3 June 2026·7 min read·For principal, teacher
The Tuesday test
If you want to know whether a school is healthy, do not look at the prospectus. Walk the corridor at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon when no one is performing. Listen to how staff speak to one another, how teachers speak to students, how students speak when no adult is watching.
Three markers
In our work across Kenyan schools we look for three quiet markers. Staff disagree out loud without fear. Mistakes are surfaced before they become incidents. New teachers are mentored, not abandoned.
Where these three exist, results follow. Where they do not, no exam strategy will save you.
The principal's job
Culture is not delegated. It is set by what the principal tolerates in the staffroom. The first cynical comment a head ignores is the moment culture begins to drift.
cultureleadershipstaff-wellbeing