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Student Culture

The Student Culture page presents data-driven findings about the social patterns shaping your year group. Rather than showing individual student scores or network positions, it reveals the underlying forces that influence how friendships form, how disrespect spreads, and how the school environment connects to student behaviour. Each finding is derived from statistical analysis of the survey and network data, and comes with a visualisation, a distribution chart, and recommended actions.

This page is part of the Premium Package. It is designed for school leaders and wellbeing coordinators who want to understand the cultural dynamics of their cohort — not just who is connected to whom, but why those connections form the way they do.

Purpose​

Use this page to understand the structural patterns in your year group's social culture. The findings here are not observations about individual students — they are patterns that emerge across the whole cohort. They tell you what forces are shaping the social environment, which ones are positive and worth reinforcing, and which ones are working against a healthy, inclusive school culture.

Each finding is labelled either Valued or Devalued:

  • A Valued finding (green badge) describes a pattern that supports positive student outcomes — something to recognise, nurture, and build on.
  • A Devalued finding (red badge) describes a pattern that works against positive outcomes — something to address through targeted strategies or structural changes.

Page Layout​

The page is divided into two areas.

  • The left panel contains the Student Culture Findings list — a blue header showing the total number of findings, followed by clickable finding cards. Each card shows the finding name, a short summary, a Valued or Devalued badge, and a metadata line showing which network it relates to, the type of effect, and the p-value (a measure of statistical confidence).

  • The right section displays the full detail for the currently selected finding. It shows the finding title, its Valued or Devalued badge, a longer description, a ⓘ icon with additional context, a relationship icon illustrating the direction of effect, an interactive network visualisation, a distribution bar chart, and a Recommended Actions list.

The page title includes a "Click for definition" toggle. Clicking it expands a definition banner across the top of the page:

Student culture is the often unspoken assumptions of acceptable (valued) and unacceptable (devalued) behaviours by peers. Here we show the patterns of what students value (choose as friends) and devalue (who they disrespect).

Click Close definition to dismiss the banner and return to the standard page view.

Reading a Finding Card​

Each card in the left panel contains three elements:

  • Finding name — the label for this cultural pattern
  • Summary — one or two sentences describing what the pattern means
  • Metadata — shown in smaller grey text below the summary, in the format: Network: [network type] | Effect: [effect type] | p-value: [value]

The Network field tells you which relationship type the finding is drawn from — for example, friends or disrespect. The Effect field describes the direction of the relationship — sender means the pattern relates to who initiates connections. The p-value indicates statistical confidence — a lower p-value (particularly below 0.05) means the pattern is unlikely to be random.

Click any finding card to load its full detail in the right section.

The Five Findings​

This report contains five Student Culture findings. Four are Valued and one is Devalued.

Engaged Students Actively Build Friendships​

Badge: Valued | Network: friends | Effect: sender | p-value: 0.028

Students who report feeling safe, heard, and connected at school are more likely to take initiative in forming friendships. This proactive social behaviour is a positive indicator of both wellbeing and engagement.

Hover over the ⓘ icon to see the short finding summary: Students who feel supported by the school are more likely to reach out to others.

Network visualisation: The friendship network is displayed with nodes sized and colour-coded by each student's School Support Engage6 score. Darker, larger nodes represent students with higher school support scores. Hover over any node to see that student's name, their School Support Engage6 score, and their Incoming and Outgoing friend connection counts. The colour gradient legend at the bottom of the network shows the Min–Max scale.

Distribution chart: The School Support Engage6 Distribution for Outgoing Friends Ties bar chart groups students into four quartiles (below 25%, 25–50%, 50–75%, above 75%) based on their school support score and shows how many outgoing friendship nominations come from each group. A pattern where higher school support quartiles contribute more outgoing ties confirms the finding.

Recommended Actions:

  • Provide leadership or mentoring opportunities that channel students' social initiative.
  • Celebrate students who model inclusive and proactive social behaviour.
  • Ensure these students are empowered to support peers who may be less socially active.

Higher Distress Social Reaching​

Badge: Valued | Network: friends | Effect: sender | p-value: 0.006

Students with higher levels of psychological distress may actively seek social support through friendship initiation, possibly as a coping mechanism.

Hover over the ⓘ icon to see the short finding summary: Students experiencing more mental distress tend to initiate more friendship connections.

Network visualisation: The friendship network is displayed with nodes sized and colour-coded by each student's K6 Overall distress score. Darker, larger nodes represent students with higher distress scores. Hover over any node to see that student's name, their K6 Overall score, and their Incoming and Outgoing friend connection counts.

Distribution chart: The K6 Overall Distribution for Outgoing Friends Ties chart groups students by their K6 distress score quartile and shows outgoing friendship tie counts for each group. A pattern where higher-distress quartiles show more outgoing ties confirms that distressed students are reaching out socially.

Recommended Actions:

  • Ensure appropriate mental health support exists alongside social connections.
  • Train students in healthy support-seeking behaviour.
  • Create supportive environments where reaching out is normalised.
note

This finding is labelled Valued because reaching out socially is a positive coping response. However, it also signals that some students with high distress may be relying heavily on peer connections for support. Ensure that professional wellbeing support is available and visible to these students, not just peer networks.

Active Growth Mindset Expression​

Badge: Valued | Network: disrespect | Effect: sender | p-value: 0.001

Actively expressing a Growth Mindset helps reduce the likelihood of negative actions among students. Students who demonstrate a strong growth mindset are less likely to initiate disrespect toward peers.

Hover over the ⓘ icon to see the short finding summary: Students who show strong Growth Mindset are less likely to initiate disrespect.

Network visualisation: The disrespect network is displayed — unlike the other findings, this one uses the disrespect network rather than the friendship network. Nodes are sized and colour-coded by each student's Growth Mindset score. Hover over any node to see that student's name, their Growth Mindset score, and their Incoming and Outgoing disrespect connection counts.

Distribution chart: The Growth Mindset Distribution for Outgoing Disrespect Ties chart groups students by Growth Mindset quartile and shows how many outgoing disrespect nominations come from each group. A pattern where higher growth mindset quartiles show fewer outgoing disrespect ties confirms the finding.

tip

This finding has practical implications for school programming. Investing in growth mindset development — through curriculum, pastoral programmes, or mentoring — may have a measurable effect on reducing peer disrespect across the cohort.

Same Classroom​

Badge: Valued | Network: friends | Effect: matching | p-value: 0.000

Being in the same class fosters an environment in which to build or maintain friendships. Students in the same classroom (homeroom) are significantly more likely to become friends.

Hover over the ⓘ icon to see the short finding summary: Students in the same classroom (homeroom) are more likely to be friends. Classroom allocation matters.

Network visualisation: The friendship network is displayed with nodes colour-coded by classroom (for example, 8a–8f), with a colour legend shown at the bottom of the network. This makes visible the clustering of friendships within classes. Hover over any node to see the student's name, their classroom, and their Incoming and Outgoing friend connection counts.

Distribution chart: The Classroom Matching in Friends Connections chart compares the tie formation rate for students in the Same classroom versus Different classrooms. The significantly higher bar for Same classroom visually confirms that classroom placement strongly predicts friendship formation.

tip

Classroom allocation decisions have a direct impact on social outcomes. When planning class groupings, consider using the friendship and disrespect networks to inform decisions — for example, ensuring isolated students are placed with peers they have prior positive connections with, or separating students with strong mutual disrespect ties.

Similar Achievement Level Friendships​

Badge: Devalued | Network: friends | Effect: heterophily | p-value: 0.002

Friendships tend to form between students with similar levels of academic achievement. Students appear to connect with peers at similar academic levels, potentially creating stratified social groups and limiting cross-achievement learning opportunities.

Network visualisation: The friendship network is displayed with nodes sized and colour-coded by each student's Achievement Score. Hover over any node to see the student's name, their Achievement Score, and their Incoming and Outgoing friend connection counts.

Distribution chart: Not shown in this finding — the Devalued pattern is characterised by the absence of cross-achievement connections rather than a distributional pattern.

This finding is labelled Devalued because homophily by achievement level tends to reinforce existing inequalities. High-achieving students cluster together and benefit from peer learning among themselves, while lower-achieving students may miss exposure to the academic behaviours and attitudes modelled by higher-achieving peers.

caution

This pattern does not indicate that students are doing anything wrong — it is a natural social tendency. The recommended response is structural: create deliberate opportunities for cross-achievement collaboration through mixed groupings, peer tutoring programmes, or collaborative classroom tasks.

How to Use This Page​

The Student Culture page is most useful as a whole-cohort lens — stepping back from individual students to understand the forces shaping your school's social environment.

  1. Read the finding list first. The left panel gives you all five findings at a glance with their Valued or Devalued status. Before clicking into any finding, get a sense of the overall picture: how many findings are Valued? Is there a Devalued finding, and what does it describe?

  2. Click each finding in turn to read the full description and view the network and chart. The network visualisation shows you where in the cohort the pattern is most concentrated — which students are driving it and to what degree.

  3. Hover over nodes in the network to see individual student data for the relevant metric. This is where the cohort-level finding connects back to individual students — the nodes with the highest scores on the relevant metric are the students most strongly driving the pattern.

  4. Read the distribution chart to understand the strength of the pattern. A strong Valued finding will show a clear trend in the chart — for example, higher school support quartiles producing more outgoing friendship ties. A weaker pattern will show a flatter distribution.

  5. Use the Recommended Actions as starting points for school planning. Each finding comes with specific, actionable suggestions. These are not prescriptive — use your professional knowledge of the cohort to determine which actions are most appropriate and feasible.

  6. Pay particular attention to the Devalued finding. The Similar Achievement Level Friendships finding signals a structural pattern that may be limiting opportunity for lower-achieving students. Consider whether your current classroom grouping, collaborative learning practices, and peer support structures are helping to counteract this tendency.

tip

Bring the Student Culture findings into your wellbeing team or year-level planning meetings. These findings are most useful when they inform collective decisions about school structure and programming — not just individual student conversations.