APDP Module 9 Strategic Planning and Visioning

8 Responses

1. Our current school vision and strategic plan is a refinement of a vision/plan that was put in place prior to my arrival. The original was not something I contributed to creating, though I have contributed to the various tweaked versions. Our school’s stated vision is to be acknowledged as a leading contemporary, New Zealand school specialising in girls’ education. Through a focus on learning, research, and innovation we will be recognised by our own community, the national and international community. The school’s overarching vision statement is: “Empower young women to dare to excel as innovative individuals who are globally connected.” Though I have always found the statement a little wordy (it is sometimes shortened to simply ‘empower young women’), I like the aspirational, positive and optimistic nature of the vision and that it has student development or empowerment at its core. It uses powerful vocabulary in words like ‘dare’ and ‘excel’.

   What is one area you believe your team could contribute to more effectively to help achieve a specific strategic goal?
   Thinking about one of our school goals around maintaining high standards and effective relational teaching, the SLT always aims to help staff understand, unpack, and enact what this should look like in action. Though it is said that comparison can be the thief of joy, a challenge is I believe that some of our staff, who may believe our school to already have high expectations, high standards, and be ‘leading’ (and therefore become prone to complacency) need to reflect as to whether this is the case or not and understand that compared to other schools or the best version of ourselves that we aspire to be, we have a way to go that requires collective action. It is through challenging but necessary conversations, leaning into a healthy accountability and raising the standard of what our vision looks like when it is collectively enacted not just espoused that a good school becomes great. To that end, my team and I always try to model the high standards necessary from the broader staff and to support and inspire them to contribute similarly. The ongoing aim is a sense of pride and ownership from all staff to realising the vision of truly empowering our students by being each day a unified, high functioning collective.

   What are two key elements or qualities (e.g., student well-being, cultural responsiveness, innovation, community partnership) that you believe are absolutely essential to include in an inspiring vision for a New Zealand school in 2025 and beyond?
   1. Innovation – I would preface this by say that we have to take care not to be cavalier in what we adopt. There are things that work where the wheel doesn’t need reinvention. However, I’d like our schools to be open to more carefully thought through innovation to bring out the best and provide the best for our learners – whether that be through innovation inside or outside the classroom. Innovation is two-fold too in that it is advisable to help remain effective and yet always necessary in the rapidly advancing society we find ourselves.
   2. Community Partnership – schools are not islands and operate in an ever more complex and fast-moving world. As such, they need to work with and respond to the needs of their communities. They also need to tap into the opportunities that the wider community can bring to a school’s mission to enrich the opportunities available to students. There is an exciting opportunity that presents itself in the relationship between a school as an institution that educates and guides young people to grow as citizens and the community that places trust in that institution making meaningful contributions in the partnership of ensuring ongoing success for young people.

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2. Our School’s vision is a commitment to empowering tamariki to “Rise to the Challenge (Kawe Ake te Mānuka),” as individuals and as part of a collective. The tree, vine, and flax symbolism reflects a holistic approach to learning that honours Māori knowledge, whānau, and the interconnectedness of growth. It is a vision that grounds students in their roots while lifting them towards their full potential.
   Our School’s strategic plan is a balance between academic excellence, cultural identity, and holistic well-being. There is an emphasis on Te Ao Māori being interwoven throughout the kura and commitment to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The plan focuses on achievement, perseverance, and belonging.
   One of our School’s strategic goals is Kounga Whakaako – empowering ākonga to reach their full potential through engaging education. As a team, I see an opportunity to strengthen our contribution to this goal by deepening our understanding of Te Mātaiaho: The New Zealand Curriculum. In particular, to build student agency by supporting ākonga to set meaningful goals, identify their own learning objectives, and track their progress. This will help ensure assessment feedback is not only used by teachers for planning but also by students as a tool for ownership and growth in their learning journey.
   For an inspiring vision for a New Zealand school in 2025 and beyond, I’d highlight these two:
   1. Student Wellbeing and Belonging
   Success is more than just attendance and achievement; it’s about supporting ākonga to be confident, resilient, and connected. By putting wellbeing at the centre, we build strong relationships and ensure every learner feels safe, valued, and ready to thrive.
   2. Cultural Responsiveness and Partnership with Whānau
   Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the foundation of education in Aotearoa. By weaving tikanga, mātauranga, and te ao Māori into our curriculum and working in genuine partnership with mana whenua and whānau, we create learning that is relevant, inclusive, and equitable for all.
   This fits with our School’s vision, which is a commitment to empowering tamariki to “Rise to the Challenge (Kawe Ake te Mānuka),” not only as individuals but as part of a collective. The tree, vine, and flax symbolism reflects a holistic approach to learning that honours Māori knowledge, whānau, and the interconnectedness of growth.

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3. Kia ora koutou,

   Eden and I were able to talk about this module through google docs and emailing 🙂

   These are our responses:

   Task: Tracey’s and Edens collaborative responses on Module 9
   Tracey’s Reflections: Reflecting on and Contributing to Strategic Vision:
   Reflection (Individual): Consider your current school’s vision and strategic plan. What do you find most inspiring or impactful about it? What is one area you believe your team could contribute to more effectively to help achieve a specific strategic goal?
   We are actually in the beginning stages of re-doing our strategic plan. This has started at the Board of Trustees and Staff level. We are currently doing a SCOT – Strength, Challenges, Opportunities and Threat with everyone to get us started on our next strategic plan. We have also reflected on our past strategic plan too. Our school vision represents our kura and community well – ‘Our place to grow and learn together’ as we have a big focus on our environment within our kura. Our current/ almost previous strategic plan was great as it gave clear focuses and goals for us to work towards.It allowed us to stay focused on what our kura is needing/wanting. It also helped to bring our community back into school after Covid-19. The goal around our environment/being kaitiaki was a big success. An area we are still looking at working on is our learners and bringing in the structured learning approaches and implementing the new curriculums.

   – Visioning Application (Forum Discussion with Learning Partner): With your learning partner, discuss the following:
   Imagine you are tasked with reviewing or refreshing your school’s vision statement for the next five years.
   When it comes to refreshing the school vision, I feel it works so well at our kura therefore I would be surprised if it did change. However in saying this, I would still definitely seek consultation though from the school community, local community/iwi, tamariki and staff as to whether it still applies to our kura as in 5 years some whānau/staff may have moved on and there might be a vision that works better.

   – What are two key elements or qualities (e.g., student well-being, cultural responsiveness, innovation, community partnership) that you believe are absolutely essential to include in an inspiring vision for a New Zealand school in 2025 and beyond?
   I believe the two key elements or qualities that are essential to include in an inspiring vision for Aotearoa in 2025 and beyond is innovation and community partnership (this includes iwi as well as the school community and the community that the school is based in). I believe that these are both essential as with innovation that allows us to be creative and think outside the box to provide opportunities for our tamariki with their learning and experiences. It will also help when implementing new ideas/approaches/pedagogies. I also believe that community partnership means we can all raise these tamariki together and whānau can help build the educational journey for tamariki.

   Eden’s response
   That’s a really thorough and well-thought-out response. It’s clear you’ve given a lot of consideration to our school’s strategic vision, and I appreciate the detail you’ve included.
   I especially liked your reflection on the current strategic plan and how you connected the success of the kaitiaki goal to our school’s broader community efforts. That’s a great example of a strategic goal creating a tangible, positive impact.
   To take your ideas a step further, I have a few questions that might help us think even more deeply about our goals:
   You mentioned that implementing the new curriculums is a challenge. What’s one specific action our team could take to make that part of the strategic plan more effective? For example, would it be more professional development, better resource sharing, or something else?
   You correctly identified innovation and community partnership as essential elements for a new vision statement. How do you see innovation translating into a daily experience for our students? Is it about technology, different learning spaces, or something else entirely?
   This helps us move from simply identifying challenges to brainstorming concrete solutions that could shape our new plan. Great work!

   Tracey’s response
   1) I think better resource sharing, at this stage we are all creating the same or similar resources for example reading slideshows that we could be using across the different areas of the kura and beyond.
   2)I see it being more community becoming apart of our everyday learning and drawing on their expertises as well. Innovation, I see it definitely including the technology side of things and how that is becoming ever growing, but my thought behind including it is that is allows freedom with our thinking when providing opportunities for tamariki I.e the including more technology in their learning and being able to share their learning in different ways

   It was great to be able to have this collaboration and discussion around this, with Eden and made me really think deeply in my responses.

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4. When I reflect on our current school strategic plan, I find it difficult to feel a strong connection to it. At the time it was created, there was no staff input, I was not in a leadership role and I do not remember it being shared with staff when it was completed either. Because of this, the plan never truly felt like something that represented us as a collective. What has been most inspiring to me now is the way our new senior leadership team has placed genuine collaboration at the heart of our strategic planning process. This time, staff and community voice are being actively sought, and there is a clear recognition that a vision should not be written in isolation, but lived out by everyone in the school.

   One of the most impactful areas of our current journey is our work with outside agencies as we are a new leadership team and I think there is real value in asking for support and guidance. In particular, we have been engaging deeply with cultural responsiveness through evaluation associates and Poutama Pounamu, an area we began exploring as a Kāhui Ako but have chosen to continue and embed within our school. This work challenges us to examine how our practices, relationships, and systems reflect the cultural identity of our ākonga and whānau, and how we can ensure these are integral to the way we operate every day. For me, the most inspiring part is seeing this shift from being an “add-on” to becoming part of who we are as a school.

   Looking forward, I believe our team can contribute more effectively by ensuring the strategic goals are not just aspirational words on paper but are visible in the daily experiences of learners, staff, and whānau. Embedding the vision into classroom practice, decision-making, and community partnerships will allow us to create a plan that is not only known but truly lived and meaningful for all.

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6. Our vision statement is: to Know, Love, and Serve God inspires me because it keeps student well-being and culture at the heart of our work. As a Christian school, our Strategic Plan focuses on ensuring the Bible is more central and authentically seen, used and understood. We want to make the Bible more actively present in daily life so that Scripture becomes a lived guide rather than just a reference. With our rich cultural diversity, including Te Ao Māori, we are weaving biblical principles and cultural perspectives into lessons, worship, and everyday interactions hopefully reflecting the fullness of God’s kingdom. This could be further enhanced by linking in purposeful Service Learning (which we are beginning to improve), led by staff in creating useful items to give away or sell at a reasonable price, allowing students to serve others in tangible, meaningful ways.Reflection of my schools strategic vision:What do you find most inspiring or impactful about it? – It offers a holistic view of learning. Students are encouraged to see the beauty and order in a mathematical equation, the wonder in a scientific discovery, or the purpose in an engineering solution, all as reflections of God’s design.It encourages a sense of purpose. Instead of just learning for the sake of a grade or a career, this vision gives students a higher purpose—to use their knowledge and skills to understand and share a story of creation, beauty, and redemption.It redefines what it means to be a “creator.” By linking STEAM to “telling God’s story,” the vision implies that we are co-creators with God. Whether it’s through designing a new piece of technology or creating a work of art, students are participating in the ongoing act of creation, which is a deeply meaningful and inspiring idea.What is one area you believe your team could contribute to more effectively to help achieve a specific strategic goal?
   We are aiming to improve student achievement in writing across the school. Our target is 80% writing literacy (curriculum level)At present this is left to the English department to solve. Literacy impacts and is in everyones domain.
   It’s a foundation for all learning. To achieve your 80% curriculum-level target, we need a shared, unified effort.A key area where my team could contribute more effectively is by creating and maintaining a cross-curricular literacy approach.This would focus on:Subject specific Literacy: Providing examples and strategies for how to teach the specific vocabulary, text structures, and communication styles relevant to each subject (e.g., how to read a scientific article, interpret a historical document, or understand a mathematical word problem).Scaffolding and Support: Offering high-quality, scaffolded resources that can be easily adapted by teachers in any subject area to support students with varying literacy needs.Collaborative Development: Serving as a platform where teachers from all curriculum areas can contribute, share, and review resources. This fosters a collaborative environment where literacy becomes everyone’s responsibility, not just a topic discussed in one department.By empowering every teacher with the tools to embed literacy instruction directly into their subject matter, we can make significant progress toward the strategic goal. This approach ensures that literacy is woven into the fabric of the entire curriculum, reinforcing its importance at every level.Via Google Meet and a shared Google Doc, Bruce and I discussed our school visions, strategic plans, how they worked, and how they could improve for the future of how we’d like to see our schools develop. We’ve decided our goals are quite similar:
   Student Wellbeing: We establish a Christ-centred culture where every ākonga is known, equipped for servant leadership, and celebrated for growth and achievement. Rationale: strong hauora underpins learning, and authentic leadership opportunities embed character, manaakitanga, and confidence.
   Innovation: We keep an adaptive edge through relevant STEAM service learning—students tackle real community needs using Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics with mātauranga Māori and sustainability in view. Rationale: rapidly shifting tools and careers in Aotearoa require curiosity, collaboration, and transferable problem-solving.
   Purposeful Technology & Enterprise: We apply technology to bless others—e.g., designing and producing wheat bags and tote bags for genuine customers, from prototyping to marketing and financial stewardship. Rationale: purposeful making links Design Technology with Literacy and Mathematics, strengthens pathways, and shows how creativity and entrepreneurship can serve whānau and community.
   Together these priorities honour our Christian vision and position graduates for hopeful, service-oriented futures in Aotearoa. For today and tomorrow.Therefore, at either school, the vision statement could be: Grounded in God, Growing in Service; or even: Know God, Share His Love.

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   1. Reflection of my schools strategic vision:

      What do you find most inspiring or impactful about it? – It offers a holistic view of learning. Students are encouraged to see the beauty and order in a mathematical equation, the wonder in a scientific discovery, or the purpose in an engineering solution, all as reflections of God’s design.

      It encourages a sense of purpose. Instead of just learning for the sake of a grade or a career, this vision gives students a higher purpose—to use their knowledge and skills to understand and share a story of creation, beauty, and redemption.

      It redefines what it means to be a “creator.” By linking STEAM to “telling God’s story,” the vision implies that we are co-creators with God. Whether it’s through designing a new piece of technology or creating a work of art, students are participating in the ongoing act of creation, which is a deeply meaningful and inspiring idea.

      What is one area you believe your team could contribute to more effectively to help achieve a specific strategic goal?
      We are aiming to improve student achievement in writing across the school. Our target is 80% writing literacy (curriculum level)

      At present this is left to the English department to solve. Literacy impacts and is in everyones domain.
      It’s a foundation for all learning. To achieve your 80% curriculum-level target, we need a shared, unified effort.

      A key area where my team could contribute more effectively is by creating and maintaining a cross-curricular literacy approach.

      This would focus on:

      Subject specific Literacy: Providing examples and strategies for how to teach the specific vocabulary, text structures, and communication styles relevant to each subject (e.g., how to read a scientific article, interpret a historical document, or understand a mathematical word problem).

      Scaffolding and Support: Offering high-quality, scaffolded resources that can be easily adapted by teachers in any subject area to support students with varying literacy needs.

      Collaborative Development: Serving as a platform where teachers from all curriculum areas can contribute, share, and review resources. This fosters a collaborative environment where literacy becomes everyone’s responsibility, not just a topic discussed in one department.

      By empowering every teacher with the tools to embed literacy instruction directly into their subject matter, we can make significant progress toward the strategic goal. This approach ensures that literacy is woven into the fabric of the entire curriculum, reinforcing its importance at every level.

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      1. Via Google Meet and a shared Google Doc, Bruce and I discussed our school visions, strategic plans, how they worked, and how they could improve for the future of how we’d like to see our schools develop. We’ve decided our goals are quite similar:
         Student Wellbeing: We establish a Christ-centred culture where every ākonga is known, equipped for servant leadership, and celebrated for growth and achievement. Rationale: strong hauora underpins learning, and authentic leadership opportunities embed character, manaakitanga, and confidence.
         Innovation: We keep an adaptive edge through relevant STEAM service learning—students tackle real community needs using Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics with mātauranga Māori and sustainability in view. Rationale: rapidly shifting tools and careers in Aotearoa require curiosity, collaboration, and transferable problem-solving.
         Purposeful Technology & Enterprise: We apply technology to bless others—e.g., designing and producing wheat bags and tote bags for genuine customers, from prototyping to marketing and financial stewardship. Rationale: purposeful making links Design Technology with Literacy and Mathematics, strengthens pathways, and shows how creativity and entrepreneurship can serve whānau and community.
         Together these priorities honour our Christian vision and position graduates for hopeful, service-oriented futures in Aotearoa. For today and tomorrow.

         Therefore, at either school, the vision statement could be: 1) Grounded in God, Growing in Service; or even: 2) Know God, Share His Love.In both schools, the focus is on students developing an understanding of who God is, and who they are in God, and the active renewing of their minds; this then should translate into a love for others, which in practical terms would mean sharing, or giving service – and this is where the growing occurs…this would never be complete, but part of our journey on Earth, as an act of faith and service.

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