School 3 - 5 year strategic plan

[duzzie]

Hi all, our Governors have been wanting a strategic plan for a while now but have now put a stop to any spends till one is in place. Does anybody already have one in place that I can read to get some pointers? I really don't know where to start. Getting staff involvement is going to be impossible as they don't see it as important to what they do even though it will impact on there IT facilities in the coming years.

Thanks

[psydii]

Ok, start with what you have deployed in the school at the moment (hardware, software, services, capabilities), and write a refresh plan for ensuring it all remains supported by vendors.

Map OS and Major App refreshes to suitable hardware refreshes.

Include training just ahead of, alongside and just after major changes for users impacted by training.

 

Look for where refreshes can also provide efficiencies (for example linking cashless, access control, printing - often procured separately, but when refresh time comes along, often can be joined up at quite a low cost)

 

Look for other efficiencies that can be made (managed print, os deployment and management, app deployment and management, user management)

 

Look for areas that give staff more control (within safe operational limits).

 

That is a Business as Usual plan and does not require any immediate buy-in from colleagues as it is in fact what you are doing already. (though perhaps nobody high up quite realises that)

 

Next plan a staff engagement with the aims of finding out their frustrations and needs for the next 3 -5 years. Find out if you've got some potential 'new technology' champions who might bring new ideas to the table.

You don't have to complete (or even really start) this before the 1st year of the 3-5 year plan is acknowledged by governors.

 

 

So now you have a BAU plan, and the first step in developing strategic alternatives. Present it to SLT/ governors.

 

This should be enough to get you investment to keep the lights on for the next 12 months.

 

Make clear announcement of which areas are to receive investment in the next Financial Year.

 

Deliver on the Year 1 plan (including the staff engagement)

 

Now pretend you have a greenfield site. Based on the technology available today, and the feedback you got when scoping out the staff, build a greenfield solution on paper, and sketch out how you might get there from where you are. Get feedback on the ideas from the staff.

 

Maybe build two such models. Present the three models to SLT for discussion ahead of going to governors. Revise as necessary, but don't let them put you off the 'greenfield solution. SLT are often woefully backward looking.

 

Present to governors your successes on against Year 1 BAU, and your plans to Year 2 BAU. Then show them the two alternatives.

 

Then really it is up to them to work with the head to ensure one of the three options is fully acted upon.

[duzzie]

That is really useful, it does make a lot of sense and as you say we can get some investment short term to keep things ticking over. Thank you for taking the time to write in such detail.

[tinca492]

Hi

Any ICT Plan must be underpinned, and driven by the Schools vision of curriculum delivery, along with known significant changes in pupil numbers/age range/ subjects. This has the convenient benefit of passing the responsibility to the SMT to provide their long term plan if there is not already one

 

Once the development plan has been accepted by the Governors, then you will have a clearer idea of the ICT development required to enable its success. You can then determine what ICT resources and functionality will be required to support that plan, and devise your strategy.

 

Try and use "education" friendly terms to describe the benefits of any investments rather than technical jargon. If you can identify any direct potential for efficiency gains or enhancing pupil achievement then so much the better.

 

Think big then scale down, this makes it far easier to cope with unexpected issues in the future though may cost a little more to start with.

 

Keep everything as Standard as you can and do not overcomplicate your solutions for the sake of it. Just because something is possible doesn't mean you need to use it.

 

The Governors are taking the situation seriously, so see if you can join one of their meetings or ask for a chat with the Chair, this will help enormously in raising your profile and may even give you access to sounding boards outside of the school through a Governors links to commercial organisations. Have a look through previous Governor Meeting Minutes to find out who is raising concerns and in what context.

 

You are going to need a 3 or 5 year replacement schedule detailing any foreseeable major expenditure. producing this alone will help the school plan their budgets.

 

Break any major projects or aims into manageable blocks. Ensure that you can link any expenditure to the "ultimate aim" even if this may take several years to achieve.

 

hope this helps a little.

 

Don't forget that an ICT Strategy is only there to support a business or school development plan, it serves no purpose without one.

 

sorry if this a bit messy but last day of term and I am trying to prepare a new Sever for migration on Monday! Good luck

[duzzie]

Sorry I have only just just seen this, I don't think the school can decide which way to go with regards to the curriculum it seems to change so much, with budgets how they are we are having to cut back all the time on the wide variety our curriculum offers. As I keep saying how can we be expected to implement a plan without knowing what the curriculum needs are. We have spoken with teachers and all they all want is new fast desktops along with a laptop each and an iPad. Cant seem to see the student needs in any of what they want.

We have at least managed to convince governors to separate the network infrastructure upgrade from the 5 year strategic plan which is a bonus. Strangely the governors will not sit round a table with us even though we have suggested it multiple times, it has to go through our Head and Business Manager. We do have a 6 year rolling program for desktop replacement, but we still get the question do we need these machines? the question we cannot answer and the one they want is what benefit (in numbers/grades/results etc) is computers giving to students outcomes.

Anyway thank you for your input it is appreciated.