Questions,+Queries,+Thoughts,+Ideas

Food for thought - Cass Jackson

· Who are we? What can each of us contribute? What are our strengths and weaknesses?

· Do we want a name for our group? It could be kind of cool. It may help unite us and give us collective ownership & responsibility. It does not need to link directly to the Utopia Project but could be as simple as “Utopia School Leadership Team”. Maybe something creative might inspire us and help us to have an identity as a group because all the other groups are working to help save Utopia School

· What are we going to present? If we have a common idea about what our presentation potentially could be, then we might have something mind to aim for. It could be assumed that there needs to be a point of difference between the presentations, otherwise they will be pretty boring and dry. Some ideas: o present our professional and personal learning journey as a group. o do a mock scenario where we are trying to sell our school as a school of choice for prospective students and possibly teachers o do a pitch to the network/region/DEECD of the success story that Utopia School is in 12 months and what we’ve achieved. o Any ideas????

Cam writes – I like the idea of having a name. It gives us a starting point but it also shows that our leadership team is united and strong. Further it also gives us a reference point for documentation and can be used as headings for our presentations. Another idea could be presenting the vision and plan to school council

Clarissa writes - I love the idea of a mock pitch to school council or the network!

I was thinking... in order to move forward, maybe we should look at the good things that we have in the school to work with: Here's what i thought they were...
 * We are based in a growing area
 * We have strong ties with the local community
 * We have an AP who knows has stepped up in the past and taken on a great deal of responsibility
 * We have money $$$
 * We have great access to ICT
 * We are well resourced
 * Teaching staff are engaged in extra curricular activities such as fetes and sports events etc
 * We have 2 keen graduates who are interested in developing ideas and practice

Hope everyone is enjoyed thier holidays! See you soon!

Things to consider when exploring/explaining the journey of each stakeholder for our presentation: - Who are they? What links or association do they have with the school? - How long have they been associated with the school? - What contact have they had with the leadership team? - What changes (positive or negative) do they recognise have happened or are happening at Utopia School? - What challenges has the school faced and continues to face? - How do the changes/practises happening at Utopia School impact on the students? Are the students at the core of all thinking? - It might be worth looking at the 16 different questions posed by Glen Pearsall and consider how the ‘new practises’ are influencing outcomes for all stakeholders. - How does the stakeholder get their information? What do they use to form their own judgements? What is important to the stakeholder? Any further ideas? Cheers, Cass.