School Climate & Culture

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) helps schools develop a positive and inclusive social culture that supports learning.

A school’s culture consists of the customs, rituals, and stories that are evident and valued throughout the whole school. An effective school culture is one in which the customs and values foster success for all; and where clear boundaries are set, known, and agreed to by everyone. In developing a positive culture, effective principals ensure that educational practices are inclusive. They make certain that students and their families do not feel alienated either from their own culture or from the culture of the school.

Culture in Kiwi Leadership for Principals

Information and support for understanding school cultures can be found on the Educational Leaders website.

School Climate and Wellbeing@School (W@S)

The Wellbeing@School website provides tools and resources to help schools review and improve the strategies they have in place to provide a safe and caring school climate. The term “school climate” is usually used to describe people’s subjective experiences of school life. Where school culture can be thought of as “the way things are done around here”, school climate is about “the way people feel around here”. Understanding school climate is a key part of building a new school culture. W@S provides student and staff surveys, along with resources to support to help schools gather information about the social climate at their school. This data can help schools to identify ways of building a safe and caring climate. The W@S website provides survey tools for students, teachers and school leaders along with information and resources to support effective self-review of school climate.

For introductory information and videos on W@S, visit the W@S resources page.

A literature review published on the New Zealand Council for Educational Research website has more information to help schools and the sector build their knowledge of the evidence behind building a safe and caring school climate that deters bullying. For further detail on the W@S surveys and related literature visit the Wellbeing@School website.

Other data gathering tools

• Teaching for Positive Behaviour Self Assessment Tool  
• Inclusive Practices Survey Toolkit  
• Effective Behaviour Support self-assessment survey (New Zealand)