ISNZ Professional Development Programme

In another “first” for ISNZ’s professional development programme, the inaugural Small Schools Seminar was held in Wellington on 18 November, with 33 attendees.  The diverse range of schools represented by their Heads/Principals, senior managers and board members was both impressive and exciting, reinforcing our desire to offer relevant and practical events across the entire spectrum of our membership.  In acknowledgment of the excellent feedback received, we have already begun work on the programme for next year’s Small Schools event.

Carolyn Prebble and Tony Sissons (King’s School) traversed strategies and key moments around fundraising for major building projects within their school, reminding delegates that “connecting people and building relationships” is a platform of any fundraising programme. The continued popularity of cookbook publications was presented by Alastair Hutchens in the form of the impressive Scots College-Queen Margaret College Share cookbook.  The intricacies of a recipe road map, customer value propositions and project governance were all explained, as well as the simple but vital message to use an independent proofreader.

Royce Helm (Southwell School) introduced his topic of Engaging the local community in raising the profile of the Small Independent School by reminding delegates that (a) schools are more similar than not (b) the scale of schools differ but their needs do not and (c) a school is a social capital construct, therefore connecting with parents and staff is vital.  “Give the people a reason to belong”, he concluded.

Education and business are not diametrically opposed, Clarence van der Wel (ACG) explained in prefacing his session on Financial viability and the small independent school.  It covered the importance of a solid business plan, sponsorships, hardship scholarships, international students and an effective budget process implemented and controlled by the Principal.