The ability to express oneself clearly in both a mother tongue and a foreign language is a foundation principle of the new national curriculum in Estonia. Therefore, research was conducted to determine whether there was a possible relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' perceptions of effective teaching and the contextual evaluation of the school. The aim of this article is to describe the relationship between the perceptions of "school climate" and "effective teaching" among EFL teachers. The study revealed that EFL teachers' perceptions of the school climate correlate to some extent with their perceptions of effective teaching practices, with some differences between teachers of Estonian-language schools compared with those of Russian-language schools. The research also highlighted that senior management should place more emphasis on creating a cooperative school climate for developing a learner-centred teaching approach as one of the foundation principles of the new national curriculum.