This is the second article in a three part series on the development of culture in schools. In this series, Craig D’cruz, National Education Consultant at CompliSpace, explores how schools can create a culture of awareness regarding child sexual abuse, which is increasingly required by legislation. In Part Two of this series, Craig will be examining how to develop a culture of awareness at board and executive staff level in a school.

To develop a culture of awareness in a school, it must be inculcated into the current culture of the school. It would be nigh on impossible to try to bring in cultural change in a school overnight, particularly if you have a school with a very long history. Cultural change can take a long time and require significant effort. Schools with religious affiliations must also consider religious principles and teachings.

Culture does not develop overnight and, above all, it stems from the school governing body, the principal and executive staff and then permeates throughout the entire school. For example, if there has been a culture of ‘cover up’ in the school’s history, the change to a culture of openness and awareness may be difficult to bring into focus in a short time frame - but it can and must be done.

To develop a culture of awareness, a total commitment is required from all members of the school community and this commitment must emanate and be driven from the top. The school leadership team will need to develop very clear policies and procedures that are owned by all members of the school community. These policies and procedures need to be enforced at all times and celebrated when they result in the outcomes that will help to embed the cultural change. The policies and procedures actually need to drive the preferred behaviour - the change in behaviour from being conscious to being unconscious would be one predictor of a pending change in culture.

It is also important to note that true cultural change can involve emotional responses - particularly with an issue such as child protection. Effective leadership in times of cultural change has been found to be critically related to the use of emotional intelligence. Schools are a ‘human’ organisation and so emotions will have a strong influence on how teachers and other staff will approach the change. Principals will need to be analytical and will need to strategise as much about their emotional messages as their cognitive ones.

Actions that are expected to elicit cultural change within the whole school community need to be communicated through a variety of methods to ensure that the message is captured by all members of the community.  The following lists, although by no means exhaustive, set out actions that may be taken by members of the school board and executive.

At board level

There are several strategies that can be used by school boards to promote cultural change:

• Conduct a review of the school vision, mission and ethos. This needs to be amended or reviewed if it is seen to be lacking.
• The board may need to develop a tool to ‘measure’ current culture. This can be through brainstorming, interviews or an audit- using an external consultant- stepping outside and looking inwards.
• The strategy, once developed needs to fit within the schools’ current structure OR the structure may need to be changed to ensure that the strategy can be deployed effectively.
• Inclusion of the requirements for the development of the culture of awareness within the school’s strategic plan.
• Allocate funding and resourcing to ensure that any required changes can be rolled out without a fiscal fight. For example, the appointment of a Child Protection Officer.
• Develop the policies and expected responsibilities and standards of behaviour from all employees.
• Ensure that there is staff, student and wider stakeholder participation- this can be tasked to the principal and the school executive.
• Ensure that statements of accountability for board members and employees are clearly enunciated and then enforced.
• Above all, the board must support the principal in his/her job to bring about the required change. The board must be seen to be the driver of the overall direction of the school.
• Board agenda items and minutes will need to reflect the changes that they want brought into the school.

At executive level

At an executive level, schools can take several steps:

• Develop the procedures to enact the board policies. It can be argued that the board works for the school but the principal works in the school.
• The principal should include information regarding the incorporation of these directives into board reports and as a standing agenda item for board meetings.
• Develop management based policies that further ‘tease out’ the directives of the board - perhaps into more manageable units that can be enacted by the staff.
• The principal and executive staff must lead the school in the establishment of the pattern of behaviours that will result in the cultural change that is required. Leading by example is an absolute.
• Succession plans must also include the required behaviours so that if the principal moves on, the next principal will continue with the ongoing requirements to keep the change within the culture.
• Develop suitable and effective professional development programs for ALL staff to ensure that the policies, procedures, obligations, responsibilities, accountabilities and behaviours are made totally crystal clear.
• Involve the parent community and the wider local community through the Parents and Friend’s (P&F) Association through the attendance of meetings, presentation of the vision, mission and ethos and the policies and procedures that will direct and guide behavioural change.
• Publish updates and statements on the school internet page and intranet.
• Publish articles in the school newsletter.
• Provide constant reminders at school assemblies, orientation days, special events, celebratory events etc. Celebrate the successes!
• Include clear statements in the Code of Conduct for all staff.
• Make changes to the enrolment policy, procedures, interviews and the actual enrolment contract that mak the position of the school and the obligations of the parents totally clear.
• Ensure that the preferred culture has some form of reward base - either intrinsic or extrinsic. Reward is a far better vehicle to inculcate cultural change rather than punishment.
• Allocate time within the curriculum to ensure that the message is taken to the children.

Constant communication and repetition of the school's position on a culture of awareness is one key to ensure that all the above actions succeed. In the next article, Craig will examine the actions the other members of a school community can take to develop a culture of awareness.