Strategic Planning
... Strategic planning Strategic planning is "…aimed at total concentration of the organisations resources on mutually predetermined measurable outcomes" (Cook, W. ... Strategic plans are typically comprehensive and hence should include everything essential to a school’s Vision Statement - the starting point of any strategic plan. It is crucial for strategic planning that schools periodically establish and monitor aims and objectives around which any school policy must be constructed. Strategic planning enables people to influence the future and change. The very act of planning enables schools to exert influence over their own future amidst the restraining and constraining influences of socioeconomic forces, Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and government. ... Research shows that everyone concerned with education should participate in the planning process and that even the most carefully formulated policy will be irrelevant if sufficient time and money are not dedicated to meeting its objectives. Cook asserts that "…the best plans are based more on the collective intuition of the planning team than on so-called hard data." He urges planners to meet regularly while Hart (1988) recommends using several small groups to begin the planning process in order to discuss, prioritise and report back to SMTs so that everyone shares a sense of cohesion, consensus and ownership. ... The role of strategic planning in relation to the whole school ICT development is extremely complex as most of the components involved are inter-linked with each other in a complex of environments, inputs and outcomes.