Start here · 60–90 minutes

The Cultural Assumptions Audit

Perhaps the most useful hour a leadership team can spend. A facilitated workshop in which your team puts its own expectations on the table and asks one question of each of them.

Are these universal expectations — or culturally specific ones?

Book the audit
  • We expect parents to contact teachers directly.
  • We expect students to ask questions.
  • We expect staff to challenge ideas in meetings.
  • We expect families to attend information evenings.
  • We expect students to demonstrate independence.

The program suite

01 — 06

01

Whole-staff workshop

Audience
All staff
Format
90 minutes – 2 hours
Best for
Staff meetings, professional learning days, conference sessions

Cultural Curiosity for Educators

A practical introduction to working across cultural difference.

The entry point. Participants look at what culture actually is — and isn't — and why cultural difference creates friction in relationships where everybody means well.

“What if the behaviour I'm interpreting isn't the behaviour that's actually happening?”

  • Cultural curiosity vs cultural assumptions
  • Communication: explicit and contextual
  • Feedback: direct and indirect
  • Authority, trust and relationship
  • Decision-making and time
  • Different expectations of schooling

Move beyond cultural awareness to practical cultural curiosity.

Enquire about this program

02

Leadership program

Audience
Principals, executive teams, heads of school, middle leaders
Format
Half-day or full-day
Best for
Leadership teams ready to examine their own defaults

Leading Across Cultures

Building culturally intelligent school leadership.

A flagship program built on the eight dimensions. Eight modules take a leadership team through the culture of their own school before anyone talks about anybody else's.

“What does our leadership team need to do differently?”

  • The culture of our school
  • Communication and what 'clear' means
  • Authority: who speaks, decides, challenges
  • Trust: competence or relationship
  • Feedback and disagreement
  • Decision-making: consultative or leader-led
  • Difficult conversations
  • The adaptation challenge

Every leader leaves with a Personal Cultural Leadership Adaptation Plan — not a set of slides.

Enquire about this program

03

Specialist program

Audience
Teachers, year-level leaders, wellbeing and enrolment teams, family engagement staff, principals
Format
Half-day or full-day
Best for
Schools whose engagement data doesn't match their effort

Culturally Responsive Family Engagement

When families don't respond: the cultural dynamics of parent–school relationships.

Participants bring three real parent–school interactions that didn't go as expected, run each through Pause → Notice → Question → Explore → Adapt, and redesign them before they leave.

“What might our school be assuming about engagement?”

  • Expectations of teachers and of parents
  • Written communication and language
  • Relationship before request
  • Why 'yes' doesn't always mean agreement
  • Why families may not ask questions
  • Homework, independence and achievement
  • Difficult conversations across cultures

Stop asking why these parents aren't engaging. Start asking what engagement is assumed to look like here.

Enquire about this program

04

Specialist program

Audience
Teachers and teaching assistants
Format
2 hours, half-day or full-day
Best for
Faculties and year-level teams

Culturally Intelligent Classrooms

What students may be communicating — without stereotyping anyone.

The framework taken into the room where it matters most. Participation, questioning, independence, teacher authority, feedback, group work, conflict and achievement — each examined as a cultural expectation rather than a fixed standard.

“Is this a capability issue, or an expectation mismatch?”

  • Why doesn't everyone put their hand up?
  • Why might a student avoid asking questions?
  • What 'independent learning' means across traditions
  • Public and direct feedback
  • Different assumptions about collaboration
  • How students communicate disagreement

Silence isn't necessarily disengagement. Agreement isn't necessarily understanding. Independence isn't culturally neutral.

Enquire about this program

05

Specialist program

Audience
Leaders, wellbeing teams, anyone who runs hard conversations
Format
Half-day
Best for
Performance, behaviour, complaints, conflict and wellbeing conversations

Difficult Conversations Across Cultures

When 'clear and direct' doesn't always build trust.

Built around the conversations schools are already finding hard: performance and behaviour conversations, parent complaints, staff conflict, wellbeing and discipline. Participants practise adapting the conversation without softening the message.

“Was that heard as respect, or as evasion?”

  • Directness and face
  • Authority and who may challenge whom
  • Trust, relationship and context
  • Language and register
  • Naming which sentences are the required ones
  • Rehearsed adaptation of real cases

Address the problems your school already has, not abstract competence.

Enquire about this program

06

Whole-school program

Audience
Schools wanting systemic change rather than a one-off PD session
Format
3 – 12 months
Best for
Schools moving from cultural awareness to culturally intelligent practice

The Culturally Intelligent School

A 12-month whole-school development program.

The premium engagement. Six phases — Diagnose, Discover, Map, Develop, Embed, Review — across staff culture, student culture, family culture and school systems.

“Where are our assumptions embedded in how this school runs?”

  • Term 1 — Understand: cultural landscape, eight dimensions, leadership assumptions
  • Term 2 — Explore: families, students, staff, communication, trust, authority, feedback
  • Term 3 — Adapt: classroom practice, parent engagement, leadership, school systems
  • Term 4 — Embed: policies, processes, induction, professional learning, action plan

A school-specific Cultural Intelligence Framework, and a return visit to measure it.

Enquire about this program

Inside the whole-school program

Six phases, from diagnosis to a plan the school actually keeps.

  1. Phase 1

    Diagnose

    Map staff culture, student culture, family culture and school systems against the framework.

  2. Phase 2

    Discover

    Leadership interviews, staff survey, student voice, family voice, communication audit, policy review.

  3. Phase 3

    Map

    Build the school's Cultural Practice Map: enrolment, communication, meetings, reporting, behaviour, wellbeing, discipline, feedback.

  4. Phase 4

    Develop

    Work with staff to identify practical adaptations they will actually use.

  5. Phase 5

    Embed

    Write the Cross-Cultural School Action Plan into policy, process and induction.

  6. Phase 6

    Review

    Return after three to six months and measure what has changed.

Where to start

The program ladder

The toolkit is free and always will be. It helps you see the issue; the programs help your school change what it does.

  • FreeCultural Curiosity ToolkitIntroduce the framework
  • EntryCultural Assumptions AuditGet leadership teams started
  • WorkshopCultural Curiosity for EducatorsWhole-staff introduction
  • SpecialistFamily Engagement · Classrooms · Difficult ConversationsSolve specific problems
  • LeadershipLeading Across CulturesDevelop leaders
  • PremiumThe Culturally Intelligent SchoolWhole-school transformation
Start a conversation about your schoolOpen the free toolkit