Musgrave Hill State School on the Gold Coast in Queensland Australia has a history of working with professional development programs such as Teachers, Learners and Behaviours and Cooperative Learning, both instigated by two previous deputy principals.
Most schools share a name of the suburb where they are located. Musgrave Hill is not a suburb. Often people did not know where the school is. In marketing the school it was important to define a point of difference.
Musgrave Hill has students that draw from outside the area as it is known as a school where children with special needs are successfully integrated and nurtured. This is what the school does really well.
It was as a result of a whole school commitment to developing the best possible learning experience for students and the implementation of ideas from the professional learning gained through professional development activities that led to a number of practices in the school.
The notion of creating a class mission statement began initially with stage groups (multi-age class groupings) creating stage mission statements and a motto. This in turn led to the individual classes creating their own mission statements and mottos.
To embed this at the whole school level, the 2006 Triennial School Review led to the further development of the school mission statement. This statement was in the strategic plan but was not something that readily came to mind for staff at the school.
It became important that the school mission statement had value and that it became a permanent reference point for agreement about the direction of the school. In 2011 this mission statement became part of a lengthy process of refinement. The final statement was the following.
To nurture, engage and value individual differences for life long learning,
empowering students
The acromyn NEVILLE that linked all the main words of the Mission Statement was born. The next step was to try and decide what or who was NEVILLE. Was he a mascot, a person, a doll, a caricature? It proved hard to decide but through lengthy discussion of ideas a wordle using the mission statement was designed.
Peita Lack, Murray Gleadhill and Candiece Ledwidge alongside the Mission Statement for the school.
This re branding with the Wordle as the mission statement is now a highly visible and an attractive descriptive statement for everyone entering the school to see.
Further work is planned to embed this mission statement as the basis for the qualities found in every classroom. NEVILLE is not a person or a mascot or a caricature. It needs to be embodied in everyone, in each classroom and play area of the school. This is the next challenge.
The fear that this will be just a one shot wonder will be dissipated when it does become part of the common language and the common understandings of everyone in the school – students and staff alike.
