ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses four factors considered to be important in relation to the fostering of innovation in schools: organisational arrangements, school climate, organisational health and communication. The importance of relationships between organisational arrangements and innovations has been emphasised by several writers. Visitors going into schools often make generalised statements about a school's climate based on factors they observe such as pupils' attitudes to each other, relationships between staff and between staff and pupils, and attitudes to work. The least innovative districts, when compared with the most innovative, were more similar to the closed climate, more disengaged and lower on esprit. The chapter has been concerned with the setting in which innovation takes place and some of the characteristics of schools which are thought to affect the fate of innovations. It identifies characteristics for a positive contribution from the staff since they are largely a function of the interaction among all members of a school staff.
