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Why School Culture Matters and Strategies to Improve It

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School culture matters. Fostering a positive school culture is essential for maximizing success in teaching, learning, and collaboration.

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Article 1 suggests that school culture has effects on the achievement of students in terms of motivation, sense of competition and their developments in all aspects. What aspects and how far have we created this successfully? How do we do better, in our respective areas of influence?

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Article 1 suggests that school culture has effects on the achievement of students in terms of motivation, sense of competition and their developments in all aspects. What aspects and how far have we created this successfully? How do we do better, in our respective areas of influence?

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As an EXCO, what is our take on school culture in MSHS in terms of our personal and collective leadership? How have we been effective? What are some areas for growth?

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As an EXCO, what is our take on school culture in MSHS in terms of our personal and collective leadership? How have we been effective? What are some areas for growth?

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School Culture consists of all beliefs and purposes. Our Chinese culture is part of our school brand and identity as a SAP school, which defines who we are and how to communicate that definition to our staff, students, and community.

So how do we do it better to build our culture is more about creating excellence through the clarity of our mission and what we stand for.

In 3J class, a student in my HCL class, Yi Ming, a CLEP student, also went for the CLEP scholarship interview in term 1. Most of the students in 3J are not good at HCL, yet Yi Ming is standing out on his own. Students at the very beginning were teasing him that he was supposed to do every task well in the class since he was taking Chinese literature. Yi Ming does. He always role-models himself as a high achiever in this subject, especially after the interview with the school leader; he always submits his homework with quality, volunteering himself to read and lead in the class.

It is a perfect example of creating excellence through our own culture and working it with our students.

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To me, one aspect of school culture is the culture of care we build in our students that will help them feel safe and accepted in our school environment. We have created this successfully in how we put student well-being in the forefront of what we do. As a result, we built in a safety net for students to feel comfortable and secure in the learning environment, which has also brought about opportunities for majority of them to find a footing in the school, allowing them room for growth. Especially in the last few years where Covid-19 has resulted in a lot of school activities and experiences being cancelled. The school placed more emphasis on teachers to look out for students who may be impacted negatively by the pandemic. To me this aspect of care has in many ways built in hope. As the pandemic is now lessening in its impact, I hope we continue to extend this to ur students, especially with regard to more opportunities for students to stretch themselves in outside learning opportunities. We must also be still looking out for students who may still fall behind, and put them on paths that lead to growth and recovery.

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Our school culture sets the positivity in school and has improved over the years. It stems from St. Marcellin Champagnat approach to education 'to educate children, we must love them, and love them all equally." and our beliefs that all Marists can learn and excel. This helps to directs all stakeholders to a common vision and mission.

Over the years, the school leadership has been taking care of the morale and the well-being of the staff and students. And when the staffs feel that they are well-supported and acknowledged for their efforts, it helps to build & maintain positivity in school.  With the changing education landscape, it is important for the school leadership team to explore ways to uplift our colleagues in the midst of overcoming a variety of challenges.

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Back in June 2020, I had shared during Exco the article on School Culture: "The Hidden Curriculum". The summary and the mapping of the "reinforcing behaviors" to our school's context back then is shared in the PDF above.

Two years on, much have changed and also been shaped by COVID-19, but some have remained as part of shaping our collective culture, while others are still work in progress.

Our "Rituals" remain to be strong - the rites of passage, ceremonies & celebrations, shared routines and mannerisms - continue to be core to our Student Development Programme (as part of the Marcellin Way too).

For "Symbolic Display", we have done the wall mural in the SRC, will continue to work on the student leader gallery. Our school's landscape has changed - the arch gate is slated to be removed(?), renovations done to the student toilets, and how will it continue to be (re)shaped by the changing immediate environment surrounding our school? How can we continue to be that shining bright star on top of Mount Vernon Hill?

We have also made public display of brotherhood more apparent in the past few years: student leader campaign and elections are more elaborate, this year we will introduce student QnA (agency) to the campaigning; NSG well-wishes presentation and board continue into its second year. Our collective narrative, shaped by the school theme, is/will also be interwoven into many activities and events.

"Rules" have been established by the Marist Charism, 10YME framework, the Marist Educator disposition and practices, etc. Staff play a big part in shaping the school culture, hence as continued professional development and for new staff who join us, I would like to suggest to have a rotating cycle of staff training maybe every 4 years, so that new staff can also be trained and existing staff can be refreshed, using the experiences in the past 4 years as case study:

1. The Marist Educator - 10YME

2. Skillful Teacher - Classroom Management & Motivation

3. Boy-centric Education

4. 21CC/CCE2021 Facilitation

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School Culture - The Hidden Curriculum (Exco Sharing)

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As a new member of the school, over the past 4 months, I have observed how the school culture is played out in the various school activities which are planned and carried out, character/national education which is infused into CCE lessons as well as the drive for excellence and achievement evident in the way students have strived during the NSGs.

In my personal reflection of these observations, it is evident that this school culture has definitely been shaped over a long period of time and obtained strong buy-in from staff as well as students.  For strong buy-in to have taken place, I would think that regular and open communication must have taken place.  With all these 'right ingredients' in place, a positive school culture which emphasizes character inculcation, academic and sporting excellence as well as self-leadership will take shape amongst staff and students.

One area which might require greater synergy in our bid to sustain a positive school culture would be parent engagement. Parents can be strong allies for the work that schools do as they are often in the best position to reinforce the values that schools seek to imbue in students. Therefore, if a strong and positive school culture is already established, then good parent engagement would be the final augmentation to our efforts in building and sustaining a positive school culture.

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The culture of care is evident among the staff. Staff culture- staff show good care and concern for one good. For relief duties, it has been a norm to get dept teachers teaching the same subject to cover one another. For exam deployment, various dept will support one another. For example, in deployment for exam duties, the Maths, Sc, Humanities teachers will support the EL and CL oral exam and the EL, CL, Maths and Humanities teachers will support Sc Prac exam. Teachers also support the EAS staff by helping to clear the furniture after school events.

We have through our morning stories, various school events inculcate and taught our students our school Marist Values. To cultivate the sense of brotherhood, we have also through day-to-day interactions, routines or school events like support for NSGs, encouraged students to uplift and support one another within a class, level, house or as a school.

For students, the culture of handing up homework according to the deadline has been slowly improving due to teachers’ active monitoring and intervention. We can also consider passing the ownership to CLC instead. At the end of the day, give 5 mins air-time to CLC to recap with class the HW given that day and to state the HW which is due the next day. While the class will be reliant on CLC initially, we aim to pass the ownership to each individual student overtime as it becomes part of their routine.

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Article 1 suggests that school culture has effects on the achievement of students in terms of motivation, sense of competition and their developments in all aspects. What aspects and how far have we created this successfully? How do we do better, in our respective areas of influence?

I totally agree with Article 1. School culture has effects on the achievement of students in terms of motivation, sense of competition and their developments in all aspects. The culture of care for students in class, during CCA, during major school events and competitions etc determines how far one school can progress. We have emphasized on the effort and hard work exhibited by the students, more than the outcomes, as a whole. This show of care and concern for their emotional well-being is evident in our school culture, we should keep it up.  For under-achieving and DSA students, more care and concern should be given to them, to motivate to realise their potential. As HOD CL, I should look at the group of students who are under-performing during each WA/ MYE, discuss with teachers what support to give (care & concern) to the under-performing Marists and work towards the goal together with the Marists.

As an EXCO, what is our take on school culture in MSHS in terms of our personal and collective leadership? How have we been effective? What are some areas for growth?

We have done well but I believe that we can do better in terms of striking a work-life harmony for the Maris educators. Personally I can be more effective in communications and providing support to educators by streamlining some of the work. By re-structuring some of the work, such as vetting and marking time frame and work flow, I am able to achieve this.

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Article 1:
Over the years, MSHS has established itself through achievements in academic, SAP environment, sports and even the strict discipline. The school culture will shift slightly over the years but the school mission, values and motto will provide the guiding light.

The school culture definitely has effects on the motivation and developments of our students especially in a All-boys school. The sense of competition (internally & externally) is very strong and help to build the camaraderie.

Moving out from Covid era, we will need to relook in our programmes; bring back some old ones, keep current programmes or evolve?

Article 2:
Similarly, the school values and motto have also guided the teachers in their dealing with the students. However, what is unwritten is the trust and helpfulness among teachers. Working can be a joy if there is a high of trust and the willingness to help each other. As EXCO, we have to ensure and maintain what we have now among the teachers. Also to let new-comers to feel the school culture themselves. Actions speaks louder than words.

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In building a positive culture for the school, structures have been finetuned to ease work processes and the know how can increase efficiency. As a school, on the staff front, we have a can-do-will-do, cannot-do-also-try-to-do spirit. One just have to ask and help will be available or a re-think of the situation. The Marist styles anchor us as teachers and striving for our students. This is a strong value proposition for our school culture building.

Rituals are important in how we celebrate different events as Maundy Thursday & Lent celebrations and Marist Youth Challenge (full school). We can strengthen these rituals to allow for students to model human interaction with presence, simplicity, family spirit, love of work and in the way of Mary.

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In Article 1, it states that "School culture is
being formed because of the life experiences and sharings among people over time. Attitudes and behaviors of school management, teachers, students, and school staff have contributed to the formation of school culture within this
period."
This statement brings out the importance that the school culture hinges on the interactions between people in school. The social activities that everyone in the school experience together, the work that all the staff come together to achieve the eventual goal (short term or long term), the communication between teachers and students and etc.
Over the past few years, the behaviour of the students are generally improving. The love of work and the attitude towards learning has become better. With a more conducive learning environment, we can see that the students are performing better and it is shown in the results for the past few years.
However, it could be the covid situation that the whole world faced for the past 2 years. With lesser face to face interactions and lesser learning/ social activities, students could be "short-changed" over the last 2 years. While our school had made effort to show care and concern with the sec 2-4 students, checking in with them, addressing their needs and concerns to make sure that the communication between the school and them is still active and most importantly the love for them is still there, basically so far this cohort has not steered too far away from the intended path. However, we can't seem to say the same for the sec 1 cohort. It could be as they came from different school, their interactions in their previous schools are minimal, it is evident that the sec 1 students are still not in tune to the MSHS culture.
It is good that school is slowly returning to normalcy with the morning assemblies, learning journeys and the support from teachers and YHs for the students. We could take the opportunity to come together as a team to support the sec 1 cohort so that they could bond better and attune to the school positive culture faster.

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Our students generally want to do well in their studies and CCAs. Our school culture might have played a part in students wanting to stretch to reach their potential. When students feel more belong to the school, it would influence their decisions and actions positively, students would want to live up to the expectations and leave a legacy when they graduate. In the IP aspect however, my sensing is that many students are learning just to excel in exams, but have not cultivated their sense of natural curiosity and ability to analyze issues critically. Hence, in addition, to a culture of excellence, we might also need to look at the means to hone the correct attitudes and values in our students.

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1) One aspect of school culture that is evident in the school is in the way we care for the students. Many teachers go above and beyond in showing care for our students and never hesitate in putting everything down to help them. As a member of the SDT for a number of years, I have observed that student-centricity is a key part of building this culture and I think as a school, we try our best not to take a one size fits all approach to the way that we deal with student issues. Rather, we look at the student as an individual and try our best to do what best fits them. As a YH, we can help our FTs to manage particularly difficult students and guide them in understanding why we tailor certain approaches to individual students.

2) I believe that as an EXCO, the willingness to work together to achieve common goals and objectives is particularly strong. This permeates down to the rest of the staff as well. As such, staff culture has always been strong. We can probably improve on letting the staff feel that we advocate on their behalf and keep their well being in mind too.

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My take on our school culture - we have a dynamic, professional staff culture, where the staff I feel put in their best according to their ability levels for most of the tasks assigned to them. This is possible given the leadership at the SL and HOD level. The staff feel supported and  there is clarity in where and what we want to achieve. This proactiveness in staff culture creates a positive whole school culture for students and staff as well.

We also have culture working in the other direction. Meaning given the good academic grades that we are getting in the O-Levels over the years and sporting achievements, it also propels the staff to work collaboratively and purposefully. This generates the positive whole school culture that we are experiencing at the moment and it is a school strength that we must keep. So performance does drive culture and this culture also drives our performance in a virtuous loop.

Areas for growth - we are string in intra-departmental culture, and willing to go out for each other for teachers in the department, but different department has different degrees in which they work collaboratively, and this is based on the personality of the staff in the dept and the departmental leadership. This also takes time to develop when a new head takes over, it will require some time and trust and for the relationship to build. Second is the issue of staff renewal and sustainability of leadership at the departmental level - can this be perpetuated?

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What aspects and how far have we created successfully?

In the article, it is stated that “School leaders have an important place in forming positive school culture at school by creating a common vision”. I think the aspects that we have done well will be: firstly, we have very clear school vision that every Marist is a gentleman of faith, vision and service; secondly, we have put together the various aspects CCE, SAP, Religious Education into 10-year developmental plan; thirdly, we have some strong processes and rituals (bilingual morning assemblies, administration & financial procedures, YH program, Season of Lent etc) in place.

What are some areas for growth?

The impact on our students, whether we have achieved the desired student outcomes, how much we planned have actually translated into reality. i.e. not all Marist Ambassadors under the Talent Development programme are able to converse confidently in Chinese language; while we are showing slight improvement in our CL & HCL results, the interest in learning Chinese language still left much to be desired; our student leaders could have been more inspiring.