The purpose of this assignment is to determine whether informal communication is just as important as formal communication in a school environment. My initial hypothesis is that both will be essential to the effective functioning of a school and the existence of a healthy culture in an educational establishment. However, I must first describe the nature of the school used for this study. It is a popular non-denominational comprehensive secondary school for girls aged 11 to 18, with some boys in sixth form. There are approximately 1,670 students on roll, with the sixth form accounting for 370 of this number. The school, once spread across three sites in a leafy middle-class suburb, has since 2003 occupied a single new PFI-funded building on the outskirts of Wallasey. The change in location means the school now serves a more diverse socio-economic catchment area. , including Birkenhead North. The new nature of student admissions bears witness to this. The school now has a higher than average number of girls who are eligible for free school meals. The majority of students are White British, but the school also has students with English as an additional language. Overall, the school caters well for pupils with learning difficulties and physical disabilities and although the proportion of pupils with identified learning difficulties is the same as that found nationally, the school currently has fewer pupils with SEN statements than in previous years. was granted Foundation status in September 2009. This means that it is a state-funded school and the governing body has greater freedom in running the school than in schools community. This follows the school's successful completion of a media arts degree...... middle of paper ...... and more when it instigated change. If time constraints had not been so limited, I would have preferred to conduct individual interviews with staff, as this would have allowed me to draw out more detail about individual experiences. What is clear from staff responses is that communication is seen as a key tool in school, but informal methods of communication are slowly being eroded by changes over the past five years. The initial hypothesis of this mission was that for one to succeed in school, a mixture of formal and informal communication methods is necessary. The evidence gathered from reviewing the literature on this topic seems to be consistent with this idea. So the next step was to analyze the data collected from the questionnaire to see if the opinions of school staff supported my initial hypothesis..