School Councils

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Strategic Planning & Policy

Role of school councils in strategic planning and policy

The school council is responsible for ensuring that the school has a Strategic Plan that sets out the schools’ goals and targets for the next four years and the strategies for achieving those goals and targets. The school council does this through the Annual Implementation Plan (one for each of the four years of the Strategic Plan) and is reported on in the Annual Report. School council can encourage input to the Strategic Plan from parents, carers and students, as well as the wider community.

Strategic planning

By 2008, all Victorian government schools will be expected to have a Strategic Plan. The Plan replaces the current School Charter.

A strategic plan is a three or four page document that tells people what the school wants to achieve in the future and how it plans to get there. The plan lets people know:

  • why the school exists (its purpose)
  • how staff and students are expected to behave (the values)
  • what is different or special about the school (the context)
  • what you are going to focus on over the next four years to improve students’ experience at school (the goals and targets)
  • how the school is going to do this (key improvement strategies).

The following materials provide information to support schools in strategic planning:

Policy development

A policy is designed to influence decisions and actions that the school makes. It is usually a written document that outlines a required process or procedure within the school, such as how to deal with bullying, the school’s approach to homework or how complaints are to be managed within the school.

A policy should only be established to achieve some purpose which reflects a set of beliefs or values on the issue concerned. For example, a homework policy might reflect the belief that regular homework develops sound study habits. Not all issues require a policy; many routine matters can be dealt with by developing simple procedures. For example, you might have a procedure for “wet” lunch times – this is unlikely to require a detailed policy.

Good policies are essential because they demonstrate that the school is being operated in an efficient manner, let everyone know what the approach to certain matters will be, and ensure that there will be uniformity and consistency in decisions and in how the school operates.

The following materials support school councils in the effective development of policies:

Sample policies include:

More information

For more information, see: