Chapter 2.1: Strategic Planning

2.1.1 School Charters – an integrated planning tool

Every board is required to review its School Charter every year.  The Charter must include:

• the board’s aims, objectives, directions and priorities for intended student outcomes, the school’s performance and the use of resources over the next three to five years.  What this means in practice is that the strategic section of the charter should specify the learning outcomes the school intends to achieve and how it intends to achieve them.  These will relate to National Administration Guidelines (NAGs) 1, those identified through consultation with the community and self-review.  The board’s resources are then deployed in a way that furthers these objectives
• policies and practices that aim to reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity
• an annually updated section for the relevant year that includes the board’s aims, objectives, directions, priorities and targets relating to intended student outcomes, the school’s performance and the use of resources.

You should think of your Charter as a chance to bring together all the elements of board planning. Based on student achievement data, you will set your educational goals and these will drive your resource allocation – from the number of teachers and support staff, through professional development, information and communications technology (ICT) planning, property plans, and budgets.

When developing your targets, you should also think through to the reporting that you will be doing against these targets in the Analysis of Variance part of the school’s Annual Report – see Chapter 4, Financial Reporting.

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2.1.2 Benefits of strategic planning

A successful school must plan what it intends to achieve and outline a strategy for achieving those goals. A combination of good planning and communication ensures that parents, teachers, administrators, Principals and boards of trustees are all striving for a common goal. If schools do not identify their goals and communicate them to all their stakeholders they run the risk that the people critical to the school’s success will be ‘pulling in different directions’ – and the student’s education will suffer.

The Education Review Office (ERO) reported in 2007 (School Governance: An Overview) that well-governed schools had these common features: governance was centred on students, with trustees committed to improving student learning and achievement; student achievement information was used to set realistic targets and underpin decision-making; strategic and annual planning was strongly focused on improving student achievement.

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2.1.3 What is a strategic plan?

A school board’s strategic plan is an overarching plan to raise student achievement over the next three to five years.

Strategic plans are most effective in schools where there is agreement on issues and directions at the broad strategic level. This means that staff, parents, board members and students all have a clear understanding of what the school stands for and where it is heading.

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2.1.4 Steps to strategic planning

There are a variety of perspectives on strategic planning and a variety of approaches used in the strategic planning processes. This guide presents the fundamental steps that should be taken for effective strategic planning. To determine what should go in a strategic plan a series of key questions have to be asked.

Where are we now?

• Find out how people perceive the school.
• Gather evidence about student achievement in the school (ie, the analysis of variance, information available on LeadSpace etc).
• Gather data on internal conditions and external influences – this means gathering information about what is happening in the school and what is happening in the community, in New Zealand, and overseas, as this is likely to have an impact on the school in the future.

Where do we want to be?

• Develop, refine or revise a shared vision for the future.
• Identify priorities for action.
• Set goals to work towards.
• Describe what the school will be like when the vision is achieved, ie, the mission statement.

How will we get there?

• Develop a range of strategies to help meet the board’s goals.
• Select one or two key strategies that the board will focus on (try not to focus on any more than one or two key areas at any given time).

What do we need to do?

• Delegate tasks (who will be responsible for investigating and disseminating research on educational goals, who will prepare budgets etc)?
• Develop plans and tasks to achieve goals (ie, focus on literacy, professional development for teaching staff etc).
• Allocate resources and Implement plan.

How will we know when we’ve got there?

• Put indicators and milestones in place by describing what will happen when a goal has been reached.
• Monitor against these milestones, review and make any necessary adjustments.

Strategic planning

Anyone who has been involved in working on a strategic plan will feel a sense of pride and achievement when they see it in print. Getting to that point can help to create a sense of teamwork within the board and a sense of partnership with staff and community as well as clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Board.

Many boards use consultants to help with management tasks. Some of the advantages of having an external facilitator are:

• tapping into skills and expertise that may not be within the board
• providing an unbiased, broad view
• identifying research or good practice that could stimulate change for the better
• helping to ensure collective ownership of the plan.

A strategic plan is crucial for a board.  Its development should include key stakeholders, such as all members of the board, the Principal, teachers and the local community.

Change is part of education. A strategic plan is a tool that helps manage change to the best advantage of the school, including staff, students and the community.  It encourages looking ahead and managing the future risks and uncertainties.  It means that the school is flexible and able to respond to new ideas.  It enables a board to plan for the future in a proactive rather than a reactive way.