Being well organised for me as a principal is that the school have a comprehensive School Development Plan (SDP) that covers the key elements of an effective school over a chosen duration like 3-5 years. Within the appropriate elements of the SDP there should be embedded explicit school effectiveness criteria. In the report I read there was regular mention of the schools' Business Plan (BP) but no convincing comment on how comprehensive it was. The BP was probably some form of an SDP. I can't warm to the BP nomenclature as the sense that a school is a business just doesn't resonate with me.
The SDP elements for me are:
1 1. The mission statement
2. The goals/aims of the school
3. The school leadership
organization, inclusive of distributive leadership.
4. The organisation of the school
for learning – staff/student configurations or class structures
5. The curriculum and standards
moderation, inclusive of NAPLAN testing.
6. Core principles of best practice
teaching and student learning processes as applied in the school.
7. The teacher driven assessment
program to ascertain student learning progress in the subjects/learning areas of
the chosen curriculum and the associated data bases of student records,
inclusive of NAPLAN testing and data bases.
8. The NAPLAN assessment program:
processes and practices.
9. The role of teachers and
administrative staff in monitoring the outcomes of student learning from the
prescribed curriculum to provide conclusions about the overall effectiveness of
that learning across the school.
10. The state at any one time of
student well-being across the school student population and the effectiveness
of the monitoring of this #1 priority school effectiveness criterion.
11.Communications within the school.
12. The representation on and role of
the School Board and the role of the P&C.
13.Parents the school and the
learning of the parents’ offspring.
14. Written and oral communications
with parents, with the main area of communication being the school reports on
student progress with their learning.
15. The infrastructure of the school
as being appropriate to student learning – included new structures, maintenance
of existing structures.
16. Student population predictions
and the concomitant staff and infrastructure needs.
17. Staff recruitment procedures in
terms of the needs of the school teaching and learning program and staff
induction programs.
18. Roles of non-teaching staff who
support in the classrooms and the administrative clerical staff.
19. Budget processes, inclusive of
evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness of budget decisions as applied to
facilitate the student learning program.
20. Occupational health and safety
procedures.
21. Staff welfare, inclusive of
procedures when staff are performing below the core standards expected in the
school.
22. Best practice teaching and the
related staff professional development.
23. Maintenance of and respect for
the symbols that are part of the culture
of the school, such as the uniform, the school flag, the school song, the traditional award trophies and ceremonies
that define the school.
24. Relationships with quasi
government assessment bodies appointed by the Sate or territory. This applies
more to secondary schools and the need to meet tertiary entrance requirements.
25. The Myschool website
requirements.
26. The Annual Report.
For each element there would be a
statement about its purpose, how it was to be organized, how it was to work, an
itemisation and costing of any resources needed and a set of strategies about
how to evaluate the effectiveness of this element of the SDP. The timeline over
the 3, 4 or 5 years of the SDP would show which items were up for evaluation in
the particular year. Elements 7, 8 and 9
focused on student learning would be in play week by week as they are part of
the ongoing learning program. Element 10
would be evaluated regularly according to a manageable schedule. Element 9 would be organised around the school processes for
reporting to parents, to the School Board and to any external authorities as
required.
1
Criterion #1 My
School Respects Me Every Day (Aligns
with SDP element
#10)
Criterion #2 My School Helps Me To Be Fit And Healthy And
To Feel Good
About Myself (Aligns with SDP
element #10)
Criterion #3 My Teacher(s) Talk To Me Personally Each Week
(Aligns with SDP element #10)
Criterion #4 My School Helps Me To Learn How To Learn
(Aligns with SDP element #6)
Criterion #5 My
School Makes Sure That As I Progress I Don’t Develop Gaps
In My English
Language, Mathematics And Digital Skills
Learning (Aligns
with SDP elements #s4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Criterion #6 My Child’s School Gives Me The Opportunity To
Be Part Of My
Child’s Learning
(Aligns with SDP elements 12, 13, 14)
Criterion #7 My School Cares About Me As A Staff Member
And Has
Reasonable
Expectations Of Me (Aligns with SDP elements
#s17, 18, 21)
Criterion #8 My School Was Rigorous In Taking Me On (Aligns with SDP
element #17)
Criterion #9 My School Gives Me Leadership Opportunities
(Aligns with
SDP element #3)
Criterion #10 My
School Relieves Me Of The Stress Of Severely Disruptive
Students (Aligns
with SDP element #21)
Criterion #11 We The School Staff Accept Responsibility For
Keeping Up To
Date (Aligns
with SDP element #s6 and 22)
Criterion #12 Our School’s Budget Spending Is Focussed On
Improving
Student Learning (Aligns
with SDP elements #s 15,16,19)
Criterion #13 We The School Staff Are One With The School
Board (Aligns
with SDP element #12)
Criterion #14 Our School Has Reassuring And Necessary OHS
Procedures
(Aligns with SDP element #20)
Criterion #15 Our School Focuses On Change That Improves
Student
Learning (Aligns
with SDP element #s 9, 15, 20)
Criterion #16 Communication Works In Our School Community (Aligns
with SDP element #11)
Criterion #17 Our School Respects The Traditions Of The
School Culture
(Aligns
with SDP element #23)
Criterion #18 We Laugh A Lot In Our School (Aligns with SDP
elements
#s10 and 21)
A Special School Effectiveness
Criterion: Our School Has An Effective
School Development Planning
Process
For me the
key features of an effective SDP are:
· It covers the main elements
describing the school as listed above.
· The elements of the SDP align in
large part to the criteria for school effectiveness.
· It ensures that all staff, parents,
the School Board and the students had appropriate opportunities to contribute to the development of the SDP.
· The SDP is cast over a suitable time
period such as 3-5 years so that targets 2, 3, 4 years ahead can be set for each element of the SDP as appropriate. In any particular year of the duration of an SDP some elements will have development objectives activated and other elements will be in a status quo situation.
· The SDP has built into its
requirements an evaluation agenda for finding out whether it worked as an SDP.
All of the above on the SDP and the School Effectiveness Criteria is explained further in my treatise on school effectiveness which is at the draft #4 stage. In this treatise I have set up an example of a working SDP for primary schools. The SDP process is vital also for secondary schools.
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