The presented studies will examine the contribution of leadership practices and professional learning in teacher teams for impacts on the learning culture and effective school development strategies in German primary schools. The analyses draw focus on concepts and development of all-day schools over time with longitudinal data on one side and on impacts of the school organisation, the organisational culture and extracurricular elements on the other side. Beyond this the analyses can identify successful key factors of school development with regard to the approach of organisational learning.

The theoretical framework is related to the approach of organisational learning (with regard to Senge 1990; Holtappels 2007) and to the framework of a school quality model (with regard to the approaches of Scheerens 1990; Creemers 2002; Creemers & Kyriakides 2008). Overviews about the state of the art concerning school improvement show the importance of the organisational culture (Hopkins et.al. 2011). Concerning the organisational culture of school on one hand we join the theoretical approach about leadership for learning (MacBeath & Townsend 2011) that requires an acting of principals that sets a clear focus on learning, provides supportive conditions for learning, promotes a dialogue about goals and quality, enables the staff for sharing leadership and establishes a shared sense of accountability. On the other hand we follow the approach about teacher collaboration in a way of professional learning communities with regard to characteristics of teamwork that consists in reflexive dialogue and continuous analyses, shared goals and values, intensive communication about teaching and learning, cooperation for enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and with focus an student’s learning (Leithwood 2000; Hall & Hord 2001).

Relevant findings of school development studies show that schools can learn and gain improvement, if the staff is able to develop a learning environment that is based on ambitious pedagogical goals, readiness for innovation, leadership patterns with focus on learning of the staff, teacher collaboration in professional learning communities and systematical work on development programs (Rosenholtz 1991; Holtappels et.al. 2008; Spillebeen, Holtappels & Rollett 2011).  International findings show that school factor matters and show impacts on teaching practice (Louis & Marks 1998; Vescio, Ross & Adams 2008) and on the development of student achievements (Creemers et.al. 2013).

The following questions are leading the presented analyses:

1. What kind of leadership patterns and competencies, judged by the teaching staff, in primary schools are to show?

2. What level of collaborative acting in a way of professional learning communities have primary schools in Germany reached?

3. Can we identify factors of the organisational culture, which are closely related to the quality of teaching in learning arrangements of lessons and extracurricular elements?

4. What kind of relationships can be find between variables of leadership practices, professional learning in teams and school development efforts of the staff?

The first assump­tion is that effective leadership practice with focus on learning can foster teacher collaboration as professional teamwork in learning communities. The second assumption draws focus on impacts of school factors concerning the organizational culture on shaping a supportive learning environment and effective teaching in classrooms and extracurricular learning arrangements. The third assumption expects that factors of the organizational culture are closely related to a systematical school policy on improvement and the use of school development strategies and procedures.

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