Developing a Thriving School Culture and Engaged Community

Creating a positive culture with fresh ideas and practices inside and outside the classroom is highly essential in a happy school.  Stability, connectivity, and consistency has to be established with accurate monitoring and evaluation procedures of all best practices implemented to measure progress and improvement. The culture embedded should be visible in every aspect of school life.

To sustain a learning culture, Schools in Sharjah should first establish practices with expectations that include shared responsibility for the outcomes. Making everyone feel that their contribution is as important as anyone else is highly essential. Student safety and inclusion occupies a very important place in a thriving school, with all stakeholders participating and involving in safety activities that build positive relationships and togetherness.  To promote inclusiveness, schools should motivate talented learners and struggling learners of the same classroom and manage the workload of educators so that they spend more time with individual learners.

School leaders and teachers should work on the instructional practices and assessments with goals and targets set, that can help students to develop independent learning skills, ability to assess their strengths, weakness and take onus for their progress.

As an ongoing part of the school culture, building connectedness with parents and different organizations shall extend learning among the student community and make them nurture their competency skills. Having well-structured parent body with a plan of action will enable the school to progress in many ways.

Involving students in well-being and sustainable projects will develop their life skills and understanding of the needs of society and prepare them for the world of work. They will face challenges with grit and perseverance. Research has clearly shown that parental involvement in school activities has a positive influence on educational outcomes.

To enhance quality connections with parents, schools should seek focused parental input, especially when making important decisions, use social media to report positive school highlights, create a webpage link with important parent topics and ensure that schoolwide improvements are shared with the community. Schools should appreciate critical feedback from parents every term/month considering it as an opportunity to improve.

As a part of the school culture, a library of video can be developed with student and parent testimonials on outstanding teachers, classroom teaching, and school activities. The school can also have video content resource on community involvement activities, professional development, and public relations, etc.

ASPAM IIS, the reputed Sharjah International School, creates a culture of learning, kindness, innovation, and connectedness by developing trusting relationships with all stakeholders, create opportunities for collaborative activities and nurture the habit of working as a team. To improve student achievement, our school creates a culture that promotes and encourages learning and has strong connections with the parent community.