What is Digital Governance and why do I need it?

A presentation on Digital Governance given at the JESS Digital Summit on Sunday 4th November 2018 with my good friend Jim Stearns from VISS.

 

Some thoughts on how to implement an effective school digital strategy - CenturyTech Video

A training video made by CenturyTech for their teacher and school leader CPD site in which I talk about how to Implement an effective school digital strategy.

 

Thanks to CenturyTech for making this video.
You can join the CenturyTech CPD Hub here: https://cpd.century.tech/login

#Futureproofing your School: A Toolkit for Bursars

A presentation given to the COBIS Bursars' Conference at Dubai College on Friday 2nd February 2018.

Mission, Strategy and Development Planning

One of the most important roles of any leadership team is to plan for the future and set a direction of travel for the organisation so that it can thrive and not just survive. Most School Leadership Teams and Governing Bodies have little problem generating a whole range of ideas about how they would like the school to develop in the future. However, in my experience there are three important factors which differentiate those schools who are successful at future planning from those who are disastrous:

1. Successful schools know what they are about; 
2. Successful schools plan for the future strategically; 
3. Successful schools get the most out of the limited resources available. 

These three concepts are at the heart of future planning.

Mission – The Why?

Mission is really about explaining why the organisation exists (See Simon Sinek’s The Importance of Why). Often this is embedded deep in the past, in the very foundation of the organisation. For most independent schools this will be found in the ‘charitable object’. Mission Statements are perhaps less fashionable than they were a decade ago, but the starting point for all future planning has to be some sort of overarching aim or purpose which reflects the core values of the organisation. 

The key mission questions are: 

• What are our core values? 
• What do we stand for? 
• What are we trying to achieve? 

JESS Dubai’s Mission Statement is founded on its core value of ‘making a difference’: 

JESS Dubai aims to be a school that has a global reputation for delivering an education that challenges young people to make a difference. 

Berkhamsted School developed its mission by having 10 aims (6 Educational Aims and 4 Operational Aims) and all future planning was expected to contribute to at least one of these aims. 

Strategic Planning – The How? 

Strategy is concerned with defining how the organisation fulfils its mission. It does this by deciding how the organisation fits into the wider marketplace and by determining its shape and extent. The most important strategic questions is: 

• What is our market niche? 

The role of the strategist is to plot the course for the organisation within the terms of the its mission adapting to changing external conditions. Strategic plans should never be fixed – they are provisional. The strategist therefore needs high quality information to be able to analyse market changes. There are a whole number of tools to facilitate this: 

• PESTEL Analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) is a tool for determining external business environmental factors. 
• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a self-evaluative tool for determining the organisations priorities for development and investment. 
• Porter’s Five Forces Model is a tool that sets out to identify the attractiveness of an industry in terms of five competitive forces: the threat of entry, the threat of substitutes, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers and the extent of the rivalry between the companies. 
• Resourced Based Analysis is a tool that identifies those resources within an organisation which can bring it a sustained competitive advantage. Rare, Valuable, Inimitable and Organizational Process. 
• Key Success Factor Competitor Analysis is a tool that examines four key areas (price, product quality, service and reassurance) which differentiate market leaders from their competitors. 

These and other similar tools enable School leaders to determine where the school sits in the marketplace and to answer the following fundamental strategic questions: 

• What is the optimum size of the school? 
• What is the optimum structure of the school? 
• Co-ed v Single Sex? 
• Curriculum type? 
• Boarding v Day? 
• What is the Pastoral Care Structure? 

These are questions of policy and should be determined by Governors.

The answers to these fundamental questions will change over time as the marketplace in which it is operating changes. The past twenty years has seen most independent schools in the UK shift on at least one of these fundamental strategic questions: boarding schools have taken day pupils, single sex schools have embraced coeducation, prep schools have opened pre-preps and nurseries; senior schools have opened tied junior schools; schools have merged and have grown size, schools now provide year-round wrap-around care for working parents. The Berkhamsted Schools Group today is a product of all of these changes – it is structurally a different school in nearly every respect to the school that it was in 1997. 

Development Planning – The What? 

Development Planning is concerned with what the organisation is going to do to enable it to adapt and improve – within the strategic parameters. Development planning plots how we are going to get from where we are (A) to where we want to be (B). Development Planning is really about the allocation of scarce resources: 

• Time – in school terms this means the shape of the school day and the curriculum allocation; 
• People – teaching and support staff; 
• Space – classrooms and meeting rooms ; 
• Skills – training, CPD and INSET days; 
• Money – capital expenditure, fit-outs, staffing and other running costs. 

Planning is where vision meets reality. It is about how a school is going to spend time and money and how it is going to use its people, space and skills. These are questions of process and should be determined at an executive level within a budget determined by Governors.

Poor development planning happens when it is not tied to the school strategy and when schools mindless follow what other schools are doing on the principle of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. Too many schools invested in Interactive Whiteboards and iPads to impress prospective parents without having any training or idea of where they fitted into a teaching and learning pedagogy for the school. The result is a lost opportunity and a waste of money. 

Final Thoughts 

Future planning requires an enormous amount of work. It is not simply the generation of a list of ‘nice-to-have’ projects. It is about striking a balance between the internal (self-knowledge of what the school in essence is about and its priorities) and the external (understanding of the wider operational environment). Above all, it requires striking a balance between strong traditional core values and an open-mindedness as to how these can be applied for the benefit of the next generation of pupils.

The Role of the HoD within Whole-School Planning

Presentation that forms part of the Strategic Planning module Independent Schools Qualification in Academic Management (ISQAM) Level Two course run by HMCPD and GSAPD in partnership with the IoE. 

The Role of Heads of Department in Whole-School Planning

The Presentation for the Strategic and Development Planning module (Module 8) of the Independent Schools Qualification in Academic Management (ISQAM) Level Two Course. 

Presentation given at the training course on Thursday 10th October 2013.

Strength in Numbers?

The mTm VWV Practical Strategies Conference (18/09/12) explored various ways in which schools collaborate to form School Groups.
I was asked to speak about the Berkhamsted Schools Group and the mergers with Heatherton and Haresfoot.

• Click here for the report of the Main Session:  Strength in Numbers?
• Click here for the PPT slides of the Main Session: Strength in Numbers?
• Click here for the report of the Breakout Session: The Tale of Two Mergers
• Click here for the PPT slides of the Breakout Session: The Tale of Two Mergers

Independent School Mergers: Winning Hearts and Minds

When a small, free-standing prep school merges with a much larger school or Group, the greatest challenge is winning over the “hearts and minds” of the key interest groups:

Governors.

The Governors of a small, free-standing prep school (or indeed the owners in the case of a proprietorial school) are in all likelihood all too aware of their predicament. Governors often feel the weight of history. They are bound by the tradition that they received, and have a duty, within what is possible, to ensure that the school is passed on to their successors in good shape. Inevitably some will see merger as a failure on their part; others will take the pragmatic view that it is the only way to see the school move forward. The danger here is that all too often they can hesitate and not seize the moment before them.

The Governors of the Group or larger school have a different agenda. They will need to be satisfied that the expansion of the Group will not impact on the “core” operation. Their concerns are likely to be in terms of whether or not the “satellite school” will be a short or long-term financial burden, and if it is going to prove too much of a distraction for key members of the senior management and support teams. However, the most fundamental question of the Governors of the larger school is, “Do the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term effort?”

Staff.

Because a merger is only a change in Governance, outwardly it impacts most on those whose roles bring them closest to Governors. The Headteacher, the Bursar and the senior team will be most affected by the changes and potentially the most anxious. That said all staff will be anxious about their jobs and career development and all will need reassurance.

Parents.

Parents view schools through the filter of their child. A parent’s first reaction to the news of a merger is to ask, “How is this going to affect my child?” and then, “How is it going to affect me?” Parents want incredibly detailed information, “Will the school uniform or sports kit change?” “Will the fees go up?” “Will drop-off times and location change?” “Will my child’s teacher change?” “Will the Headteacher change?” and so on. It is vital that the schools know and communicate the answers to all of these questions at the earliest possible stage. The most problematic mergers are ones that involve restructure, for this means change. Even, when there is no change, getting parents on board is incredibly time-consuming, but it is vital.

The key to winning the hearts and minds of key groups is developing trust and good communication. The role of the Headteacher of the prep school is fundamental here. The Headteacher is the person who was entrusted to run the school by the Governors, he is the leader of the staff and the face of the school who is trusted by parents and staff alike.

Small Independent Schools - How to escape from being between a rock and a hard place?

Parents love small schools. Parents sending their child to an independent school for the first time want their child’s school to be a “home-from-home”. They want the school to be local so they are not spending hours each day on the school run, and where the school provides a focus for wider community activities and life. They don’t want their son or daughter to be lost in a large school, instead they often choose a school where they know that their child is valued and known to all the staff. These are some of the reasons why small schools continue to compete successfully against larger ones, which perhaps have superior facilities.


However, times are tough for the small free-standing school. The challenges are well known:

1. Compliance and Regulation. The regulatory burden on the Independent Sector means that it is increasingly difficult for the senior management team of a small school to ensure that their school is fully compliant. ISI require ever more policies, procedures and checks to be in place; and the nature of compliance and health and safety matters means that schools increasingly need specialists in this area. Changes in employment, disability and equality legislation have placed additional burdens on senior managers to keep up to date.
2. The Micawber Principle. It is often the case with small schools that the surplus is represented by a relatively small number of pupils. A small swing of as few as five to ten pupils could wipe out the whole surplus and put a school into a deficit situation.
3. Lack of Economies of Scale. Small schools do not have the purchasing power to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale.
4. “Poverty Trap”. It is unlikely that a small school that is generating a surplus of, say, £100k-£150k p.a. is ever going to manage to complete a significant capital project. Banks are reticent to lend significant sums of money to small schools because the gearing required would be too great. Small schools are therefore caught in a “poverty trap” from which they cannot escape. They cannot invest in the significant capital spend that will enable them to increase the numbers to move to the next level and to service the loans. Inevitably, therefore, they fall further and further behind their rivals, until they eventually become uncompetitive and fail.

It is very important that small schools survive as they give parents choice. Parental choice is one of the key drivers for ever higher standards in our sector. One of the reasons that Independent Schools are amongst the best in the world because they operate in a competitive environment – there are no Government bail outs or subsidies for us – we either provide what parents want, or we go to the wall.

Small schools need to find strength in numbers, either by working together to share costs and to achieve economies of scale; or by merging or by becoming part of a wider group of schools. At present most of the groups of schools are in the "For-Profit" sector, but I am sure that we are going to see a rise in the number of Charity/ "Not-for-Profit" groups.