MLS Jan 2018 Local Attachment MLS local report final | Page 30

Back in school, the school leaders and KPs do focus their effort on culture building. Time is set aside for the teachers to meet with the SLs to have one- to-one conversations for the SL to find out how each officer is doing and know more about their aspirations. There are staff engagement sessions put in place where the staff bond through games and having meals together. There are also semestral staff retreats where the staff go through re- envisioning exercises to make sure the staff resonate with the school vision and mission. Although there are platforms in place, the staff satisfaction rating in some of our schools are not at a good level. The question is as an ExCo team, what can we do better to improve the culture of the school? As we all know the culture of the school will have a great impact on the behaviour of the staff so once the culture is improved, many aspects of the school system will improve. How are we going to strike a balance between the school needs and the needs of the teachers? Through our discussion, we agree it is difficult to have a ‘one size fits all’ method to improve on culture building however we do have to continue to learn how other organisations try to improve the culture of their company and look at the effectiveness of them. From there, we can understand the strengths of the staff in our organisation and create a culture that the school can work towards, celebrating small successes along the way. Culture is an element that can evolve along the way in an organisation and as an ExCo team we must be aware of this and refine our processes along the way. 29