Week 26 - My Professional Community

According to Stoll (1998), 'school culture is defined as three dimensions, relationships among the members, the structure of the organisation including the physical environment and the management system and the learning nature.'

Stoll (1998) also says identifying and understanding what our current school culture looks like, feels like and how it influences our collective behaviours is the starting point for improving our school environment. The history of the school from initiation through to this point in time has shaped the impression we, as staff, and we, as a community feel towards the environment. We are constantly reminded of socio-economic backgrounds contributing to our school community and the expected behaviours, successes and influences these play on our learners. National policies to education, health and housing contribute to our school culture and the support we receive to deliver effective learning programmes. Our school has been, and continues to be the back bone of the community and changes in our contributing clientele remains cyclic.

A key challenge we are currently facing, as are many Christchurch schools, is the forecast of rebuilding our physical buildings and rebuilding to meet Modern Learning Practices. The challenge in reality is to the staff philosophies. We as a staff are involved in discussions around trends in education and how these may impact on our culture, our community and how to manage these.

My professional community is currently in discussions around how Modern Learning Environments operate and what support is needed for school staff to understand them, parent information sharing, student competencies development and learning opportunities. We are strong believers in everyone having strengths and having something to offer in this process. Participating in discussions and professional development to support and encourage our students learning and questioning our philosophies, cultures and understanding is important. We are also developing collaborative teaching and learning experiences in a basic and fundamental level. This continues to be an area of development and with the continued help from Grow Waitaha, we will build an evolved idea of our school values in partnership. 

It is important to note the MacNeil, Prater and Busch (2009) state that strong school cultures have better motivated teachers. Highly motivated teachers have greater success in terms of student performance and student outcomes. School principals seeking to improve student performance should focus on improving the school's culture by getting the relationships right between themselves, their teachers, students and parents. p.77



References:

MacNeil, Angus J.; Prater, Doris L.; Busch, Steve (2009). The Effects of School Culture and Climate on Student Achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education, v12 n1 p73-84 Jan 2009

from http://donnieholland.wiki.westga.edu/file/view/school%20culture%20climate%20%26%20achievement.pdf

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from: http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture