School Development Planning (SDP) element #26

Hi to my followers out there in school land!  This is the final element of the SDP.  Do I hear sighs of relief?

SDP element #26	The Annual Report
Aligned SE criterion	In a general sense the parents can access the Annual Report of the school as an extra line of communication.
Current school documentation and situation	The school documentation affirms the requirement of an Annual Report and contains a suitable template that is flexible enough for items specific to a particular year.
Development objectives for 2016	Compile and publish the Annual Report.
Resources needed ·       people, ·       money ·       time ·       location ·       stationery ·       IT	·       Administrative and clerical staff ·       Over a 4 week period ·       On site ·       Relevant IT data bases
Timeline to achieve the objective(s)	During Term 4 2016
Process for achieving the objectives	Gather the relevant data and compile the report.
Outcome(s) of the assessment of the attainment of the objective(s)	An Annual Report was produced for 2016.  It adequately informed the school community members and met the requirements of the National School Opinion Survey.

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You might recall if you have followed this blog for some time that each post is part of a book in final editing.  The book is about school effectiveness and how to ascertain how effective a school is.  It is written by a narrator/scribe about the views of Tom, a revered educator.  The whole book is put down on Tom's boat. This will assist you to make sense of the closing paragraphs of the book as follows:

"There it all was.  Tom concluded that evaluating school effectiveness was a formative process enshrined in the SDP.  If the evaluation revealed ineffective practices then change needed to occur.  Summative snap shots of student performance in some syllabus areas were to be obtained from the NAPLAN testing.  Even this was formative in the sense that it could reveal areas in the learning program that needed improvement.

Tom noted that schools have access to The National Improvement Tool (NSIT) developed by the ACER and approved by the Australian Council of Ministers of education for use in Australian schools.  He suggested that it is well worth a look by schools as helpful for their school improvement strategies.  (See NSIT on the internet)

It was early evening and we sat and had a quiet drink to unwind from the intensity of the day.  Tom had invited me to stay for the night and I was pleased to do so.  It had been a pleasure working with this unassuming educator.  We chatted about the tasks that I now had ahead of me to put the treatise into publishing order.  Tom being the practical and humble person that he was expressed some doubts about the usefulness of the treatise to practising principals.  I tried to put his mind at rest and indicated that we would make a good fist of getting it out there and let the audience decide the worth of the work.   It was a beautiful night on the river with the lights of the distant city reflected on the calm river surface and the lapping of the water gently on the hull.  Sleep came easily."

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There it is folks for what it is worth.  GD is all but written out on being a school Principal.  I am here to interact if anyone is interested.  Maybe we could strike up a dialogue or the overused term a "conversation".   I humbly submit that maybe I can be of help with a problem you may be experiencing as a school Principal.

I close this post by reiterating how I loved being a school Principal.  I guess I have been reliving those happy years in writing the book and posting this blog.

May the Force be with you!

GD