By HEADMASTER MICHAEL PARKER

One of my very favourite quotes is from author and educator Peter Drucker: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. It is particularly important when you are making the decision about whether to put the final polish on page 34 of the Strategic Plan or go out onto the drive and talk to two dozen students.

The culture here is something we live and breathe each day. It is something that we can be intentional about but really occurs through the moments that we catch on the driveway, on the space frame, in the classes and at the cafeteria.   

At Newington, our culture is deliberate, explicit and, we hope, enduring. Our three key words for our culture are ‘vibrant, caring and courageous’.  

By vibrant, we mean full of excitement and potential. Our culture means diversity and difference. It means there is always something new, fascinating and thoughtful happening. Every class offers something to build with, something to try out or something to learn.  

Caring means more than superficially asking how someone is. It means being aware of others. It means realising each person is of equal importance. It means sharing in, being interested in, or accepting the interests of others. It means seeing the worth of each person, regardless of their achievements, both within and outside our College.  

And then there’s courage.  

Courage is standing up for what is right and ethical, even when it feels countercultural. Courage is playing your part in a school society that is based on values, ethics and depth, not popularity, surface and venality. Sometimes, courage will mean being an ‘upstander’ instead of a ‘bystander’. Courage is examining ourselves and making a commitment to being the best version of ourselves, even if we are confronted with things we don’t like, in the process.  

Although these particular words were only chosen five years ago (you can read more in the current Strategic Plan) they have deep roots in our heritage, our Wesleyan Uniting Church genesis, our vision and our values. Our Wyvern, with its Great Hearts, Inspired Minds, Strong Wings and Firms Foundations lays it out plainly too.   

But what does it take to make a culture succeed? How does ‘culture’ become more than words and wishes? How do we make it live, breathe and evolve?  

The first is belief. Culture cannot grow from vision or values people do not believe in and support.  

The second is communication. Culture flourishes in environments where people openly talk about and strive to embody those core beliefs.  

The third is decentralisation. Culture cannot be dictated by one or two people at the top. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes hundreds of people to raise a school community.   

The fourth is behaviour. Culture is what people do, both when they are being seen … and when no one is watching. A strong culture is unbroken by stress and evolves with resilience in the face of change.  

And finally, culture grows from evidence. When you see kindness or curiosity or compassion in action, then see it again, you get a pretty good sense of what kind of culture underpins it.  

*This piece on Newington College’s culture by our Headmaster appears in the current issue of our school magazine, The NC. You can read this issue and more here.