School Assembly S3E3: Crafting a school vision and mission statement

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Hello and thanks for downloading this podcast from Teacher – I’m Jo Earp. Welcome to Series 3 of School Assembly.

School Assembly is the podcast series that explores what it takes to build a school from the ground up. We’re following Dan McShea for 12 months – he’s the Foundation Principal of Notre Dame College on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, which opens to students at the start of 2025. Last time out we spoke to Dan about student enrolments, and if you listened to that episode, you’ll know that he’s spending a lot of his time communicating with prospective parents and students. So, our topic for Episode 3 links into that early communication and promotion – the all-important school Vision, Mission and Motto. The P-12 College is in the Marist tradition, so I’ll also be finding out about the role of faith in these statements and designs. I hope you enjoy the episode!

JE: Hi Dan, great to catch up with you, and we're already in October (which I can't quite believe, actually). On the last episode you mentioned the community office you're working from, I think you said above an IGA, was starting to get a little bit cramped. How are things going assembling the team?

Daniel McShea: Thanks, Jo. Yeah, we've had 4 new staff members join us at the start of this term, so, there are now 8 people in our little office. So, it's pretty cosy in here – and yeah, we can all hear each other's conversations, which is great! Different way of working. Often, I'll put my hat on and go for a walk and take some calls; but, no it’s been really good.

JE: And you in a shopping centre, aren't you? In like a shopping centre area.

DM: Yeah, that's right. We're just upstairs in a Stockland building above an IGA. There's a a cafe and a gym and a couple of schools around us. So, it's good, I think, to be in a busy little precinct, lots of people coming and going, which is nice.

JE: Good for lunches – easy for lunches Dan!

DM: Very easy for lunches, and a big moment was the introduction of a toasted sandwich maker in the last few weeks! I don't know why we didn't do that earlier, so that's been getting a bit of a workout too.

JE: Yes! These are the little things that keep teams going aren’t they. OK, then, this episode then we're going to talk about the school vision, mission and motto and also the role of faith in that. When did you first start drafting that vision, mission and motto? How early on does that happen in the principal journey?

DM: Yeah, it's exciting, the big-ticket stuff today. Look, there was an Aura (which is the name of this community) Identity and Culture Committee formed, I want to say 3-and-a-half years ago – and at one point it was intended that Notre Dame College opens in 2024. That committee included relevant stakeholders from Brisbane Catholic Education, demographers, finance people, educational leaders, Parish Priest and actually included me in my capacity as the principal of the neighbouring P-12 college Unity, along with the principal of the Catholic primary school.

So, I actually got to be a part of that group from pretty early. And at that stage the school wasn't named, but conversations and dreaming, discernment was happening about what a school should look like and what are the things that should form its vision and what would make up at school for the future. So, it was a privilege to be a part of some of those conversations. I came off that committee when I realised I was probably going to apply for this job, and so I wasn't in all of the conversations, but I was there when we developed the logo (or the bones of the logo) and the virtues that appear on our logo, which are Courage, Compassion and Hope.

And so, from there, the vision and mission statements were certainly considered, developed, discussed over many meetings. And when I commenced as principal in January the bones of what would become our vision and mission statements were certainly there. However, this has been revisited and tweaked several times, or many times this year.

JE: Yeah. So, the bones are there for you and then you come in and you really, you have to finalise that, then. What's the thought process for you then coming in as Foundation Principal; do you discuss that with (I suppose at that point you don't have your leadership team though, do you), but with mentors or, you know, and you mentioned it's gone through a lot of stages. There's a lot of drafts going on and tweaks isn't there?

DM: Yeah, I really did have to pick it up again at the start of the year. [I would] have probably had 10 different versions since then, while still being quite true to what was originally there and consulting with certainly that committee still, but perhaps more so different individuals on that committee, as well as my senior leader. By the middle of the year – our Head of College, which is like a deputy principal role in our system, she joined us, Jasmine [Brown].

So, then we still continued to refine that, and actually spent 5 days in Alice Springs at the Marist Biennial Conference – and that was probably where it all came together really. And that had a little bit to do with spending so much time on a plane with just a notepad and a pencil, and also with being deeply connected in a beautiful place on country and with Marist leaders from over 60 schools across Australia. So, that's probably when it all really came together for me, and we came back and got to our final stage of our mission statement.

JE: So, we're going to talk through that and then the role that faith plays in just a second. But before that, I was just thinking what you're saying about redrafting it and so on. Is the issue that – because it's got to be really pithy hasn’t it, it's got to be quite punchy. You've not got many words, and I know myself, you know, as a journalist, it's tricky when you when you've got many words to play with, it's really difficult coming up with something concise. Was that the issue or is it more around sort of the language of it or the feeling? What was it that needed to be refined?

DM: I think it does have to be concise and I think the principal has to arrive at something that resonates deeply and enables alignment across all layers of the school, and it almost defends what the school will be and should be, I think. So, there were several elements that were, I thought, really critical to be included in there. But also, quite conscious that I'd been at schools in the past where the mission statement is a couple of paragraphs and nobody knows what it is, and nobody's living it because it's not known. So, it needs to be known, it needs to be aspirational, it needs to align with other layers across the college, particularly from the start.

JE: OK, let's take a closer look at it then. If you can talk me through that vision, mission and motto then. And, also, I'm interested in the role that faith plays in that. And you mentioned just there that the college is in the Marist tradition, isn't it?

DM: Our framing sentence is that Notre Dame College is a Catholic prep to 12 College in the Marist tradition. And that's an umbrella statement and, look, I could spend a long time talking about the Marist tradition, and it was probably the Marist connection that most appealed to me about this position in the first place, having worked in Marist schools previously. My first teaching position was actually in a Marist school, and in another place I got to experience that family spirit, that sense of purpose and belonging. And I think that's also been pretty attractive to some of the staff, or a number of the staff that we've recruited.

In terms of our vision, we have a Vision Statement for our system; and not everyone would agree with this, but we felt that it was important that we had the same vision as our system, and that was a good one. And that is that ‘we are a faith-filled learning community, creating a hope-filled future’. And so that Vision Statement is the same as that of our system.

Our Mission Statement, then, I thought it was really important that included several of these key keywords, and the statement itself is ‘We are a Christ-centred, innovative learning community where high expectations converge with the virtues of courage, compassion, and hope. Together, we shape young people with brave spirits, strong minds, and compassionate hearts, who thrive within the Notre Dame family.’

So that's the result of many tweaks and changes! And some of those keywords, Jo, that we really felt needed to be there was to say what we are in the beginning in the framing sentence: We’re a P-12 college, we’re Catholic, and we're in the Marist tradition. And with that Marist tradition comes 5 Marist characteristics, which we didn't want to name because our mission would simply become too long, but they'll certainly be embedded (and are) in our ways of working and in key documents, and even visually and symbolically around key places in our school. And we hope that those characteristics shape and form and transform the young people, and the staff and parents that come into our school gates.

That notion of innovative was important – you know, we're building a school for the future. Aura itself is supposed to be an innovation hub. There’s an appetite for engagement and connection with STEM and project-based learning and integrated tasks and doing things differently, not for the sake of being different, but in the interest of students’ engagement with their learning. And so, I really wanted that word to be included there, even though it almost doesn't feel like it fits, but I wanted to make sure that that word stayed. And also ‘high expectations’ converging with those ‘virtues of courage, compassion and hope’.

And it was probably the latest sentence that, when we did a lot of our recruitment and we had, you know we had 500 or more applications for 23 teaching positions, and many of those teachers wrote to that language of brave spirits, strong minds and compassionate hearts to shape young people who thrive within the Notre Dame family. So, I think that language did land well with people that have engaged with this document so far, and I think it will hold us in a good place moving forward and give us a good start.

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JE: You've touched on there, how the teachers have sort of played off that when they've been applying because it gives them something to really think about and get into. And we mentioned that in a previous episode about it's really difficult, isn't it when nothing exists to try and sell that. And we also talked about enrolment in the last episode, and I'm assuming, then, that this statement and the vision and the mission, that's a key part of those communications, isn't it with prospective parents and those wanting to come and join the community. Do you find yourself coming back to it again and again in those conversations?

DM: Absolutely. And we've, you know it should direct our work. And I think if it's done well – we've aligned several key documents with that vision and mission including our Education Strategy, which is our learning framework for Notre Dame College, we've also come up with a document called ‘The Notre Dame Way’, which is our way of working and of being for staff and students, all of our behaviour support documents also link with that document, and they align with the mission through the characteristics. So, there is alignment. All of our college awards are aligned with those virtues and with the 5 Marist characteristics. So, I see that that may be shaped and reshaped in the future – I hope that it is, I hope that someone looks at it again in in 15 years’ time and makes sure that it still works. But I think it won't change now, certainly for the first 5 years or so.

JE: And it's interesting you saying there about the alignment, and that's really important, isn't it? Not just sort of staying true to what you've said, but also that it actually does mean something. Because you know, as you were saying, sometimes you can have something written down, nobody’s really sure what it means. You know, it's written down, it's not referenced again. So, having it in those strategic plans and using that same language – I'm thinking things like high expectations and so on – that just keeps you coming back to that all the time and refocusing on, ‘Right, what are we actually about? What are our values? What are trying to stay true to?’ Yeah.

DM: Yep, that's right, absolutely. And we've actually got an avenue throughout our school which runs from South to North – from where our preps begin their journey to where our 12s will graduate – and we've called that avenue the Notre Dame Way as well, which aligns with that key document. And along that Way, in big, beautiful letters will be those 5 virtues, which are: presence, simplicity, love of work, family spirit, in the way of Mary. So, we hope that as students are journeying through that avenue, through the ‘P-12-ness’ of our school, that they will be shaped and transformed by those characteristics as they see them lived and aspired to.

JE: Excellent. So, it's going to be part of the learning space as well.

DM: Yeah, absolutely.

JE: And we'll talk about learning spaces in one of the episodes coming up shortly. OK, then, usual three questions then – proudest achievement of the last I think it's been about 4 or 5 weeks, hurdle and key learning.

DM: Yeah, look, the proudest achievement – there've been a few. We've connected with a few families, we've done prep screens, I've had lots of conversation with parents, which has been great. But we did have 4 new team members join us at the start of Term 1 and one of the really early tasks that we had, we needed them for, was to shape our learning framework. And we'd certainly done some research around what we wanted to be considered and included there; we had some provocation to pull apart with them. But we had this buzz of dreaming and wondering, and ‘what about this?’ and ‘did you think of that?’ that went for 2 days with a brand-new team, and that was pretty electric. At one point I went onto site and came back about an hour-and-a-half later and I could hear them from downstairs in the lift, this buzz of, you know, ‘have you thought of?’, ‘did you think we could do that?’ Just dreaming and energy, and I think surely that's going to be pretty contagious for our staff and students for next year. So, I was really excited about that.

In terms of hurdles. There's a fatigue of we're nearly there, but we're not there. We'd love to be on site soon – so many events, orientation day, screeners, parent opportunities that are so much easier when you've got your own school to show people through. And there's a lot of that that we'll just have to do again next year. We're not going to get our families on site before Christmas. So, I'm conscious that early December I'm going to have to do a tour every day and I'm excited to do that, but it's just that frustration of, you know, it's like having a baby I guess you're nearly there, but you're just you're just not there yet.

And biggest learning. I think my biggest learning has been invest in your team, and by that, I mean the formation of your team. We spent a full day of formation with what will be our leadership team for 2025, and we were vulnerable and we developed trust and we shared ways of working and non-examples, and we came up with some accountabilities and a document around how our team will work. And I think it's easy to think everything's rosy at the start because you don't have the big challenges, but these are testing positions and roles and the challenges definitely come, and it's good to have something in the well before that. And so, we've invested in our team, and I think it holds us in good stead for when some of those tricky things start to happen soon.

JE: We're nearly there, we're nearly at the end of the year. And then, yeah, it'll be time to open before we know it! In the next episode then we'll be talking about leadership style, so I'm looking forward to that one. In the meantime, though, have a good month and we'll catch you in November.

DM: Thanks Jo, I look forward to talking to you again. Have a great day.

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Other episodes in this series:

How do important school documents, such as your strategic plan and priorities, link back to your vision and mission statement? How do your school vision and mission statement influence your leadership decisions, thinking and priorities?