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Senior Manager, Strategic Coordination, Public Schools Portfolio

1. INTRODUCTION
This document provides to principals, staff and school communities guidance in developing the school plan for each three year planning cycle, and indicates how the plan relates to annual school reporting over the three years. It is consistent with the d epartment’s School Planning Policy , PD 2008/0378.
Schools will develop one three year plan which is updated annually.
The three year plan will contain longer-term priority areas for school improvement with intended outcomes, and shorter-term annual performance targets that describe the incremental, quantifiable progress towards the achievement of the intended outcomes.
School planning empowers members of the school community to make a positive difference for students. This process will involve the active participation of staff, students and members of the school community.
Under the leadership of the principal, self-evaluation, planning and reporting processes will be developed and implemented as part of the three year planning cycle.
2. PLAN PREPARATION, SUBMISSION AND ENDORSEMENT
2.1
The school plan is designed to improve the educational outcomes of all students. The planning process provides an opportunity for principals to collaborate with their staff, students and communities to identify priorities, determine outcomes and targets, design strategies and allocate resources for improvement.
2.2 The publicly available school plan provides a framework for the strategic allocation of resources, performance monitoring and reporting within the local context. School plans will reflect the relevant elements of the NSW State Plan and key departmental planning documents .
2.3
The school plan will identify long term priorities for improvement based on a thorough evaluation of the school using a variety of data sources and will contain quantifiable targets.
2.4 There will only be one school plan for each three year period . Schools receiving additional resources through equity or other targeted programs will integrate the intended outcomes, targets and resources for these programs into the plan. Program guidelines, accountability and reporting requirements will be addressed in the plan. It may contain a brief appendix or schedule to meet particular accountability requirements of these programs.
2.5
As core elements of the plan should remain constant over the three year planning cycle, a new school plan is not required each year. Ongoing school evaluation, led by the principal, will review and revise the school plan annually, taking account of the extent to which the incremental targets have been achieved and particular strategies have proven to be effective.
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2.6
The draft plan or the revised plan will be submitted to the school education director at a negotiated time during Term 4 of each year. The school education director needs to endorse the plan before it is made available to the school community by 31 March in the following year. Plans may remain in draft form until March, given that some data may not be available until after the end of the school year.
3. ELEMENTS OF SCHOOL PLANNING
Descriptions of the key elements of the school plan are provided below to assist in developing a shared understanding of the school planning process. All school plans will contain these elements.
Schools are given the option to use the planning template or create their own format.
3.1 School context
3.1.1 An understanding of the context in which a school operates is an essential, initial component of the planning process. To align with the annual school report, a statement regarding the school context may include:
 school’s values, beliefs, aspirations and/or vision
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background information on the specific features of the school and its community
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student performance information
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staff information
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significant school programs
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priority areas and achievements from the previous plan.
3.2 Priority areas
3.2.1 Priority areas also make explicit the school’s contribution to government and departmental priorities to enhance public education in NSW. This will be achieved through the alignment of school plans with the priorities for NSW government schools as reflected in the State Plan and the Department’s corporate planning documents.
3.2.2 The school’s priorities provide a summary of the priority areas identified as being of central importance to teaching, student learning and school improvement during the three year school planning cycle.
3.2.3 Priorities are identified through consultative planning processes and data analysis. This process will incorporate consideration of findings and future directions based on contextual analysis of school data and other available evidence.
3.2.4 The priority areas in the school plan lead to the development of targets and strategies that have a shorter time frame for implementation.
3.3
Intended outcomes
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3.3.1 Outcomes describe what a school wants to achieve by the end of the three year planning cycle in each school-identified priority area.
3.3.2 Outcomes are clear, specific and concise statements that indicate what the school aims to achieve.
3.2.3 Outcomes can be measured or evaluated through the collection of data or through observation during and at the end of the three year planning cycle.
3.2.4 Outcomes addressing literacy and numeracy are required in all school plans to align school planning and accountability to state and regional plans.
3.4 Targets
3.4.1 Targets describe the incremental steps to the achievement of the intended outcomes.
3.4.2 There may be more than one target for an intended outcome.
3.4.3 To align school planning and accountability to state and regional plans, overarching school targets should be set in line with state and regional targets. Literacy and Numeracy targets are mandatory.
3.4.4 More specific targets or indicators can be added to assist in focusing school improvement.
3.4.5 Targets should be:
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S pecific
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M easurable and manageable
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A chievable, appropriate and agreed
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R elevant, realistic and recorded
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T ime-related
3.4.6 Monitoring of the school plan focuses on progress towards the intended outcomes of the three year plan through the achievement of annual targets.
3.4.7 School education directors can assist principals and school communities in identifying and setting targets. Principals also have access to a statistical tool
(link here) that provides school staff with past student performance data and can support the development of literacy and numeracy targets based on this data.
3.5 Strategies
3.5.1 Strategies are specific actions that are designed to achieve the outcomes and targets for each school identified priority area.
3.5.2 Strategies may be programs, projects and interventions, changes to school processes or decisions to cease a program or activity.
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3.5.3 Strategies may be school developed or influenced by state or regional initiatives.
3.5.4 The effectiveness of strategies can be monitored through the use of indicators. If strategies are effective, it can be expected that the associated targets will be achieved or exceeded.
3.6 Indicators
3.6.1 Indicators are included in the plan to describe the progress a school expects to observe or measure if the strategies are working as expected.
3.6.2 Indicators demonstrate whether the identified strategies are achieving the intended outcome or target.
3.6.3 School self-evaluation processes should be identified at the same time the school plan is developed and should describe how the strategies and outcomes will be evaluated.
Many researchers including Guskey (2000) suggest that the implementation of key stages of a strategy is a prerequisite to seeing improvements in student learning. In such situations, indicators should be linked and sequential, eg:
3.7 Responsibility
3.7.1 The plan identifies key staff members (title only) or teams who have been identified as responsible for leading, implementing and monitoring each strategy. Individual names are not to be recorded on the plan.
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3.8 Time frames
3.8.1 Time frames provide an indication of the period over which strategies will be implemented.
The timeframes should not exceed three years.
3.9 Resource allocation and funding source
3.9.1 Successful implementation of a strategy requires an accurate indication for the coming year of the financial resources or equivalent (such as relief days) to be made available.
3.9.2 The school plan should also indicate from which source the money or resource has been allocated and will include all available resources.
3.9.3 School planning processes will be strategically aligned with school budgeting procedures.
3.9.4 There should be a strategic alignment between available resources (human and financial) and priorities.
3.10 Approval of additional elements
3.10.1 Where other Department of Education and Communities business units wish to have additional elements included in school plans they should seek the written approval of the Deputy Director-General, Public Schools.
4. REPORTING ON THE SCHOOL PLAN
4.1 School Principals will engage in professional conversations with their school education directors regarding the progress of the school plan.
4.2 Schools will report on the progress made in achieving the intended outcomes of the school plan in the annual school report.
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