Please read this message from Narelle Umbers and take the opportunity to sign up for one of our forthcoming Focus Groups. This is a very exciting time for Marsden Whitby and we would like input from as many of our community as possible!
Anne Winnall
A message from the Principal, Narelle Umbers
We are about to enter an exciting time for the Marsden Schools’ community as our Board of Management embarks on a strategic planning journey over the next few months. The refreshed strategy which will result from this process will represent Marsden Whitby’s plan for the immediate future (2019 – 2021) and outline the areas we will focus on as a school. Strategy matters enormously to me and to our Boards. We are aware that we need to have a high degree of intentionality in everything that we do because we are responsible for ensuring that the young adults in our care have access to incredible educational opportunities that will allow them to live up to their potential. We are also the current stewards of this wonderful school and in this role we need to ensure that Marsden Whitby will hold its place as a leader in education in New Zealand well into the future.
Every organisation is capable of continuous improvement and needs to plan for this. Without a clear plan or strategy, even the best school can drift. To me, strategy is just as much about what you choose not to do, as it is about what you choose to do. But a strategy can only have high impact if it is more than just a document … there needs to be ownership and impact of the chosen set of actions across the school. Everyone, from board members to teachers to community partners needs to understand the strategy and be able to talk about how their work relates to it. Decision-making at every level of the school also needs to be aligned to the strategy.
To help ensure that we create this kind of high impact strategy, we will be running a series of focus groups to allow the various stakeholder groups within our school community to have input into our strategic planning process. There will be opportunities for students, staff, parents and our various school organisations to participate in these structured sessions, which will be run by an external facilitator from Tuesday 5 June through to Saturday 9 June. These sessions will provide us with the opportunity to listen to the views of our community on our future direction.
I would like to invite you, the members of our parent community, to participate in this process by signing up for one of the parent focus groups. Dates, times and information on how to sign up can be found here.
I hope that you will take up this opportunity to contribute to this important process.
Narelle Umbers