Overview

Purpose & Expectations

Outcomes:

  1. School community ownership and coherence of agreed school vision, school improvement priorities and actions is enhanced,

  2. Improvement planning is data informed,

  3. School context and process drive school improvement planning/support aligned to the system framework,

  4. School Improvement Plan developed meets the requirements under the Australian Education Act 2013.

Expectations:

  1. Engagement with the system mission to further develop the 'Ideal School'.

  2. Completion of a ‘Situational Analysis Report’ (SAR) to inform the development of school goals,

  3. Development of a School Improvement Plan in the ‘agreed’ system planning template.

Proposed Timeline

School Review Cycle

Key Terms for Understanding

Alignment – Systemness achieved through aligning policies and frameworks across school clusters, developing an understanding of how things fit. Alignment is not much use without coherence, as alignment alone will not inform you of how people in school experience alignment day to day.

Coherence - Is the shared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of the work by all staff to achieve the agreed mission and vision. It is what is in the hearts, minds and behaviours of people individually and collectively. It is a continuous process of making and re-making meaning in your own mind of your school and its culture. It involves a small number of ambitious goals, being relentlessly pursued, being vigilant about reducing distractors, helping with professional capacity building, using data transparently for developmental purposes, and working collaboratively to mark progress with lots of feedback and supportive intervention. A test of cohesion according to Fullan and Quinn (2016), is indicated when staff, students and parents can articulate the mission of the school and the agreed ways the community is going about achieving it.

Mission - answers the question “Why do we exist?” Mission is about today – ‘Enabling students to achieve the fullness of life’. The mission should be succinct and hence if well understood, provide a sense of purpose, motivation, organisational boundary and encapsulate what success will mean for our students

Vision - answers the question - “What will the future look like as we fulfil our mission? What will be different?” Vision is about the future, what will outcomes for our students look like? It should describe or paint a picture of the future that will come to be as we carry out our mission. The vision usually comprises a number of belief and value statements that make explicit the desired culture and the behaviours

Domains of Strategic Intent – Five broad areas of aspirational strategic intent defined as compelling statements about the direction of the Catholic Schools Office and parish schools. The domains are;

  • Mission

  • Pastoral Care

  • Leadership

  • Learning and Teaching

  • Family School Partnership