I find it peculiarly ironic that institutions devoted so passionately to the development of young minds can, all too easily, lose sight of the conditions that nurture the adults who run the place. We rightly worry about the mental health of our pupils, but the emotional climate for the grown-ups — teachers, leaders, support staff — is sometimes considered an afterthought. Something to think about during Wellbeing Week. And yet, if we want schools where children thrive, we must first pay attention to the ecosystems in which the adults grow.
A healthy school is not merely one that performs well on paper. Nor is it defined by glossy prospectuses or glowing inspection reports. True health, like character, is revealed in the nooks and crannies of the place: in conversations, in interactions, in the choices about what is praised, permitted, and prioritised.
So what does good look like?
Here are ten signs you’re in a school where care, clarity, and coherence prevail — signs that you are in a place that cares about you.
1. Integrity Is Lived, Not Laminated
In a healthy school, people understand that we can all improve — not because we are bad at what we do, but because we can always get better. Staff can surface concerns and own their missteps as professionals without fear or reprimand. No one ever loses: they either win or learn.
Integrity, here, isn’t just laminated on a wall; it’s the virtue of doing the right thing even when no one is watching. It’s a culture where candour — the ability to tell truths with genuine care — is met with curiosity, not defensiveness. Where relational trust is not an add-on, but the foundation on which great schools are built.
But trust and candour must be mutual. They flow not just from leader to team, but back again, and sideways too: a whole-school ecology of integrity.
2. Feedback Is a Dialogue, Not a Diagnosis
In a healthy school, development is not left to chance, nor is it driven solely by appraisal paperwork or performance ratings. Just as great teaching involves helping pupils understand where they are, where they need to be, and how to get there, so too does great professional learning.
The same clarity that underpins effective classroom practice must extend to staff development. Feedback here is not a top-down judgement but a two-way current of insight and reflection.
Coaching, in this context, becomes a strategy — a means of generating the conditions in which people can think well, feel valued, and grow, one purposeful conversation at a time. Leaders in these schools do not seek feedback merely to evaluate others, but to develop themselves. Because in cultures of integrity, everyone is still learning.
3. Meetings Are Focused and Generative
You can tell a great deal about a school by its meetings — not because of what is said in them, but because of what they reveal about what the school values.
In healthy schools, meetings are not compliance checkpoints. They are purposeful, well-chaired, and above all, respectful of everyone’s time and energy. They begin with the end in mind, and they finish on time.
Agendas are clear, not cluttered. The focus is on the few things that matter, not the many that don’t. There’s room for strategic reflection, not just operational noise. The best meetings — and especially the best line management conversations — combine structure with responsiveness. They don’t just account for what has happened; they look ahead. They clarify, unblock, and energise.
The most fruitful conversations are those where expectations are clear, support is offered, and professional trust is visible. Good leaders ask not just “Have you done it?” but “What’s getting in the way?” and “How can I help?” They use the conversation not to check up, but to check in.
4. The Ethos Lives in the Interactions
In unhealthy schools, values reside on the walls — framed, polished, and largely ignored. In healthy schools, values are not broadcast; they’re embodied.
Authenticity, that elusive and overclaimed virtue, cannot simply be declared. You see it not in the headteacher’s address, but in how they speak about colleagues behind closed doors. You see it in the tone of emails, the tenor of corridor conversations, and in how conflicts among adults are resolved when no one’s keeping score or getting even.
Authenticity also manifests in how parents feel about the school, not because of marketing, but because of trust. They trust that decisions are made with integrity and expertise, not expediency. In such schools, professionalism is not policed — it is presumed.
5. Boundaries Are Respected, Not Breached
In healthy schools, hard work is expected, not glorified. There’s no virtue in exhaustion. No unspoken competition to be the last car in the car park.
We often hear the oil rig analogy: the implication being that workingin a school is, by nature, so gruelling that burnout is inevitabl, but tolerable, because we get the school holidays to recover. But this is a flawed and dangerous metaphor. It accepts exhaustion as a structural feature of the job rather than a sign that something is very wrong.
In schools that respect boundaries, calendars are coherent and initiatives are focused. Leaders don’t just talk about wellbeing, they act on it. They model restraint, not just resilience. They are stewards of time, not thieves of it.
And ironically, it is in these schools — the ones that resist the fetish of overwork — that discretionary effort most often appears. Not because it’s expected, but because people feel safe, seen, and supported enough to give their best.
Healthy schools don’t manage burnout. They prevent it.
6. Professional Learning Is Co-Constructed
In healthy schools, professional learning isn’t done to staff, it’s done with them. It’s not a series of disconnected training days or one-off speakers; it’s a sustained, deliberate, and thoughtfully sequenced journey. The best ideas often come from within, from teachers refining their craft together.
The evidence base for what makes professional development effective is now robust and growing: impact lies in depth, not dazzle; and in carefully chosen content, embedded over time, with expert facilitation. It focuses on granular, incremental improvement rather than flashy, wholesale reinvention.
In this model, development is not an add-on, it’s integral to the rhythm of the week. Feedback loops are short. Goals are clear. The process is structured, but not rigid.
In such cultures, CPD is not about chasing novelty or plugging gaps. It’s about refining the fundamentals. Honing what works. And doing so in community, through conversation, collaboration, and coaching.
7. Leadership Is a Quality, Not a Title
In healthy schools, leadership isn’t something you’re given, it’s something you show. There is no cult of the charismatic leader (as we explored in Beware the Octopus Head), nor a reliance on a few heroic figures at the top. Instead, there is a shared understanding that leadership is about creating the conditions in which others can thrive.
Humility is the hallmark of greatness, and in the healthiest schools, it is abundant, though rarely announced. Those who lead well do so by lifting others, not by elevating themselves. They are less concerned with being impressive, and more concerned with being useful.
You see this ethos in the teacher who mentors a new colleague without being required to. In the head of department who shares mistakes as well as successes. In the support staff member whose calm presence steadies a situation before it escalates. None of these acts require formal authority, but all of them exercise leadership, anchored in integrity.
8. Students Are Known, Not Just Measured
Yes, data matters. As deputy head I spent a lot of time designing systems to track student performance, not because children can be reduced to numbers, but because the right data, rightly interpreted, helps us ask better questions.
In healthy schools, data doesn’t dictate. It illuminates and invites curiosity: Why is this pupil thriving here but not there? What story might lie behind this pattern? What support might unlock something new? In this sense, leadership is less about finding answers and more about framing the questions that matter.
Professional judgement isn’t replaced by metrics, it’s refined by them. Because behind every grade is a name, and behind every name, a narrative. Healthy schools honour both.
9. Middle Leaders Are Supported, Not Squeezed
Middle leaders set the tone in departments, shape the rhythms of routines, and carry the trust of their teams. But too often, we ask them to win a race with their legs tied together.
In healthy schools, middle leaders are supported to lead well, through purposeful coaching, clear priorities, and stable systems that allow them to focus on the work that matters. They’re helped to lead instructionally, not just administratively: to guide the how, not merely approve the what.
Middle leaders are pivotal to turning strategy into reality, especially in teaching and learning. But for them to do so effectively, schools must invest in their development with the same seriousness they invest in systems and results.
And crucially, middle leaders need space to think, to reflect, and to plan. That only happens when senior leaders offer not just challenge, but clarity; not just expectations, but empathy.
10. There Is Joy
In healthy schools, joy is not measured in photographs of smiling children on the website or Instagram feed. Joy is found in children who come to school gladly and look forward to the day ahead, not with dread, but with a sense of safety, curiosity, and possibility.
It’s found in the texture of friendships, not in exclusive cliques that reward conformity, but in supportive, expansive circles where young people can be themselves.
In these schools, joy doesn’t require children to perform an archetype of success or popularity. They don’t need to become someone different to belong. They’re allowed to be awkward, eccentric, uncertain, difficult… and still fully part of the community.
And for staff too, joy is not performative. It’s not the forced cheer of jazz hands and toxic positivity, but the warmth of genuine collegiality. Joy, in this sense, is a diagnostic: a vital sign of emotional wellbeing, trust, and alignment.
Of course, no school gets all ten right all the time. But if we are to build cultures that truly serve both staff and students, then these are the signals we must pay attention to, not just our inspection outcomes or league table rankings, but the quality of our daily encounters.
One way to think about it is this: schools become what they pay attention to.
If any of this has resonated, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. My work involves facilitating sessions that allow middle and senior leaders the space to think and grow.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
— Peter Drucker
References and Further Reading
Ambition Institute. (2020). What makes effective professional development? [online] Available at: https://www.ambition.org.uk [Accessed 6 May 2025].
Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). (2021). Effective Professional Development. [online] Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk [Accessed 6 May 2025].
Sutton Trust. (2015). Developing Teachers: Improving Professional Development for Teachers. [online] Available at: https://www.suttontrust.com [Accessed 6 May 2025].
Teacher Development Trust (TDT). (2015). Developing Great Teaching: Lessons from the International Reviews into Effective Professional Development. London: TDT. [online] Available at: https://tdtrust.org [Accessed 6 May 2025].
Steplab. (2023). Instructional Coaching and Professional Development Tools. [online] Available at: https://steplab.co [Accessed 6 May 2025].
Starr, J. (2021). The Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to the Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching (5th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
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