No school can educate a child for the 21st Century by acting as an island. It must build bridges that support engagement with the community and industry.

By establishing a framework you will be able to gradually grow the school as a hub of the community, engaging an eclectic range of stakeholders, all supporting the education of your students.

There are just 5 pillars required to build a framework that supports engagement and collaboration between school and the wider community.

Once this framework has been created it can be used often to build your school as a hub of community engagement.

The first thing to do when you start working with a potential partner is to determine the fundamental values that will underpin your work together.

This will seem strange but you need to establish your relationship with your potential partner and a slow engagement, achieved by discussing these values will help you to get to know each other, and it is a lot better than the “test and fail till you get it right” method.

Think of it as a prenuptial agreement!!

You don’t HAVE to agree on each of these principles. Pick the ones that suit your project. For small projects you may not need #5 but your school will gradually build a bank of standards that will underpin each following project.

These principles are suggested for consideration by schools and their partners when deciding how you are going to work together:

1. The school and partners will share a common vision of the project and understanding of the scope.
2. The project strategy will be customer centric, with the views of customers being represented in the project design.
3. Participants will demonstrate through action, a willingness to make the project succeed.
4. The project must be flexible enough to enable participation of all parties, regardless of power and status.
5. Where standards are available they will guide the operation of the project.
6. An analysis of all costs and benefits must underpin the project plan and sustain the ongoing case to work in partnership.
7. Governance arrangements will explicitly identify who is available for what aspect of the project and to what standard.
8. Security and privacy issues will underpin management.
9. An express agreement between parties will support the project.

If you would like to discuss how to establish your school framework for engaging a village to raise your students email me: Bev.J@infocus-careers.com.au

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