The Duston School’s Principal Sam Strickland spoke to more than 150 senior leaders last month about creating positive cultures in schools.

 

Sam, who is one of the country’s leading authors and voices on behaviour in schools, gave the keynote talk at Alban Teaching School Hub’s annual conference at the University of Hertfordshire.

 

Teaching School Hubs are centres of excellence for teacher development and are funded by the Department for Education.

 

In his keynote, Sam urged leaders to define their schools’ culture, rules, mission statement, values and ethos and to “say them, mean them and them through on them”.

 

He said the key to a positive school culture was having visible leaders, a clear school culture, high expectations, strong support for pupils, an inclusive approach, consistency, placing wellbeing and workload at the heart of the school and removing barriers to learning.

 

“It’s essential that school leaders know precisely what culture they want to create,” he said. “They must carefully consider how to communicate expectations of pupils’ behaviour. As leaders, we need to teach routines and classroom expectations until they become habitual.”

 

One of the conference’s organisers said: “Sam ensured colleagues at all career stages work together to achieve the best outcomes for learners. His ability to weave excellent strategies, from the nuts and bolts of behaviour management to more subtle approaches, provides a superb toolkit for everyone in the classrooms and school.”

 

The Duston School is part of Luminara Education Trust.