Developing your strategic plan

Important

The open_in_new Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 open_in_neware expected to be updated before the end of 2026.

This article has been updated to reflect the intended wording of the new regulations.

Your board’s first strategic plan under the new regulations (effective 1 January 2027) will be in place for 2 years to align with the next triennial board election cycle.

Strategic planning helps boards achieve the best outcomes for students.

A strategic plan documents how a board will achieve its paramount and supporting objectivesopen_in_new, the steps required to get there, and what will be measured along the way.

The strategic planning and reporting frameworkopen_in_new sets out what boards must do when it comes to a strategic plan.

This article provides an overview of the process and what needs to be included in strategic plans.

Your board’s next strategic plan comes into effect on 1 January 2027.

Where should your board start?

Start with your “vision for the school”.

This is a short statement describing the future your board and school community want for its learners.

It provides the overall direction for the school and sits at the top of the strategic planning process.

Most schools and kura should already have a vision statement, and in most cases, it will remain relevant from one planning cycle to the next.

However, visions can change – particularly when significant changes have affected the school.

If the vision no longer reflects your community’s aspirations, any revisions should be informed by consultation with students, whānau, staff, and the wider community.

Otherwise, there is usually no need to change it.

The strategic goals are then developed to help turn that vision into reality.

What information should your board be looking at?

You’ve got a vision to aim for.

Consult with the communityopen_in_new about what matters to them and what changes they hope to see.

Look at school performance data, taking note of gaps for particular students, priority groups, and curriculum areas.

Discuss your board’s objectivesopen_in_new and priorities: which ones the school is meeting and which may need extra attention.

How does your board turn the information collected into strategic goals?

With a clearer understanding of what’s working, what’s not, and why, prioritise key areas where a change in practice could significantly improve educational outcomes.

This can then be broken down into several overarching strategic goals.

The Regulations specify a minimum of 3 goals, with one being focused on improving achievement in literacy and maths.

We recommend that only large schools with ample resources pursue more than 3.

This is because too many strategic goals will become distracting and compete with each other for resources.

If your board struggles with turning all the information collected into goals, don’t worry, that’s normal.

Go back a step, pick one of the key areas for improvement you identified, and ask:

What will you expect to see if you are meeting this goal?
What will you need to measure to show change or progress towards this goal? 
How and when will you measure these changes?
How and when will the principal report these to your board?
How and when will your board report progress back to your community?

Check back in with your community to ensure your goals are student-focused, will make the biggest difference, and are aligned with the vision and community aspirations.

Starting over, redrafting goals, making changes, going back a step, seeking more information, and asking for help are all part of the process.

Note: Sometimes your goals may take more than one strategic plan cycle to fully achieve.

What does progress look like, and how will it be measured?

As part of setting a strategic goal, your board must identify the key progress measures and success indicators.

To do this, your board should work in conjunction with school staff.

These key indicators become part of your strategic plan and are crucial for ensuring effective monitoring across all levels and learning areas.

Consider:

What will you expect to see if you are meeting this goal?
What will you need to measure to show change or progress towards this goal? 
How and when will you measure these changes?
How and when will the principal report these to your board?
How and when will your board report progress back to your community?

You can read more about this in our article on Monitoring school performanceopen_in_new.

Are there any privacy issues your board will need to consider?

Absolutely. It’s vitally important to act as guardians of the information shared with you.

Consider whether you will use identifiers when collecting data, and ensure that participants are aware of what will happen to their information if you do.

Consider how the feedback is shared, used, and stored; who has access to it; and how it will be disposed of once the planning process is complete.

The published plans and reports must not contain any information that is identifiable to individuals.

Curious to learn more? Our Resource Centre has a whole section on Information, Privacy & Copyrightopen_in_new.

How should your strategic plan be formatted and presented?

There is no set format for any of these documents.

The Ministry has produced a template to support you as you work through this process with your school community.

This can be found on the Ministry’s School planning and reporting frameworkopen_in_new website.

It’s up to your board to decide the best way of presenting the information in your strategic plan – as long as it’s easy for your community to understand.

This ensures everyone knows what the school is working on and can support you to achieve it.

Tip: look at what other schools publish on their websites for ideas.

Can your board change its strategic plan once published

Unexpected events may require updates or revisions to your strategic plan at any point during its duration.

Section 141 of the Education and Training Act 2020open_in_new allows boards to amend their strategic plan.

However, any significant changes to your strategic plan will require further community consultation and resubmission to the Ministry.

Your board can modify its annual implementation plan as required.

How does the annual implementation plan connect to the strategic plan?

Once your board has developed its strategic plan, the principal will create an annual implementation plan.

Your strategic plan will set out what the school community wants to achieve in broad aspirational goals.

The annual implementation plan is the document that sets out how the staff will achieve the school community’s strategic plan expectations.

That is, for each goal, the principal and staff need to identify:

What actions will be taken each year to achieve each target?
Who will be responsible for making sure it gets done?
What resources will be required, and when?
Are they included in the budget?
How long will this take?
What will need to be measured to show progress and achievement of this target?
How and when will it be measured and reported to our board and the community?

Strategic planning has the best chance of success when the principal, your board, and the community all work together.

Questions your board could ask:

Does our current strategic plan align with the paramount and supporting objectives for boards?
Are we satisfied with how we consult our community?
Are our goals focused on improving educational achievement for all students?
Do we clearly understand what “success” will look like? What changes will we expect to see in the school?
Do we have a clear plan for measuring this expected change?
Do we have a plan for communicating progress with our community?

Templates, resources, and references

Click on the link(s) below to access this topic’s templates, resources, and references.