Maybe it’s really a values issue.

School values like Belonging, Connection, Compassion, Creativity are “soft”: everyone understands them instantly.

But there’s another layer of “hard” values — academic language, philosophical dialogue, conceptual clarity, deep attention, transformation — the values that demand rigour and modelling.

The leadership task is naming that difference.

Soft values make school feel good.

Hard values make school think and grow.

A principal who clarifies this shifts staff from more resources to better values.