Recommendations for Strategic Planning - Essay Example

A school and its departments need regular revisions in strategic planning and program in order to keep up d in the competitive world. Activities need to be arranged that help the school environment to remain appropriate for best learning possible. This paper discusses some very crucial activities that need to be arranged at proper intervals so that the relation between teachers, parents and students get a strong meaning which will be beneficial for the whole school community. Recommendations for strategic planning include conducting surveys among school teachers and officials regarding what changes they might like to be brought in the school environment and the curriculum; among students regarding any problems they might be having inside school premises like school bullying; and, among parents regarding what they think of school’s performance with respect to their children’s academic results. 2. An activity needs to be arranged which should address such situations like a parent coming with a complaint or a community member raising a conflict. The administrator will need to arrange a meeting with the complaining party. When the parents come, they should first be made comfortable with tea and snack. Then, their complaint will be listened to and recorded. After that, relevant persons who can solve the issue will be called and they will meet the parents. A shared collaboration will be carried out in order to reach a solution that is equally acceptable to all involved. If the conflict is so big that it cannot be solved through meeting, then a mediatory party will be arranged who will listen to the conflicting parties and will reach an unbiased solution. This activity relates to the school administrator in that all parents who have complaints about the school or their children’s performance always come to the administrator to get the issue resolved hence, it is necessary for him to arrange meetings with them so that the atmosphere remains calm and parents are satisfied. This all adds to the school’s repertoire and is beneficial for the whole of school community because when issue get resolved there and then, it results in overall satisfaction of everybody involved in the conflict. On the other hand, when issues remain unresolved, it results in tension between the parties which are the teachers and parents in this case, and this weighs heavily on children’s academic performance eventually. To sum up, this activity involves arranging meetings with the parents and entertaining them in the best possible way. 3. Lunch supervision is very important if the aim is to achieve discipline among students. It is a common practice that students do not follow any rules and regulations during lunch time and since they are feeling hungry, so lunch lines become a mess as every child tries to get his turn first. Activity will include arranging a queue supervisor who will be a teacher or a class monitor. He will make the students form queues and will be present there for the whole of the lunch time to keep a check in students. He will make sure that no student breaks the queue and tries to get ahead of his turn. He will note down the names of students breaking the rule and will notify them to the school administrator. Students who follow the rule strictly will also be notified to the administrator and they will be appreciated in front of their classes. Doing so will motivate the students to keep a check on their own selves and with the passage of time, they will learn to stay in disciplined queues without the need for having a supervisor keeping an eye on them constantly. This activity relates to the school administrator in that he is responsible for the maintenance of discipline within school premises. He has to take steps to ensure that no student gets indulged in an activity that is a threat to school discipline. This activity will be beneficial to the overall school community because discipline will be achieved through control. Also, lunch time will be very peaceful with properly arranged lunch lines. Students will learn to respect rules and will learn how to be patient and sacrifice for others. 4. Planning, preparing, and running a staff meeting and/or staff development day is very important in order to keep the staff working along in harmony on a collaborative platform. Activity will include running a questionnaire among teachers regarding when they want to hold the staff meeting in which they will be given the opportunity to talk out their issues and problems with the school administration. Then, according to their responses in the questionnaires, it will be decided when the meeting will be arranged so that no one’s schedule gets disturbed and all teachers happily participate in the meeting. Meeting will be held inside the staff room where all teachers will discuss about the school’s strengths and weaknesses and how to overcome those weaknesses. Tea and snacks will be arranged and the overall atmosphere will be kept peaceful and enjoyable. Each teacher will be given individual consideration so that they feel their importance and feel empowered in making decisions. Their family lives will also be discussed so that they feel valued and they will be given chance to give their opinions about each other. This activity relates to the school administrator in that he is responsible for the job satisfaction of all teachers. When teachers will be happy, then they will be able to teach more efficiently and with dedication. Satisfied teachers are a key success factor of all schools. This activity will benefit the overall school community in that teachers will feel that they are being respected and are ensured that their issues will always get resolved no matter what happens. This will motivate them to do even more hard work toward the betterment of students in particular and the school in general. 5. Planning, preparing, and running a parent involvement activity is also an important task that the school administrator should perform. Activity will include arranging a painting competition among students and they will also get help from their parents. Parents will be sent invitation cards to attend the painting competition which will be held in the school lawn. All proper arrangements will be done one day prior to the competition. Participants and their parents will create paintings which will then be judged by three judges. Three best paintings will get the reward. Parents will also be encouraged to give compliments on the activity and will be asked whether they want such activities to be arranged in the future as well. If they enjoy the activity, then they will be asked to give their recommendations as to what kind of parent involvement activities they would like to be held in future and how often. The time of the activity will be after 12 pm so that working parents and fathers also get the opportunity to attend the activity with their children after their office hours. This will make them feel respected and valued and they will learn how enjoyable it is to take active participation in their children’s co-curricular activities at school. This activity relates to the school administrator because he should keep on taking such measures that encourage parent involvement in their children’s academic life. Just like teachers, parents must also be given the feeling of empowerment so that are kept satisfied with the school performance. This benefits the school community because parent-teacher relationship will get improved and they will come on better terms with each other which is beneficial for the children eventually. This activity will also strengthen parent-child relationship because children will enjoy their parents’ participation in their life in such a beautiful way. Parents hold a big responsibility toward their children and this activity will give them an opportunity to spend some quality time with them which will be enjoyable for all equally. 6. Attending the board meeting is very necessary to reflect upon the role of the board. The activity will include attending the board meeting and speaking about the curriculum and the changes that need to be made. The curriculum should be revised every year so that includes the latest lessons and trends that the students must be equipped with. The school administrator will raise issues about old curriculum and will make an appeal to all board members to take steps to revise the school curriculum according to the international standards. The board will be notified that such a meeting is to be called for, and then all preparations must be made in the form of document or speech to present in front of the board members. This relates to the school administrator in that he is responsible for what curriculum is being taught to the students and whether or not it correlates with the international standards. Updated curriculum is beneficial for the students because it helps them get equipped with the latest updates from the world and increases their knowledge. As a result, learning is enhanced. In short, this activity will help make a fruitful revision to the curriculum by raising the issue in front of the board members. Read More