents gush about how amazing the school has been for their child's, when in fact we haven't even been in school long enough to get past the pre-tests and establishing of routines. They are just so happy to be a prat of the exclusivity of the school that they dedicate their loyalty and faithfulness to the school immediately.
Our professional environment and gaps in improving the school is also similar to yours. I wonder if higher decile schools are frequently similar in these areas. I do think there is some resistence to innovative practices and rick taking because of the content packed curriculum we are expected deliver and the fact that our parent community can be very traditional in their views, especially having succeeded financially on the old, industrial education system that they know.
Conway, G.E. (1994). Small Scale and School Culture: The Expereicne of rivate Schools. Eric Digest. Retrieved from: http://www.ericdigests.org/1995-2/small.htm
ReplyDeleteYour blog made me reflect about some of the comments made by the parents of my school community. So it's not just parents of higher decile schools who resist the ILE, my school is decile 3 and I hear similar stories here as well. I think it is the mindset of some parents who strongly believe and have in the traditional classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the decile rating has been removed yet has it, it is still under discussion I believe? An interesting observations nonetheless. Isn't it amazing the depth that the culture of a school delves to? Parents, teachers, students, leadership, money, beliefs, etc, etc, all hold weight in this huge concept.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments everyone. Kusum it was interesting to hear you are experiencing the same issues at your school, when I taught at a low decile school we had reports which reported on the progress that the students had made as well as where they were currently at which I think helped parents to understand the learning process. This may have been the key factor in the different views of parents rather than the decile rating of the school! I am campaigning for our school to adopt a similar format which I hope will contribute towards alleviating this issue in the future.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post Sarah! I agree with you about the difficulty of discussions around National Standards 'below' 'at' or 'above' etc with parents. The old system showed that the curriculum levels overlapped in areas and emphasised the idea of learning being an ongoing process, rather than a jump from point to point. To me it made it easier to explain to parents that learning is a journey and that the expectations continue to move up throughout a person's education. Now it seems to incite anxiety when a child hasn't met a benchmark at the allocated reporting time. Very frustrating. It has also increased the gap for those competitive parents, as where they used to see that their child might be somewhere on the higher end of a curriculum level, now they need to have 'above' which is a bigger step for their children to aim for.
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