School leaders spend hours refining curriculum plans, assessment systems and improvement strategies.
Yet the culture of a school is often treated as something we simply inherit. The way meetings run, how feedback is given, what behaviour is tolerated in the staffroom and whether people feel safe to speak up are rarely designed with the same rigour as teaching and learning.
But culture underpins everything else. When it is fragile or unclear, even well-intentioned change can feel unsettling, and improvement plans struggle to gain traction. This is not because staff lack commitment, but because the conditions for change are not fully in place.
At Excelsior, we have learned that culture needs to be designed intentionally. That lesson became particularly clear through our work with Green Meadow Primary, where a deliberate focus on culture helped create the foundations for sustained improvement.
A school ready for a reset
When Green Meadow joined the trust, it had experienced a period of leadership change that had affected consistency and confidence.
Staff were working hard, but expectations, communication and ways of working needed greater clarity. Relationships with parents had also become strained, and the school was keen to rebuild trust and move forward together.
Rather than starting with systems alone, leaders made the decision to prioritise culture.
The aim was to create a shared understanding of how the school would work, how people would treat one another, and what behaviours would support both professional confidence and pupil success.
Making the implicit explicit
One of the first steps was a structured staff exercise designed to surface unhelpful behaviours in a safe way.
Staff were asked to imagine what behaviours might undermine a school’s success. This allowed common challenges, such as negativity, poor communication or resistance to change, to be discussed openly, without focusing on individuals.
That conversation then shifted to a more constructive question: what behaviours do we want to define our school?
From there, staff and leaders worked together to create a “culture canvas” that set out shared expectations and agreed ways of working.
Because it was co-created, staff could see their own voice reflected in it, which helped build trust and commitment.
A framework for leadership and accountability
For a relatively new leadership team, the culture canvas became a clear reference point. It offered a consistent way to frame professional conversations, keeping discussions focused on behaviour rather than personality.
This clarity helped leaders support staff through a period of rapid improvement, and provided reassurance that expectations would be applied consistently.
It also gave individuals the opportunity to decide whether the agreed culture felt right for them.
From performance management to professional growth
Alongside this cultural work, Green Meadow reviewed how it supported staff development.
The school moved away from compliance-driven approaches and towards a model centred on professional growth, coaching and psychological safety.
Professional learning became more collaborative. When new teaching approaches were introduced, staff explored evidence together, trialled ideas in practice and shared what they learned.
Coaching became part of everyday professional dialogue, with leaders transparent about the questions they would ask following lesson visits or reviews. This reduced anxiety and built trust.
Listening as a leadership practice
Staff voice played an important role in sustaining momentum. Green Meadow used a wellbeing survey tool as a way to understand how staff were experiencing change, with feedback followed up quickly and in person.
Across the trust, our data shows staff happiness at 7.4 out of 10 - above the national education benchmark of 6.8.
At school level, leaders noticed increased openness, greater willingness to contribute ideas and a growing sense of collective responsibility.
Building momentum
There was no single moment when change was declared complete. Instead, progress felt gradual and cumulative. Parental communication became positive, staff stability improved and confidence grew.
Over time, Green Meadow’s reputation strengthened, and it has become increasingly popular with local families. Parents are regularly invited into school through small-group tours, creating open, personal conversations.
The wider curriculum and enrichment offer has expanded as staff have become more confident and engaged. Visitors often comment on the atmosphere of the school, which leaders see as culture made visible.
What other schools can take from this
Culture change is not a quick fix and cannot be delivered through a checklist.
It requires authenticity, consistency and strong relationships within leadership teams. Leaders must model the behaviours they expect.
Most importantly, culture must be owned by the whole staff. When people understand shared expectations and feel safe to contribute, improvement becomes something done with them, not to them.
At Green Meadow, designing culture deliberately created the conditions for progress - and that lesson now shapes how we approach improvement across the trust.
Jonathan Smart is deputy CEO and director of education at Excelsior Multi-Academy Trust, which runs eight primary schools in the West Midlands
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