Internal Culture

The internal culture of the school can best be described as the schools ethos. This ethos can help to drive a culture of Great Learning. If a school has high expectations and a focus on learning, then Great Learning is supported. For example, Danube aims to foster a growth mindset within all of its learners. This means that high expectations of both effort and personalised achievement are set by the school and qualities such as resilience, hard work, commitment and flexibility become an intrinsic part of the internal culture of the school.

If however a school places an extreme emphasis on creating a competitive culture where achievement is the only outcome that is valued, then Great Learning is at risk. For example, if a school aims for a competitive focus on a particular sport (e.g. ice hockey) and the whole week is geared towards the next game, then it cannot be expected that all students will have a focus on learning. Furthermore, students not involved in the sport may have a much reduced expectation of themselves and their learning journey.