How A Coaching Culture Makes A School
Although it often goes ‘unseen’, culture is sensed across an organisation. We have all had the feeling of walking into an organisation and within moments getting a feel for whether there is a good or bad ‘vibe’. Culture is no backdrop - it’s an operating system and an ecosystem.
Within our education establishments, culture shapes the way staff collaborate, how decisions are made, and ultimately, the outcomes for students. But while “school culture” is a familiar phrase, coaching culture is less often discussed, and yet this can be the difference between a thriving school and one where good intentions struggle to take root. We would even go as far as to suggest that it forms the foundation of future education as human interaction and agency that contributes to the wider community become ever more vital.
What Do We Mean by ‘Coaching Culture’?
A coaching culture exists when coaching is not seen as an “add-on” or one-off professional development tool, but is embedded in daily conversations, leadership practice, and decision-making.
Garvey et al. (2018) describe it as “a way of working that empowers individuals to take ownership of their development, supported by shared values of trust, reflection, and continuous learning.”
In practical terms, this means:
Leaders model a coaching mindset in their interactions.
Staff feel empowered to problem-solve, not just escalate issues.
Reflection and feedback are built into the rhythm of school life.
Learners are welcomed to contribute through voice, choice and action.
Why It Matters - And the Risks of Its Absence
Research highlights clear benefits:
Increased teacher retention – Schools with a strong coaching culture report higher levels of staff engagement and lower attrition (Hobson & Malderez, 2013).
Improved teaching practice – Although we would personally argue this is more specifically intertwined with pedagogy, instructional coaching has been linked to significant gains in student achievement, particularly when embedded over time (Kraft, Blazar & Hogan, 2018).
Greater leadership capacity – Leaders who coach build distributed leadership, enabling more adaptive and resilient teams (Knight, 2021).
Conversely, without a coaching culture, schools often experience:
Bottlenecks in decision-making as all issues are escalated to senior leadership.
Low psychological safety, making it harder for staff to share challenges or admit mistakes.
Professional development that feels fragmented and disconnected from daily realities.
A lack of motivation and engagement through a perceived lack of autonomy, relatedness and competence
From Idea to Implementation
It’s one thing to understand the value of coaching culture - it’s another to create it.
Successful implementation primarily requires:
A clear vision – Aligning coaching with the school’s values and strategic goals, crucially, inviting contribution from all stakeholders.
Practical systems – Structures and processes to make coaching regular and accessible, with both internal and external opportunities.
Shared language and practice – Ensuring everyone understands what coaching is and isn’t.
Leadership modelling – Senior leaders consistently demonstrating a coaching mindset.
As Joyce and Showers (2002) note, “transfer of training to practice occurs only when ongoing coaching accompanies initial learning.” So it needs to be done from the off and across all layers.
The Next Step: Building Your Coaching Culture
This is where our Building a Coaching Culture: Master Workshop Series comes in.
Attempting to embed a coaching culture without support often leads to well-meaning but fragmented initiatives - a new coaching protocol here, a one-off training session there, without the strategic alignment, follow-up, or shared ownership needed to make it stick. Repeatedly we see transformative coaching interventions that we run we leaders being the starting point and the leaders developing from this modelling to build it into their cultures. Without our input, at times common pitfalls occur.
Common pitfalls include:
Lack of a unifying vision - Staff aren’t sure why coaching is happening or how it links to the school’s goals.
Inconsistent practice - Without clear systems, coaching becomes dependent on individual enthusiasm rather than organisational habit.
Isolated champions - A few leaders drive the change, but without a wider network, momentum fades.
Our workshop series is designed to overcome these challenges by:
Guiding you to design a coaching framework tailored to your school’s specific context and priorities.
Equipping you with practical tools and processes that ensure consistency and longevity.
Providing peer collaboration and challenge from other leaders navigating the same journey outside of your setting.
Supporting you to lead cultural change with confidence and measure its impact over time.
Across three interactive sessions, you’ll springboard from whatever point you are at with your organisational culture with the understanding and frameworks to create the systems, skills, and shared language needed to make coaching part of your school’s DNA.
Workshop 1 begins Wednesday 24th September 2025. We have specifically limited spaces to ensure that discussion is deep and meaningful and all leaders create practical solutions regardless of their context.