Converting schools’ values and visions into day-to-day living 

Stephen Mitchell of Keystone Knowledge, discusses how you can ensure your school is putting its values and vision at the heart of its day-to-day operations

Read the full article below or read on page 12 in our November magazine

All schools, whether they are trusts or maintained schools, have a set of values that they aim to follow. The DfE and the ESFA tend to focus on the quantitative side of schooling, with an overwhelming emphasis on exam or assessment results. Although these are incredibly important, and help set us up to succeed in the professional world, they aren’t the be-all and end-all. 

Positive behaviours and morals should begin at home – but children spend a large amount of time at school and around their teachers. Children are like sponges, soaking up their surroundings to inform them how to think, act and behave. Not having a positive role model at home can directly influence a pupil’s behaviour – providing a set of values within schools can go some way to encouraging good behaviour and set a good example of positive social interactions for later in life

Having a set of positive school values, and a supportive culture, helps to instil morals within our students to, hopefully, enable them to become more well-rounded members of society. The question is, how do you go about putting the values and vision of the school at the heart of the its day-to-day operations, making sure they are actively lived by all school staff members.

Make sure everyone is on board

It may sound like a simple one but making people aware, and getting them on board, is the start of everything. School leaders should make sure that the values of the school match what teachers believe their role should be. It can be easy for trustees, governors, and school leaders to come together to set the school’s values but, if they only appear in a policy document, and don’t influence staff behaviours, then they are not really the values of the school.

Make the values easy to understand

School values tend to be short, punchy, statements, often made up of three nouns – for example, ‘respect, kindness, creativity’ (or ‘confidence’). Although the staff and students can often recite the values, there can be disagreement over how to put each value into practice. Does kindness only apply to students, or does it also apply to how teachers treat students? Does this kindness simply refer to charitable giving, or does it mean kindness towards the environment?

Making the values more clear can clarify teachers’ and pupils’ roles and make sure that they are accountable; ‘confidence’ may translate as, ‘I always believe that I am capable’ and ‘respect’ may become ‘I will treat people the way I wish to be treated’. These statements are still concise, but offer more information – the Vision and Values page on Keystone’s website is a good example of this informative approach. Be specific and keep it simple so that there is no ambiguity and this will help with buy-in.

Enacting the school’s values

Developing positive attributes is essential, and should be woven into the very fabric of the school. Here are some ways that you can enact your school’s values. 

Through your people

• Include all support staff in training about the values – this means finding time to talk to exam invigilators, cleaners, catering and site staff as well as teachers and TAs.
• All staff should role model the values through their day-to-day actions.
• Create a charter, or formal set of principles, setting out how staff should act/model values.
• Appoint ‘Values Champions’ who are staff or students with a passion to drive change based on your agreed values.
• Regular surveys and coffee mornings to find out if people’s lived experience is infused by the values.
• TLR3 posts for specific projects which support your values.
• Review the curriculum to examine the extent to which opportunities to reinforce values have been taken/missed.
• Ask external speakers to host talks or assemblies on relevant topics.

Through your processes

• Include the values in the onboarding, induction, continued professional development and appraisal arrangements for staff.
• Procure a range of books for the library, and online resources available to students, that reflect school/trust values.
• Use exit interviews (including with students who leave) to find out what worked and what didn’t.
• Build reflection on values into lesson planning, curriculum design and observation arrangements.
• Participate in opportunities to benchmark practice with other schools/settings to assess progress and assist in action planning for the next steps – for example, ArtsMark, Inclusion Quality Mark, SchoolMark, World Class Schools, etc.
• Self-review to ensure that the SEF and SDP both reflect where the school/setting is in terms of enacting values, and that actions are planned to further embed values.
• Review governing board minutes from a range of meetings to see if the decisions taken demonstrate active deliberation around actions/activities/factors which represent your agreed values in action.

All schools have a responsibility to promote ‘British values’ as set out in the Prevent Strategy in 2011; these include democracy, the rule of law, liberty and respect for those of differing faiths and beliefs. Although these are fundamental to British society, they are human values and will also help make to nurture well-rounded people.

Values form part of the overall school’s culture. Having a positive school culture encourages learning, healthy relationships, happiness and eagerness to do better – from both staff and pupils.