APDP Module 9 Strategic Planning and Visioning
“Kia tū rangatira ai te kura – kia puāwai ai ngā ākonga.”
“For the school to stand strong and proud – for the students to flourish.”
Module Objectives:
- Define the key components of a compelling school vision and mission.
- Articulate the importance of strategic planning in achieving educational goals and school improvement.
- Apply a systematic process for developing strategic plans within a school context.
- Contribute to the creation of a shared and inspiring vision for their kura.
- Identify effective methods for aligning team and departmental goals with the overarching school strategic plan.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of strategic initiatives and adapt plans as needed.
Strategic planning and visioning are fundamental to effective school leadership. They provide the compass and roadmap for your kura’s future, ensuring that all efforts are aligned towards common, aspirational goals. As a school leader, your role in translating vision into actionable plans and fostering a shared sense of purpose is critical.
Understanding Vision and Mission:
A vision is an aspirational picture of what your school aims to become in the future – its dream. It should be inspiring, clear, and concise, guiding all decisions. A mission statement, on the other hand, describes the school’s core purpose and how it will achieve its vision. It defines “what we do” and “why we do it.” Together, they provide the foundation for strategic direction.
The Importance of Strategic Planning:
Strategic planning is the process of defining your school’s strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. It involves:
- Setting Priorities: Identifying the most critical areas for development and improvement.
- Resource Allocation: Directing financial, human, and physical resources effectively.
- Accountability: Establishing clear measures of success and responsibilities.
- Adaptability: Providing a framework to respond to changing educational landscapes and community needs.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Ensuring that the school community (students, staff, whānau, Board of Trustees, community) has a voice in shaping the future.
The Strategic Planning Process:
While specific models vary, a typical strategic planning cycle involves several key stages:
- Environmental Scan/Discovery: Understanding the current state of the school – its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis). This involves gathering data on student achievement, community demographics, resource availability, and the broader educational context.
- Vision and Mission Review/Development: Reaffirming or collaboratively crafting the school’s aspirational vision and defining its core purpose.
- Goal Setting: Establishing clear, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) strategic goals that move the school closer to its vision.
- Strategy Development: Brainstorming and selecting the specific actions, initiatives, and approaches that will be implemented to achieve each goal.
- Action Planning: Detailing who will do what, by when, and with what resources. This is where the strategic plan translates into operational steps.
- Implementation and Monitoring: Putting the plan into action and regularly tracking progress against established metrics.
- Review and Evaluation: Periodically assessing the effectiveness of the plan, celebrating successes, identifying areas for improvement, and making necessary adjustments. This often leads back to a new planning cycle.
Aligning Team Goals with School Strategy:
As leaders, your role is crucial in bridging the gap between the school’s strategic plan and the day-to-day work of your teams. This involves:
- Communicating the school’s vision and strategic goals clearly to your team.
- Facilitating discussions that allow your team to understand their contribution to these goals.
- Collaboratively setting team goals that directly support the strategic plan.
- Providing resources and support for your team to implement their actions.
- Monitoring team progress and providing feedback that links back to the broader school strategy.
Task:
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?
- 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.
- 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?
- Briefly explain your rationale for each, considering the current educational landscape and future aspirations for ākonga success in Aotearoa.
- Post your collaborative response on the forum (max. 150 words).
Assessment:
- Your personal reflections on your school’s vision and your team’s contribution.
- Forum Post: Your collaborative response with your learning partner outlining key elements for an inspiring school vision in 2025, with rationale.
Resources:
Future-focused Strategic Planning for Schools: The ‘What’ and the ‘Why’ need a ‘How’.
https://thinkstrategicforschools.com/strategic-planning-for-schools/
Governance Support Resources – Community Consultation
https://www.resourcecentre.org.nz/helpforboards?aId=ka0RF0000008fdtYAA
Local Curriculum Strategic Planning Guide
School Communication Planning Guide
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/296999/School-Communication-Planning-Guide.pdf
7 Reasons Schools Need Strategic Plans
https://envisio.com/blog/7-reasons-schools-need-strategic-planning/
3 Responses
I find our THS’s vision deeply motivating, especially its focus on connection, identity, and restorative practice. One area my team could grow even further is deepening the student voice in shaping and leading wellbeing initiatives, empowering ākonga as co-designers of school culture.
In imagining a refreshed school vision for 2025, two essential elements stand out:
1. Cultural responsiveness; Every learner should see themselves, their whakapapa, and their language reflected and respected in the life of the school. It supports identity, belonging, and equity.
2. Student wellbeing and leadership; Wellbeing is a foundation for learning. Embedding student voice and leadership into everyday systems helps grow confident, resilient, future-ready rangatahi.
These elements reflect the evolving needs of our ākonga and our responsibility to prepare them for a changing world with aroha, clarity, and purpose.
Module 9 – Reflecting on and Contributing to Strategic Vision:
In the current educational landscape, schools face constant change. New governments bring policy shifts, the world is transforming digitally, and social and environmental challenges evolve rapidly. Strategic planning needs to ensure we continue to focus on what is most important through any upheaval. With that said, the 2 key elements that I believe are the most important are, innovation (quality teaching and learning) and Student Well Being.
As education changes and moves we have seen the impact of situations outside of our control eg: covid and cylcone. These things have had significant impacts on our students. Statistics for mental health for our young people are scary and we need to be mindful of the fast changing world with impacts of social media and the like and how this impacts our young people. Keeping Student Well being at the forefront is vital.
To ensure innovative learning for students we want to embrace and encourage creative and critical thinking for our teachers. Expecting them to deliver quality learning programmes. With so much dynamic change in the world we require our students to become critical thinkers who ask questions, take risks, problem solve, collaborate and be resilient in an every changing world. Creating learners with these skills requires shifts in the way we teach continually questioning the impact of our pedagogies.
MODULE 9 – Reflecting on and Contributing to Strategic Vision:
We are currently in the process of reviewing the vision. It is interesting to note how rapidly the content of a school vision can become irrelevant within a short period of time. This is based on multiple factors, for example; changes within the educational sector, societal changes, and even transitions of leadership within a school. Our current vision was only created 3 years ago, with collaborative input from the current staff, whānau and BoT but recently taking time to critique the current vision we realise it needs an overhaul.
An effective process to challenge thoughts and begin the process of redesign is to look at and ask insightful and challenging questions. The questions we asked as a leadership team and with staff came directly from the Springboard Trust, a well known impact organisation working within the education sector. These were, is our vision directional, clear, meaningful, challenging, simple, focused, inspiring and measurable From this activity we could all agree that our new vision needs to fully embrace our school for where it is at right now. Short and simple helps give clarity to everyone.
The vision is important because it shapes the culture of the school, building cohesion and a shared language. It sets out what is expected in your kura and it helps drive what you do on a day to day basis, term basis and annual basis. The vision drives all strategic planning and influences decisions you make about what is and isn’t part of your learning space.
The school vision is usually one of the first things that community will see on your school website. It must therefore encapsulate, in a precise and inspiring way, what your school is about.
Feedback from my learning partner – Hi Lisa, it’s great to hear that your school is proactively reviewing its vision! You are right, the educational landscape is constantly evolving, with changes in the sector, new initiatives, and even shifts in leadership all impacting a school’s direction. The recognition that a vision can rapidly become “irrelevant” isn’t a sign of a flawed initial process, but rather an understanding of the dynamic nature of education. This shows a commitment to ensuring the vision truly reflects the school’s current reality and future aspirations.
Springboard Trust’s framework is an excellent model to use for critiquing your current school vision as it allows insight that a short and simple vision can provide greater clarity for everyone. A strong vision truly does shape the culture of the school, fostering cohesion and a shared language. This proactive and thoughtful approach to vision review demonstrates strong leadership and a commitment to ensuring the school’s foundation is always aligned with its evolving needs and the best interests of its students, staff, and wider community. I look forward to seeing the new vision unfold!