"How Did You Get On?"

"How did you get on?" is a frequently asked question.  It is routinely asked of pupils and staff returning from matches. The information that this innocuous enquiry requests reveals a lot about the culture of sport in a school, and the nature of what the organisation values.

If the answer to this question is always a sequence of scores and numbers, winning and losing are clearly the principal programme drivers.  Perhaps they are the obvious responses, as they certainly would be in professional sport. Possibly, they are the default responses in the absence of other identified success criteria.

Is the numerical response inevitable?  How else could the question be answered? 

What if the first reaction of returning staff and pupils was, "We had a fantastic game today."  It might be followed up with a set of scores, or it might prompt further qualitative comments.  For example, "Mary Smith scored an unbelievable goal", "Sam Jones scored his first ever try", "The whole team worked incredibly hard in defence", "There is a fantastic spirit in this team."

All of these indicate a culture that values qualities in addition to winning.  Creativity, moments of magic, endeavour, persistence.  Significantly, none of these features is ability dependent. They are within the control of all teams. Victory is a zero sum game that can only be achieved by one team in a contest.  Participation goals might be met every week.

What, then, determines the cultural values of sport in a school?  Most significant are the staff.  What they encourage, reinforce and reward will be the features to which pupils will aspire.  If creative play and well-judged risk taking are applauded, that is what children will seek to produce.  If the aim is error free performance with an emphasis on competitive results, that will be evident from pupils' performance.

A culture is a known set of values that permeate an organisation.  Those values therefore need to be well known, widely articulated and consistently applied.  Test it out: ask pupils  parents, staff and opposing schools what values they associate with sport in your school.  If they all come up with the same answer (whatever that answer happens to be) then there is a powerful culture and strong set of values.  If different answers emerge, then cultural identity is weak.

Without clarity of purpose, each teachers sets her own values.  This can result in a confusing message for children.  If some staff shout, berate and focus on performance, whereas others encourage and focus on endeavour, the goal posts are frequently moving.  The default success criteria will be those of Sky Sports News, and sport in adult society: who has won, and what are the numbers. If a school values qualities other than, or as well as, these, it needs to clearly articulate them to its staff, pupils and parents.  But it needs to be a consistent message.  Consistent between age groups, sexes and sports.

The starting point for leadership of sport in a school is to establish the success criteria, and to clearly define the culture that is valued.  Then to ensure that all teachers, and all activities, consistently reflect this.  That children have clarity and security in knowing what behaviours are going to be applauded, and which will be discouraged.  And to know that these are within their control. Attitudes to competitive success, responses to error, exhibition of personal qualities such as determination and persistence, dealing with disappointment will all be features of this value system. 

Ask a visitor to your school: "If you walk down our corridors, look at our notice boards, watch our staff coaching and our teams playing, is it clear what this organisation values?"  If the answers are clear and consistent, then the culture is strong: if not, maybe it's time to work out what is important and make sure everyone knows.