I call moments where your culture can really be seen ‘cultural touch points’, and many of these happen naturally during the course of the year:

• New team members joining
• Existing team members leaving
• The end of a term
• The start of a term
• Exams starting
• Exam results coming out

These are generic ones, but there will be more and there will be ones specific to your school.

The question is, do you use them as cultural touch points, moments to reinforce your culture, or not? Here’s how you might: 

• New team members joining – a welcome card, a welcome pack 
• Existing team members leaving – a leaving gift and card is nice and usually happens, could you go a step further and put together some photo memories of their time in the school?
• The end of a term – always a good excuse for cake! Sometimes maybe something more bubbly!
• The start of a term – something that will help your team with the term ahead, maybe a resource, or SLT covering the class for an hour or afternoon.
• Exams starting – a meaningful quote in the staff room that will resonate with your culture and team.
• Exam results coming out – a message to your team, sharing your thoughts on results day either before or after results.

Not all of these ideas will be viable for you or support your culture, but hopefully they’ll stimulate other ideas. You can get creative, but always make sure it’s reflecting your culture and it’s something that is viable for you to do – an idea that you start with your team but don’t see through is worse than not doing it all!