From the Acting Headmaster

“Write your vision in ink; everything else should be pencilled in. Plans change!” I love great quotes, and I suspect I am not alone. Those pithy, concise writing pieces help us articulate our position or hope for something. The above quote is from Andy Stanley, who has a leadership podcast that I listen to often.

So why have I included this quote? To highlight the work, effort, emotional energy and vision that our Heads of Department (HODs) contributed under the leadership of Mrs Alicia Michielsen at the Heads of Department’s planning day last week. As part of the Strategic Plan Review, we headed off to the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre to focus on six critical questions as a team. The six questions were:

Why do we exist?
How do we behave?
What do we do?
How will we succeed?
What is most important right now?
What must we do?

What took place on that day was a team of professional, experienced and diverse group of educators unpacking, debating, listening and noting high-quality answers to these questions. We saw HODs share an aspirational vision for our school, relay historical moments that have shaped who we are as a community and begin to shape a plan to continue to position Blue Mountains Grammar School as leaders in future-focused education.

At this point, we are not finished with these conversations and the forward-facing planning that comes from them. We will engage our Heads of House in the Senior School and our coordinators in the Junior School, and a team of our administration staff in a similar experience to create a playbook that documents the quality of the experience at Blue Mountains Grammar School.

We will write our vision in ink, but in the process, we will draw on every piece of experience, skill and intelligence that we can to hit the highs that we know are possible. This will take patience, courage and a cohesive community, but we are all confident we are up to it.

I have included some photos of the day for you to enjoy.

Mr Steven Coote

Acting Headmaster