Beechwood School Development Plan

Revised 6 January 2005

Vision Statement

That the ethos and learning environment created for pupils at Beechwood School will underpin the ongoing development and expansion of more schools in and around London.

Mission Statement

To maintain and enhance the high success rates of scholarship and entry into secondary education attained by combining both traditional and modern methods.

To provide a cosmopolitan and caring family atmosphere at Beechwood school, together with the highest expectations, in order for our pupils to give of their best.

To utilise the latest Information Communications Technology to foster a keen interest in learning.

To ensure a high quality of service against the Investors in People Standard.

	*How do we plan ?*
	Our plans and objectives are constantly being revised and updated according to any changes in circumstances. Our commitment to the Investors in People Standard, dictates that any changes are made public at the earliest opportunity. Any plans are initially conceived by the directors of Beechwood Schools Ltd and the plan is regularly evaluated during monthly directors meetings and in Staff Team Meetings. We define 3 areas of planning, short term, covering the next 6 months, medium term, covering the period up to 3 years, and long term plans which we define as up to 7 years or more.
Item	Our Short Term Objectives
1.1	*Upgrading of ICT resources* The main short term projects are as follows: Use of Open Source Software The shift away from Microsoft products is now complete. Assessment of Open Source software This is for the younger primary groups and will be carried out by the ICT Group. New educational databases, These are mostly concerning pupil performance, and are being designed using open source software (ReKall / MySQL). The development of report production has shifted to this system with the use of flexible text file entry from staff and the final reports being generated using Latex typesetting programs. This is now in its second set of complete reports and is due for review in February / March 2005.
1.2	*Redesign of the School Website* This project has been partially completed using an external designer. Initial work concerns the graphical design of pages and the overall ease of use. This is currently on hold due to lack of resources.
1.3	*Redesign of the School Prospectus* The last production run of prospectuses will finish later on this year giving us an opportunity to design in all the changes that have taken place over the last few years.
1.4	*Early Years Integration* The recent introduction of the Early Years Department is constantly under review to improve services and efficiency. Topics are: Flexible payment of fees with minimum risk of losses due to non-payment Provision of staffing during main school holiday periods
	*Our Medium Term Objectives*
2.1	*Areas of Excellence* We wish to broaden our areas of excellence to include science, technology, computing skills, art, foreign languages, history, geography and PE. Many of our short term objectives are part of the strategy for obtaining improvements in this area. Our appraisal process refers directly to this topic area and a number of projects have evolved directly from a review of appraisals. To summarize, our strategy for implementing this broad area of development is as follows:- The existing curriculum is to be developed in each subject area Staff appraisals are focussed on raising awareness of the schools' requirements in these subjects Staff training needs, as determined by staff appraisal, will focus specifically on these subject areas. Our objectives will be to increase staff knowledge of these subjects, through self training and other training methods. To determine a practical evaluation process to indicate the effectiveness of the strategy. Much of the above remains in place for this revision of the Plan with certain key areas moving to the short term objectives in response to current training initiatives.
2.1	*Staff Qualifications* Where appropriate, all staff are expected to improve their formal and informal qualifications as required by school Training and Development Policy. The strategy for achieving this objective is now inherent within this policy. There is no change to this requirement.
2.2	*Friends of Beechwood* It is intended to set up an advisory committee composed of a team of professional advisors, other prominent members of the community, staff and parent representatives to represent the wider interests of the school. There is no change to this requirement.
	Our Long Term Objectives
3.1	*Purchase of 55 Leigham Court Road* We wish to purchase the freehold of the school property. Our present arrangement is a 20 year renewable lease. An alternative being considered at present is extending the lease for as long as possible.