School culture

‘A teacher can be effective, efficient, inclusive, and strategic. Still, unless they are professionally kind along with these things, the learners suffer.’ In today’s reader submission, Professor Nan Bahr argues kindness is an essential general trait for all people, but it is also applied expertise for the teacher and should be a professional standard.

In their new book In Teachers We Trust: The Finnish Way to World-Class Schools, Pasi Sahlberg and Timothy D Walker suggest seven key principles for building a culture of trust in schools. This exclusive extract discussing the ‘three levels of trust’ is taken from a chapter on cultivating responsible learners.

A systematic review of research from the past two decades has investigated the link between leadership and learning to analyse how principals affect student learning and overall school culture.

In the annual Teacher survey, we ask readers: 'Looking back on your experiences as an educator, if you could share one piece of advice with your peers what would it be?' Here are some of the responses received on the topic of relationships.