I was asked recently how you create a school’s culture. My answer was simple: you can’t create culture directly. You can only create the conditions that let it grow. The success of a school’s culture depends on many things, but mainly whether everyone actually lives the values rather than just talking about them. Why? Because really, a school’s culture is just its values in action.
So what does this look like in practice?
Recent research gives us some clues. ISC Research, a provider of data and intelligence on international schools worldwide, just released their findings on well-being in schools. The research looked at international schools from Kenya to Germany, from Romania to the UAE, examining what actually works for students and staff. Their findings make two things absolutely clear:
- Well-being isn’t something you bolt onto a school day. It’s woven into everything, or it doesn’t exist at all.
- You cannot separate student well-being from staff well-being. When teachers are stressed and running on empty, children feel it in every interaction. When adults are genuinely supported and thriving, it transforms your child’s entire school experience.
Everyday Experiences
Think about tomorrow morning. Your child walks into school and their teacher greets them warmly, actually seeing them rather than going through the motions. They notice your child seems a bit quiet and check in gently. At break time, there’s a falling out with a friend. An adult helps them work through it with real patience and understanding, not just “sort it out yourselves.” In the afternoon, they’re struggling with something tricky in class. Their teacher responds with encouragement and clear support, not frustration or impatience.
These moments build up. They’re not dramatic. Nobody’s going to come home and tell you about them. But they create your child’s experience of what school feels like. Whether it’s a place where they feel seen, safe, and able to grow, or whether it’s somewhere they just ‘get through’…
The ISC research found that 94% of international school staff are proud of the work they do. And that pride matters. It surfaces in how they greet your child each morning, how they handle the inevitable challenges of a school day, how much energy they bring to teaching and how much they ‘go the extra mile’.
We’re so fortunate here at Bangkok Patana to have so many incredible and incredibly dedicated teachers and support staff who encapsulate the very best of what the research is illuminating, live our shared Values and repeatedly go that extra mile for your children. And we are, quite rightfully, very proud of that.
Our Values in Action
So how do our values create the conditions for a thriving school culture? As you will hopefully have noticed by now, our Primary School Values aren’t decorative. They’re what well-being looks like when it’s actually happening:
- Safe means your child has adults around them who are emotionally present and regulated. They handle difficult moments with calm. Your child learns it’s okay to make mistakes, to try things they’re not sure about, to ask questions that might sound ‘silly’. That psychological safety is what lets real learning happen. Without it, children spend their energy managing anxiety rather than exploring ideas.
The research is clear on this: teacher well-being directly impacts student learning. When staff feel safe themselves, supported by leadership, trusted to do their jobs properly, that security cascades down to children.
- Curious means teachers who genuinely want to understand your child as an individual. What gets them excited? What shuts them down? How do they learn best? Teachers who stay curious themselves, who keep learning and growing, model this constantly for children. Your child learns that questions have value, that wondering about things matters, that everyone’s still figuring stuff out.
You’ll see this when your child comes home buzzing about something they’ve been exploring. Or when they tell you their teacher connected something they’re interested in to what they’re learning in class. It’s curiosity in action.
- Kind is what holds everything together. Your child experiences real kindness daily, not as a special occasion but as the baseline. They see adults being patient with each other and extending that same patience to them. They learn that everyone deserves compassion. They understand that asking for help is actually brave. And they realise that ‘community’ isn’t just a word.
This shapes how they treat their friends, how they handle conflicts, how they think about people who are different from them, and so much more. The ISC research found that schools embedding kindness into their culture see children develop genuine resilience; not just the ability to push through, but the capacity to stay human while doing it.
What Matters Most
The fact is, your child will probably forget most of what they learn in Year 3 maths (sorry Year 3 teachers!). But they’ll remember how their teacher made them feel when they got stuck. They’ll most likely forget who won sports day or what place they came in the relay race. But they’ll remember whether their teammates cheered them on when they stumbled…
Well-being isn’t the soft stuff that gets in the way of real learning. It’s the foundation that makes everything else possible.
Maya Angelou said it perfectly:
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Note: You can read the ISC report here.
