In the day-to-day experience of teaching, only the easy-to-implement strategies will work.
There is just too much happening at any given time for big wholesale changes to stick. I’ve sat in too many uninspiring training sessions; listened to too much ineffective INSET; struggled through too many opaque policy updates – give me something simple that would make a noticeable impact.
So here’s a simple action that could change the culture of your school.
Start a habit of expressing gratitude.
Here are some examples. Imagine if every:
- senior management meeting started with the person chairing sharing something for which they are grateful, AND
- Heads of Department meeting began with subject leaders turning to each other and saying a simple thing for which they are grateful, AND
- Tutor time started with tutees writing one thing for which they are grateful on a post it and adding it to a jar. Which they then read at the end of the term. (I did this with my Y9 tutor group, and a Y13 class).
What would that school be like?
I know that expressing gratitude might be everywhere on social media.
You know those profiles that just post inspirational quotes and think that they’re making a practical difference?
I don’t know if those people are actually practising what they preach, but I do know that a daily gratitude habit has made a personal difference to me.
But don’t take my word for it. Richard Wiseman is Professor for the Public Understanding of Psychology. He wrote 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change A Lot. In the book (which I highly recommend) he scientifically debunks a lot of self-help nonsense.
But he also outlines those things that work.
And it turns out that a gratitude habit does increase happiness:
those expressing gratitude ended up happier, much more optimistic about the future, physically healthier and even exercised significantly more.
Wiseman, Richard. 59 Seconds: Think A Little, Change A Lot (p. 17). Pan Macmillan. Kindle Edition.
So – start that gratitude journal!
But what about schools?
Jo Facer is Principal of Ark John Keats Academy and author of Culture Rules (also highly recommended) makes the case for expressing gratitude in schools:
By making schools places of gratitude, we can make them much happier places to be…We need to weave in opportunities for gratitude frequently to make it a habit…One school I worked at gave over two tutor time sessions each half term for students to write thank you cards to their teachers. Tutors would then disseminate the cards in teachers’ pigeonholes, and an informal practice of teachers sitting in the staff room reading their cards to one another grew.
Facer, Jo. Culture Rules (p. 102). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
A school’s culture, ultimately is a series of conversations. Shifting a culture means shifting the conversations. That starts with regular, consistent action.
Which usually starts with senior managers.
But what’s stopping anyone initiating a cultural change in their school?
What action could you take?
Photo by Rosie Kerr on Unsplash
James D'Souza 