Best Practice

A school culture of collaboration and kindness in five steps

Whole-school issues
The best school leaders care about their staff. But what does that actually look like day-to-day? Matt Bromley offers five approaches for creating a culture of collaboration and kindness that you can adapt and employ in your primary school
Kindness: The best school leaders give quality time to people and are protective of staff, showing empathy; they set as their default position a genuine belief that everyone wishes to do well and will try their best - Adobe Stock

In Essential Pieces: Jigsaw of a successful school (2006), the late Sir Tim Brighouse argued that the most successful school leaders had three qualities in common: energy, enthusiasm, and hope. 

To this excellent list I always add “kindness”, because in my estimation the best school leaders care about their colleagues’ health and – dare I say it – happiness as much as they care about vision and strategy.

The best school leaders show an interest in every aspect of their school, visiting classrooms and speaking to staff as often as possible. They walk the floor at breaks and lunch to remind class teachers they are not alone.

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