Vision Day Report

The group takes a break from vision-building.

The “vision thing”

The first President Bush (father of George W) confessed to a problem with what he called “the vision thing.” Yet as the Book of Proverbs tells us, without a vision the people perish. As for nations, so for schools – we need to have a vision of where we want to get to, otherwise how will we know where we’re going or when we’ve got there?
With this in mind, a 27-strong group of teachers, trustees, parents and pupils gathered together on Saturday 30th April at the Watford Friends’ Meeting House for a Vision-Building Day to help guide the school’s development over the next few years.

The aims of the day were to produce:
• A vision statement for the school (ie a short statement of the basic purpose and identity of the school and its core aims and values)
• A set of guiding principles for how the school will operate
• An image of how the school will be in the future, eg over the next 3-5 years
• A clear idea of the key strategies, objectives and actions that will be required to make the vision a reality.

This was a highly ambitious agenda for a one-day workshop, but excellent progress was made. Although we didn’t come up with a final form of words for the vision statement, four smaller groups that were formed during the day will continue work on drafting a statement over the coming weeks. Our intention is to have a finished statement to bring to the Whole School Community meeting for comments on June 13th. Eventually, the vision statement will form the context for all the areas of work to be covered by the Whole School Plan.

So never mind President Bush, instead let’s cue Johnny Nash:

“I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright
(Bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day
It's gonna be a bright
(Bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day

The excellent catering team (Michele Kaye, Agnes Schmitz and Lesley Crews) who looked after the vision-builders’ material needs. (Thanks also to Helen Nuttall.)