Implement: School Structure
- A school organised around values is a place in which all elements of school life explicitly and implicitly articulate values. The values should permeate and inform the organisation and structure of the school. They become 'the cultural architecture' designed to order and manage the school's resources, people and activities. This architecture is expressed in the 'archi-facts' of the school, such as:
- Vision and mission statements and strategic plans
- School governance arrangements and articles
- Faculty and department and management structures
- Policies
- Rules and regulations
- Systems for monitoring and recording
- The physical facilities of the school
- Resource management – finance, human resources, time
- Public communications – newsletters, annual reports, website
- Once the school values have been agreed, the task is to explicitly translate them in the archi-facts of the school organisation and to ensure there is consistency and coherence in the way they are embedded into these elements of the school culture. Vision statements, policies and governance arrangements may require major revision. These are significant undertakings and schools from the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project – Stages 1 and 2 often reflected on the need for taking time and supporting the work with open dialogue, audits and building on existing strengths.
- All elements of the school structures should explicitly reflect the shared values language of the school. The Final Report of the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project – Stage 2 asserts that 'establishing, articulating and disseminating a common and shared values language is essential to good practice in values education' and that 'in a values-based school the shared values language comes to inform everything that the school does and says'.
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