To support improvement, all Victorian government schools participate in a 4-year strategic planning cycle. The School Strategic Plan (SSP) sets out the school’s strategic direction for the upcoming 4 years and is completed by schools after a school review. The SSP comprises:
- the school’s vision and values, including context challenges, and intent, rationale and focus
- the 4-year goals, targets and Key Improvement Strategies (KIS) that guide school improvement
The SSP informs the development of the Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) which sets out how the school will go about implementing the KIS.
Annual implementation planning overview
AIPs are foundational to school improvement and are a core part of school business. Directly aligned to the SSP, the AIP articulates how the school’s four-year goals, targets and KIS will be implemented, monitored and evaluated. The AIP articulates the school’s vision for the future, and is instrumental in building collective buy-in for the plan to achieve this vision.
However, it is the collaborative process of developing, implementing and monitoring an AIP, as much as the plan itself, which drives school improvement. Quality annual implementation planning is a collaborative undertaking. It drives school improvement by providing clarity and purpose for all members of the school community as they work towards the achievement of the goals set out in their SSP.
Whole-school engagement with annual implementation planning is crucial to getting the ‘how’ of implementation right.
The AIP outlines:
- the SSP four-year goals, targets and KIS selected for focus in that year
- 12-month targets that progress towards the SSP’s four-year targets
- the Actions that will be undertaken in order to implement the selected KIS
- the Outcomes of the Actions (changes in knowledge, skills and behaviours)
- Success Indicators that will be used to measure the Outcomes
- related Activities, including how they are resourced, who is involved, and the timelines for completion