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CREATING MEANINGFUL STRATEGIC PLANS
Papanui High School
Working with Papanui High School on their strategic plan was a rewarding endeavour for ImpactEd.
We began with the school’s 75-page Charter. While a significant and rich document, the Charter laid out a complex set of goals and objectives that key stakeholders struggled to digest and put into practice—it was not workable for everyday use.
Principal Robert Gilbert asked ImpactEd to facilitate and lead a team of Senior Leaders and Board Members to co-construct a single-page strategic plan with two overarching strategic goals. After working with the team, consolidating data and getting to the heart of Papanui High’s strategy, a usable document was created.
Papanui High School Principal Robert Gilbert speaks of the process, "The guidance from the ImpactEd team was sensitive, professional, informed and relevant. They recognised how important this work is for us and their knowledge of the rules and regulations is so reassuring."
Papanui High School’s strategic plan complements the Charter. It is a clear, living plan that the school community is proud of, invested in and supported to implement.
Stoke Tāhunanui Kāhui Ako
Similarly at Stoke Tāhunanui Kāhui Ako, there was a wealth of information and planning but this data was not in a format for leaders and teachers to access or implement.
After working together in 2023 to create shared Curriculum Pathways in Mathematics, Reading and Writing and Aotearoa NZ Histories, Stoke Tāhunanui Kāhui Ako called on ImpactEd to help with creating a Strategic Plan.
It was the right time for Stoke Tāhunanui Kāhui Ako to do this work as there was a new lead principal, achievement challenges had been completed, and they were building on the curriculum pathways momentum.
“The ImpactEd team were once again our lifesavers,” says Kāhui Ako Lead Principal Barbara Bowen. The process started by supporting individual schools with the new requirements around strategic planning. Then ImpactEd helped identify common threads from individual school strategic plans and pull these into a one-page document that met government requirements and, importantly, was something the schools could see themselves in and feel ownership of. Speaking of the final document, Barbara says, “The result was a meaningful strategic plan that unites, guides, and supports senior leaders, across school leaders, kura and community.
The Strategic Plan is a living document that has already been used in the Kāhui Ako’s next challenge—helping to inform and guide the new Mathematics Curriculum document. Instead of having to wait to understand the new approach to curriculum, the Kāhui Ako took their knowledge of their students and what elements of the curriculum are too important to be left to chance and developed something that will endure.
“ImpactEd listened, advised, supported and guided us every step of the way,” reflects Barbara. “As a new Kāhui Ako Leader, it is a huge relief to know who to call when I meet my next hurdle and to know that ImpactEd will be there for us.”
