School’s vision and values workshops
Values are the guiding principles that determine behaviour, actions and words. At the heart of a school should lie values that are clearly defined and understood. These values underpin the culture that drives the teaching and learning in school and therefore the pupil’s experiences.
Effective values are not just a list of words displayed around a school. To be truly effective they should represent the staff’s vision of the kind of school they want to create, foster and lead. Those values then need to be fed into every part of school life, from lesson planning, to assemblies, to behaviour policies and the whole structure of the day. Achieving a strong set of values that are the heartbeat of the school involves cohesion and commitment from every member of staff to ensure that they are upheld, taught, promoted and communicated in a variety of ways.
How will a strong vision help senior leaders?
A strong set of core values will help Senior Leaders make strategic decisions for the school, such as what projects you take on in school and how you run them. A clear vision and values will define the relationships between staff, pupils, parents and the wider community. In addition, they will help ensure consistency and a unified level of experience for all involved in the school, therefore fostering a culture that helps people work together in an effective and valuable way – towards a common goal.
Why do we need a vision and values workshop?
It is essential that a school’s values are regularly reviewed and evaluated in order to ensure they are still relevant. Even small changes can completely transform the direction a school is heading and create shifts in positivity and attitudes from staff, pupils and parents alike.
Whether your school is looking for a complete transformation, new start or a reflection and re-establishment of what is the core mission of your school and how you as a staff want to achieve it, then a Vision and Values Workshop can help you. A session with our consultant will focus on helping you to identify and encapsulate a school vision and a set of values that will shape the strategic direction of your school.
What will you gain from a vision and values workshop?
Our Vision and Values workshops are aimed at encouraging reflection and giving you a clear driver to pin strategic decision making on in order to shape the future of your school through:
- Defining a clear vision and values
- Establishing missions for the school and individuals
- Identifying common goals
- Creating cohesion and unity amongst senior leadership/staff/ community
- Developing a clear strategy for implementing/communicating vision and values
How does the workshop work?
Below are some examples of what can be covered, however, the workshop can be tailored to your needs. Sessions can run over a half or full day according to your school’s requirements. Sessions can be run with senior leadership teams, whole staff groups or a combination of both for example:
Senior Leaders half-day session
- Considering the current strengths and challenges of the school (this can include reflecting on the school’s self identified improvement plan areas, parts of Ofsted reports and other self evaluations/ accreditations that are relevant or important to the school)
- Vision and values history – what has worked and what benefits have there been with previous visions and values?
- Vision and values exercises – to identify and define these
- Incorporation of current school requirements e.g., Unicef Rights Respecting, BLP, Growth Mindsets, etc
- Implementation planning
Whole school half-day session
- Considering the current strengths and challenges of the school
- Individual vision and values exercise – what motivates tour staff, what are their personal visions and values
- Merge of findings from the leadership and whole school session to reach a common and shared understanding
- Implementation and next steps
Combining a half day with Senior Leaders followed by a whole school session can enable you to absorbing and incorporating findings from the whole school session into the findings and thoughts of the Senior Leaders to finalise an clear and cohesive set of vision and values that the whole school believe in.
Testimonial
‘Participating in this workshop allowed me to think deeply about my career as a teacher and what my vision is for myself in this profession. This was an area that I hadn’t yet explored seriously so was challenging, yet enlightening for me.‘ Marilyn, Osmani Primary School.
