Reflection on the process and development of school development plan

Reflection on the process and development of school development plan

Darvesh Karim

Assistant Instructor

Professional Development Center, North

University Road, Konodass, Gilgit.

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          The purpose of school development planning is to improve the teaching and learning in a school through the successful management of innovation and change. It encourages governors, heads, teachers, parents and support staff to ask these basic questions such as where is the school now, what changes do we need to make? And how shall we manage these changes overtime and how should we know whether our management of change has been successful. Moreover, School development plan helps the school to provide practical answers of these questions.

In our strategic planning course, in a group of four CPs, our facilitators sent us to a school to develop a practical strategic development planning in the real context.  The main purpose of this activity was to implement the theory in the practical life. So, before, going to the school in our group we developed our overall planning.  In our first visit we developed a strategic planning team. After that to ensure the above mentioned questions we used different tools and strategies such a SWOT analysis, PEST analysis to find out the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. On the base of SWOT & PEST analysis we (SDP team and IED team) were able to develop school vision. After vision development, we developed the goals and objectives for five years on the base of vision. We made an action plan according to our goals and objective. After that, to make it more specific we divided the activites on monthly basis for the whole academic year 2008-2009. At last we developed a monitoring plan of action plan for the academic year 2008- 2009.

Our learning experiences

During the planning, we worked in collaboration which Harris cited in Rhodes and Beneicke (2003) argues that teacher collaboration is necessary in professional learning and assigned individual roles to each member in order to ensure the contribution and ownership of each member. Similarly, in our group, we conducted meetings in which each one of us shared their understanding and progress with the whole group. We appreciated each others’ contribution and it developed the interest of each group member in one hand. On the other hand, it developed mutual understanding and trust on each other. It provided us a friendly environment to work comfortably with each other. This process remained till the end of this task. We ensured equal participation of each member during the planning. I realized that by distributing individual task and listening and acknowledging others work makes the demanding job a rewarding one. Again the cooperation worked in two ways; first, it built the confidence of each other on their own potential and abilities and second, it provided opportunity to learn from each others expertise. In short, I drew two conclusions first; individual task is significant to make any group work successful. Second, equal opportunity provided the group to maximize their work quality while synergizing each others capabilities and potentials.

In short, I would say that to make group activity successful, it is important that there should be equal contribution of every individual and equal delegation of task among the group members make it more effective, easy and enjoyable task for the whole group members.

Challenges

Firstly, it was a new and challenging experience for me because before, I did not get such kind of opportunity to develop a school development plan. Secondly, working in a group is not an easy task because in a group different people have different ideas and perception. Sometime, it could be very difficult to make mutual decisions and agree with each others ideas or especially to have an access with the group members because every one of us was busy in their own tough schedules. Moreover, in the school some time we faced difficulty to have an easy access with our strategic planning team because they had reluctant to provide us time from their daily routine schedules. However, the principal and teachers were very cooperative. Therefore, we managed to complete our task in the given time. 

Individual reflections

            The School Development Planning process gave me good opportunities to strengthen my prior knowledge about planning and some new skills which cam from my colleagues in my group. The plan was processed in a collegial environment with a sense of sink or swim together. The planning team of the concerned school was actively involved throughout the process. We paid three trips with a notion of our own learning as well as giving some advantages to the concern school.

            Although the proceedings of the plan proved to be positive for me yet, I can not rule out some of the challenges which I encountered during planning activities. I was engaged in such a practical planning activity for the first time. As a novice teacher it became challenging for me in applying a learned theory in a real context. However, I tried my level best to accomplish the pieces of tasks which were assigned to me by my group members bringing my classroom learning to the process as well as with the frequent consultation of the group members.

            I felt no huge challenges in putting the theory into practice. The only challenge which I, personally, felt with this school is that, this school is owned by an individual who is the managing director of the school and she is not in favor of evolving community members in school management. SDP planning tool suggests involving board of directors and some community members in School Development Planning. We kept convincing the managing director and persuaded her to involve community members in school affairs to ensure better learning.

            Based on the work experience in the planning process personally, I realize that, in some of the Pakistani schools, decision making power resides in central offices. Especially, the decisions regarding the utilization of the funds come from the central authority. In this connection the schools feel difficulty in allocating strategic resources according to their requirements. I suggest, there should be a separate column/ activity in the planning tool regarding budget/fund for implementing the plan. For example, whom to consult, where to access etc? overall, I enjoyed working with my group members.