Heads Together: Building a Vision

A few things I learned about building a vision on my Heads Together course.

A School Development Plan (SDP) should be based on:

• School Self-Evaluation (SEF)
• Your vision
• Continuous reflection
• Ofsted
• Local and national development

The vision for your school should be a statement. There should be a tag line which sums up your values succinctly. Everyone should know this tag line.

Every September, talk about the vision. Is everything still on track? What are the non-negotiables? What will be seen in every classroom?

When planning your SDP, write the success criteria. This should be time specific. Write the operations and actions that need to happen.

Share the successes with all stakeholders.

When do you set your SDP? Schools set theirs at different times. It's good practice to set the plan in September, but review it when the RaiseOnline report for the school comes out.

Three year plans are good for financial planning, but are not always good for curriculum targets. So choose time scales carefully.

Choose a small number of developments (around 5) but do they very well.