There are some facts that you can always trust to be true: the sun will rise every day (at least for the next few billion years); three times four equals 12; and the Department for Education will publish some new piece of guidance requiring urgent attention during the school holidays, when the last thing you want to be thinking about is teaching.

We all need a certain level of trust in our lives. And having a climate of trust is particularly essential in schools, where staff must be able to pull together and rely on one another to make sure that whole-school policies operate effectively, that pupils are safe, and that teachers are able to deliver the best possible outcomes.

Research suggests that the presence of trust within a school staff is an indicator of success and that trust is vital for school improvement. Patrick Forsythe et al (2011) found that schools require “high levels of collective trust” to be effective. And Karen Seashore Louis (2007) has shown that the level of trust in a school environment contributes to teachers’ “willingness to work with administrators to implement continuous improvement and quality-management practices”. In short, she associated higher levels of trust with a greater readiness among teachers to make changes to their practice that could improve pupil outcomes.

While every teacher has their role to play in creating a climate of trust, the drive for this must start with the leaders: if they cannot be trusted, then any move towards developing greater trust will inevitably fail.

For me, the process of building trust has to start with two things: duties and rights. If everyone has respect for the duties they should perform and the rights of others, then the establishment of trust can begin.

All school leaders should be familiar with the details of the contracts that teachers sign when they are employed by the school, which describe the duties they should be fulfilling, as well as teachers’ rights under employment law. Taken together, these two things provide a solid basis for trust: knowing that you will be paid on time, knowing that your entitlement to sick pay will be fulfilled - these are the kinds of basic requirement that are needed for trust in the school leadership. But beyond this is another layer of trust that is much harder to pin down: the trust that requires no commitment or contract, but which is instead built on a backdrop of social norms relating to our various roles which, if adhered to, lead to relationships of trust.

What can leaders do to encourage this more nebulous form of trust? Here is my advice.

Be consistent

This is the single most important thing that leaders can do. Inconsistency is incredibly damaging to relationships of trust.

For instance, if a leader claims that the most important thing for a teacher to focus on is that children make good progress with writing skills ahead of a moderation deadline, asking that same colleague to then replace a science display as a matter of urgency sends a mixed message that undermines trust.

Keep a check on accountability

While accountability measures are (theoretically) introduced with the aim of improving outcomes and public trust in the profession, the micromanagement of teachers’ daily lives has become a real problem in some schools. So leaders should take particular care about the introduction of any new measures, as well as the ways in which they are monitored, to avoid contributing to the perception of an unending stream of new initiatives that only add to workload. Always keep a check on the number and type of accountability measures you put in place, making sure that they are not burdensome or a barrier to teachers focusing on their professional aims.

Promote knowledge-sharing

Leaders should demonstrate that they are knowledgeable and willing to share this knowledge, but should always encourage others to do the same. Remember, nobody trusts a know-it-all. A great way to get the balance right is to aim to distribute leadership. This should not merely be lip service, where you give someone leadership responsibilities and then sit on their every decision. Instead, really allow others to lead. Present them with opportunities to justify what they are doing and then offer guidance.

Don’t set people up to fail…

…but, at the same time, make sure that you are not giving people unachievable workloads or setting targets that aren’t feasible.

As an example, a friend of mine, who recently quit the profession, was told that she needed to get 85 per cent of the children in her class to reach the “good level of development” standard at the end of early years foundation stage. This was in July, when she had no knowledge of what her new cohort would look like; they could potentially have any number of needs and it would be impossible for her to know whether this target was even achievable.

Avoid whitewash, spin and deceit

If things have gone wrong, lying to people about it will not help. It will especially not help when they find out later that they have been lied to. And they will. Being completely transparent as a leader when things have gone wrong will result in greater trust and probably greater support to fix the problem.

Don’t lose faith in staff

If someone has broken your trust, do not hold it against them. When we trust, we know that we could be failed. Withdrawing that trust from a colleague after one disappointment would only undermine the whole-school culture of trust that leaders should be aiming for.

Before deciding whether or not you can rebuild a relationship, take a moment to consider the colleague’s ratio of trustworthiness to untrustworthiness. In most cases, you will come down on the side of the former. Trust me.

Ruth Luzmore is head of St Mary Magdalene Academy in London

This article originally appeared in the 8 March 2019 issue under the headline “Trust me, I’m a school leader”