Schools have many valuable assets and all of them require careful protection and management, however, some get more focus than others.
How much consideration and resources do you give to your school’s reputation in your community? It has taken a long time for the accounting profession to recognise a company’s brand as an asset. Perhaps ironically, it was 1990’s Enron accounting scandal and the destruction of Athur Anderson’s brand through its breach of public trust that demonstrated just how valuable a trusted brand is, and how quickly a breach of public trust can destroy it.
Trust is also an essential part of a school’s success, and like the century-old global accounting firm, it can take a long time to build and a short time to damage. A school’s reputation in the community is rarely static. Schools have an annual influx and exiting of families from the cohort bringing an adjustment in the cohorts’ influence and reputation in the broader community. This can often influence future enrolment patterns more than anything that happens inside the school fence.
Obviously, schools should focus on the care and education of the children in their care, however, they should never take for granted the trust placed in them by all their stakeholders – parents, students, and staff. People want to trust, but trust needs to be earned, and trust broken is rarely repaired. With so many human interactions every school day, trust is continuously tested between individuals. Collectively, trust will be strongly influenced by culture.
Culture in this context has nothing to do with demographics or genetics – culture is the water the fish swims in. It is the interpersonal environment the teachers work in, the students grow in and learn in, it is what families participate in – it is ‘the vibe’. A culture of trust is the ideal, but it must be nurtured. It starts at the top and must be given time to develop. Trust cannot be forced – it must be earnt.
There are small markers of trust occurring every day in you school, people seeking shared understanding, the absence of politics among adults, or peer pressure among children. Trust in others to perform their role, teachers to teach, students to learn, families to nurture. It is that crucial and important journey of moving from stranger to known, known to understood, understood to respected, respected to trusted.
How trusted is your school inside the school fence and in the community? Unfortunately, few schools monitor trust or nurture it adequately until it is in need of repair. Schools should proactively and genuinely nurture a culture of trust – starting with caring enough to monitor it.