For this week’s View from the Top, we’ve handed over to Dr Clare Ives, head of The Leys. Dr Ives took over the top spot in September 2025, and below she explains why in the early months of a headship, leadership should be reframed as stewardship so a school’s culture can be truly understood and nurtured.
Arriving as a new head at The Leys School in September 2025, I was conscious that leadership begins not with change, but with attention. Shaping the future depends on first understanding the present, particularly when a school’s existing culture is one of its greatest strengths.
School culture is often described in abstract terms, yet its reality is tangible and lived. It is evident in how pupils speak to one another, how staff and students relate across classrooms, corridors, and boarding houses, and in the emotional tone of daily school life. Research consistently shows that culture is not created by policy or proclamation, but through accumulated everyday interactions and shared assumptions.
What has struck me most powerfully at The Leys is the openness and kindness of our pupils. There is a generosity of spirit in their interactions, and a readiness to engage with adults that is notably free from the cynicism sometimes associated with adolescence. Pupils are thoughtful, courteous, and genuinely at ease in the presence of staff. This reflects something deeper than good behaviour: it speaks to trust.
Equally striking are the strength and warmth of staff–pupil relationships which are characterised by mutual respect and care. Research into effective school cultures shows that wellbeing and flourishing are most strongly supported where high expectations are held within relationships that feel both secure and humane. It is no coincidence that our recent inspection recognised school culture as a significant strength; such commendations are rarely awarded and point to something exceptional that must be handled with care.
This is why, as a new head, I am attentive to the possibility of unintended consequences. Change is necessary in any living institution, but research into school improvement warns that poorly understood change can erode precisely those features that work best. Culture is often invisible to those within it; it is simply “how things are done.” Yet that normality is fragile.
I see my role not as reshaping culture, but as nurturing it: understanding its roots, protecting its moral centre, and allowing it to evolve thoughtfully as the community grows. Leadership, in this sense, is stewardship. If culture is the soil in which learning and belonging take root, then my first responsibility is to tend that soil with care, humility, and respect.