SETTING DIRECTION AND STRATEGY

Transcription

1 SETTING DIRECTION AND STRATEGY Gloucestershire Governors Association Conference DAVID MARRIOTT

2 ONE DIRECTION?

3 PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONS OF GB Purpose: to conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement at the school Core functions: ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent

4 OFSTED GUIDANCE Inspectors will consider whether governors: work effectively with leaders to communicate the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school and develop a culture of ambition

5 DFE GUIDANCE governing bodies are the key strategic decision-making body set the school s strategic framework and ethos ensure the school has a clear long-term strategic vision engage stakeholders in the vision agree the strategic priorities, aims and objectives for the school sign off the policies, plans and targets for how to achieve them check on progress review the strategic framework in the light of that progress regularly

6 STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Vision Ethos Mid-long term plan SEF SDP Aims Objectives Priorities Policies Targets

7 A FRAMEWORK FOR GOVERNANCE: A FLEXIBLE GUIDE TO STRATEGIC PLANNING (JANUARY 2015) Governing-Body/Governance-Tools/Framework-for- Governance-%281%29.aspx NGA and The Wellcome Trust Element A: Governing principles Element B: Setting the strategy Element C: Monitoring the strategy

8 VISION, ETHOS AND STRATEGY Strategy: Does the school have a clear vision and strategic priorities? 9. Does our vision look forward three to five years, and does it include what the children who have left the school will have achieved? 10. Have we agreed a strategy with priorities for achieving our vision and with key performance indicators against which we can regularly monitor and review the strategy? 11. How effectively does our strategic planning cycle drive the governing board s activities and agenda setting?

9 THE JARGON vision mission values ethos principles strategy aims goals priorities KPIs deliverables

10 ONLY CONNECT Strategy Vision Mission or purpose Values and ethos

11 VISION STATEMENTS Reach for the stars Every student is inspired to learn and empowered to excel Our vision is to create a school community where children participate, excel and are proud of their achievements

12 EXAMPLE 1 A Passion for Learning: Changing Lives To make the school a great school that provides an outstanding, creative education for its students and prepares them for life in the 21st century To ensure that all stakeholders are valued and contribute to the future success of the school To be one of the best secondary schools locally and nationally

13 EXAMPLE 2 Our vision is of a school full of students and teachers who are independent learners, working collaboratively as they evolve into global citizens, understanding the process of learning, thinking and decision-making and who have universal values; an institution that sees pupils as fires to be kindled rather than vessels to be filled.

14 VISION STATEMENT TESTER Does it portray an attractive vision of the school in the future? Is it ambitious, describing an improvement on the current state? Is it consistent with your stated values and mission? Does it convey what s unique about your school? Does it emphasise learning and describe our expectations for what our children and young people will achieve? Is it memorable but more than a slogan? Is it unambiguous? Does it provide a sound foundation for policies and plans? Will it motivate staff, governors, pupils and parents to help achieve it? Can it be easily broken down into aims, goals and targets? Will it guide daily actions?

15 THE BAKE-OFF ANALOGY Top layer: looking into the future: long term Middle layer: strategic plan: medium term Bottom layer: the school improvement plan: short term

16 TOP LAYER The future: What will our school look like in more than 5 years time? What do we want the school to achieve? Our shared vision Our shared values

17 POSSIBLE APPROACH Revaluate our vision, values and purpose still valid and relevant? Consider broad education trends Assess likely impact on our school opportunities or threats? Identify what actions we would take contingency; foci for strategic plan Assess current strengths and weaknesses self-evaluation Capture ideas in a SWOT analysis

18 FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE Vision day? Blue Skies group? Analyse trends

19 NATIONAL EDUCATION TRENDS decline of LAs and the expansion of academies, academy chains and free schools; Regional Schools Commissioners the muddle in the middle an expanding market place and possibly schools run for profit post-2015 school leadership and teacher recruitment and retention issues; succession planning appraisal and payment by results collaboration vs competition new models of school leadership and organisation school to school support self-evaluation for improvement: lighter touch inspections? demographics the numbers game parental choice and influence implications of a common funding formula changes to and impact of technology

20 DISCUSSION Which trends do we see as opportunities? Which trends threaten our school?

21 External Internal SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

22 SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths (preserve and develop) Strong leadership Secure intake numbers High standards Weaknesses (eliminate) Staff turnover Parent engagement Opportunities (achieve) Partnership and collaboration Income generation Threats (avoid) Loss of pupils to private sector Lower Ofsted grading

23 TOP 5 Area chosen Potential impact on school School response 1 Recruitment and retention 2 Inability to replace head or other staff who leave Less qualified or nonqualified teachers Drain on budget or savings? Plan for succession Identify and grow talent Consider new/alternative models of leadership and organisation

24 MIDDLE LAYER Strategic planning Medium term Aims and objectives Priorities Policies Strategic intents Strategic plan

25 VISION, ETHOS AND STRATEGY Strategy: Does the school have a clear vision and strategic priorities? 9. Does our vision look forward three to five years, and does it include what the children who have left the school will have achieved? 10. Have we agreed a strategy with priorities for achieving our vision and with key performance indicators against which we can regularly monitor and review the strategy? 11. How effectively does our strategic planning cycle drive the governing board s activities and agenda setting?

26 STRATEGIC INTENT AND STRATEGIC PLANNING Strategic intent: something you know you all want to achieve - but you don t know how yet values intuition be creative about how build capability Strategic plan: medium term predictable not highly detailed one side of A4

27 STRATEGIC INTENT: AN EXAMPLE Intent Capability-building measures Review of progress 1. Ensure a continuing educational presence in the community i find out what other schools have done ii link with local schools iii communicate benefits iv. At the end of a specified time period EITHER we re ready to put it in the strategic plan OR we need to reshape the intent

28 STRATEGIC PLANNING definable goals over 3-5 years learning outcomes support for teaching and learning quality management arrangements: resources, structures and organisation timescale; responsibility and costs

29 STRATEGIC PLAN Goal Actions Timescale Responsibility Costs Learning outcomes Support for teaching and learning quality Management arrangements: resources, structures and organisation

30 IN YOUR SCHOOL What s in place? Vision statement Values/ethos statement Clarity of purpose Long term strategic plan Medium term strategic plan Short term operational plan What s your involvement?

31 MONITORING Allocate actions in the plan to named governors Key performance indicators Traffic light system? Agree dates for monitoring Report back to relevant committee Chair takes overview, with Head Take action as required

32 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: AN EXAMPLE Staff morale There is a direct correlation between staff morale and staff performance; in short, happy workers perform better. Where staff morale is high, the quality of teaching is more likely to be high. Where the governing board is the employer, it has a duty of care to the school staff, and therefore needs to be aware of their wellbeing. Evidence: Staff surveys Staff absence data Staff turnover Feedback from teacher exit interviews

33 EVALUATION Formal process governors day? Key questions: Did we achieve what we set out to achieve? If not, why not? Assess significance Excuses or explanations? What goes into the next plan? Assess progress towards medium-term plan

34 SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT CYCLE How well are we doing? Account for success and failure How do we compare? Pupil achievement Strategic plan Vision Take action and review progress What more should we aim for? Regular reports, visits, M&E: challenge What must we do? SDP