Schools are complicated developmental contexts, and many different aspects of the school environment can influence how students experience school life, interact with others, and generally feel within that environment. E Tū Tāngata is a new initiative within Aotearoa New Zealand that aims to address the country’s alarming mental health challenges, at a cultural level, by addressing the social norms and values associated with Tall Poppy Syndrome. Within schools, E Tū Tāngata aims to improve the school’s climate by shifting how students communicate and interact with one another through the promotion of three key mindsets – You Have Value, We Succeed Together, and Others Matter. This mixed-methods pilot study is one of the first attempts to evaluate the implementation and efficacy of E Tū Tāngata in a target school in Canterbury. This study had three aims: (a) to examine the psychometric properties of a retrospective survey of student experiences with E Tū Tāngata and hypothesised outcomes; (b) to examine how the school’s integration of the E Tū Tāngata mindsets is associated with students’ sense of belonging to the school, positive risk-taking behaviours, and response to failure; and (c) to investigate how students reflect on the changes they have experienced personally and seen within their classroom and school. Sixty-six students from years 6, 7, and 8 completed the survey. Psychometric testing found acceptable reliability for over half of the survey subscales and preliminary evidence for convergent validity, alongside a considerable need for redevelopment of other aspects of the survey. The vast majority of students evaluated the initiative positively and those who perceived better integration of the E Tū Tāngata mindsets also reported a greater sense of school belonging and connection to their peers. The results of this pilot test remain relatively consistent with the current literature on school climate and school belonging and provide preliminary support for E Tū Tāngata’s theory of change model. In light of the strengths and limitations of this pilot test, suggestions are made for future investigations into E Tū Tāngata, including opportunities for further survey development and evaluation strategies which should facilitate a better understanding of E Tū Tāngata’s effect on students and schools.