Mulgrave School Strategic Plan

Inspiring Excellence in Education and Life

Mulgrave School Strategic Plan 2011 –2020

from Good to Great

INTRODUCING MULGRAVE 2020 Dear Students, Parents, Staff and Friends of Mulgrave, I am very pleased to introduce to you Mulgrave’s Strategic Plan ‘Mulgrave 2020: from Good to Great’.

We can be very proud of what Mulgrave has achieved in its short history and the very fine school it is today. We are a very good school by any measure and our students leave us as confident, well-rounded young adults, well-prepared to lead successful lives in the future.

However, we should not be complacent and rest on past achievements. We must look to the future and aspire to an ever-increasing standard of excellence in education. As we plan ahead to Mulgrave 2020, our intention is to build on the strength of the past for even greater success in the future. Our goal is to have not only a very good school with a very good education for our children, but a great one.

The strategic plan that you will see outlined here has been a wonderful community exercise. All of our stakeholders, parents, students, staff and volunteers alike, have been engaged in reflecting on our strengths and weaknesses as a school, and contributing to our vision for the future.

The plan is an ambitious one and while my natural inclination is to want everything done tomorrow, I know that we must plot the way forward carefully, at a pace that will allow us to make good progress and ensure that the improvements are well-embedded and systemic.

The plan covers all aspects of school life and while I am sure that it will be some of the ‘concrete’ things that will catch our eye, it is ultimately the developments in learning and the curriculum across the four strands of education that will be of key importance in inspiring excellence in our children.

The implementation of this Plan will require a huge community effort and a commitment to our school matched only by the early founding families and staff of Mulgrave. I am very much looking forward to working with Mulgrave parents, staff and students in ensuring that Mulgrave begins to achieve its full potential and to move ‘from Good to Great’.

John Wray Head of School

As a member of the ‘older guard’ of Mulgrave families, it is gratifying to see the School doing so well. We have great leadership in place which has, among other things, just completed a vigorous re-examination and refinement of our strategic plan. This will be our ‘star to steer by’ over the next several years and will ensure that Mulgrave’s next significant development phase will build upon what we have accomplished so far and take us where our community has decided it wants to go. Thanks go to John Wray, Head of School; Sharon Glover, Board Chair; and all Directors of the School Board for engaging our entire community in finalising the priorities of our plan. For our family the equation has been very simple: we love our children and so we love our School and would do anything for it. Mulgrave’s journey thus far has been possible because of likeminded families coming together for a shared purpose. I have no doubt that this will continue—after all, we are in this together, so let’s get going.

Tony Allard Chair, Mulgrave School Foundation

Families and Friends of Mulgrave, Eighteen years ago, a small group of parents gathered together and envisioned a new school for the North Shore. Today, the outstanding facility and programme that is Mulgrave School stand as proud testimony to their success. Our children reap the benefit of their vision, effort and achievement, and to them we owe a debt of gratitude.

This publication of the new strategic plan, Mulgrave 2020: from Good to Great, is a landmark event for our community. It marks the place in our history where we pause to recognise all that has been achieved by our founding families, and to look ahead—in turn—to what our task might be.

The Mulgrave community is truly special. We have a committed group of parents and grandparents who are dedicated to ensuring their children and grandchildren get the best education possible, and are given the foundation for a future of lifelong success. So what will our contribution be to Mulgrave’s evolution?

The next three years will be key in determining the outcome of our mission to carry forward the standard of excellence at Mulgrave and to grow from being a good school into a truly great school.

The success of Mulgrave 2020 will take a massive community effort on all fronts and will likely impact every aspect of school and community life.

I am very excited to be a part of this new era in Mulgrave’s history. Please join me in sharing the vision and supporting the effort to make it happen.

Sharon Glover Chair, Mulgrave School Board of Directors

It has been exciting to be a part of planning Mulgrave’s future. We wish the school every success as it reaches for higher goals and look forward to returning as alumni to celebrate the achievements of Mulgrave 2020.

Soraiya Salemohamed and Nick Dempsey Head Girl and Boy 2010/11

Working together to build Mulgrave’s future is an exciting prospect for our community.

Let the dreams we have for our children guide us in this undertaking.

Ellen D’Atri MVP President

our hiStorY A Remarkable Journey 1993

1995

2006

Mulgrave School opens the doors to its first class of fifteen students in Grades 1 and 2. Their classroom is a ‘Little Wooden Hut’ on the grounds of West Vancouver Montessori School. The early Mulgrave describes itself as a ‘non-denominational, co-educational school which aims to foster individual excellence in the classroom’.

The School relocates to the North Shore Winter Club where it remains for six years. during this time, the Mulgrave Board of directors works diligently to secure a permanent site for the school, and to realise the dream of Mulgrave’s founding families to offer a complete Kindergarten to Grade 12 programme.

Mulgrave reaches another milestone in its remarkable journey at enrolment of 750 students. Also, in the same year, the school becomes fully authorised as an International Baccalaureate World School, offering all three IB divisional programmes: the PYP, MYP and diploma Programme.

2001 ‘The dream’ is realised when the school moves into a custom-built, state-of-the art 100,000 square foot facility located on a stunningly beautiful site, overlooking the Burrard Inlet. Financed largely by bank and bond debt, the school is diligent in paying down its accumulated debt obligations at the rate of approximately $600,000 per year.

2010 The school opens a Centre for Early Learning—for children aged 3 and 4 years—in a custom-designed facility located on its main campus.

A Remarkable Achievement 2011 Today, Mulgrave School is an outstanding Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12, nondenominational, co-educational, university preparatory IB World School. offering a comprehensive and challenging curriculum delivered in all four divisions by experienced teachers from around the world, Mulgrave School is ranked highly by the Fraser Institute and is proud of its innovative approach to learning with an emphasis on technology and enriched programmes.

Mulgrave prides itself on high levels of achievement and success across the four strands of education: academics, the arts, athletics, service and citizenship.

In athletics, Mulgrave has achieved high levels of success in swimming, volleyball, basketball, badminton,

rugby, tennis and track and field. In the arts, the school has secured national status in film production through the ZooM Film Festival and is widely reputed for excellence in musical theatre, stage drama, music and the fine arts.

different countries around the world for experiential learning under the Global outreach Programme. Mulgrave graduates have gone on to universities across the world, many to top ranked schools with scholarship support.

Through the school’s citizenship and service programmes, Mulgrave students have been consistently committed volunteers and fundraisers for the work of numerous local and international charities, as well travelling to many

Above all, Mulgrave is known for having a nurturing, family-oriented community that supports and inspires children to excellence in many areas of life.

Strategic FunDaMentalS Mission and Vision Statements ‘Inspiring Excellence in Education and Life’ By inspiring excellence—the continuous pursuit of personal best—in education and life, Mulgrave strives to equip lifelong learners to thrive in a culturally diverse and interdependent world and to embrace, with passion and confidence, their responsibility always to do their best to support others and to make a difference by serving their communities, both locally and in the world at large.

Core Characteristics In terms of Mulgrave’s essential character as a school, the strategic fundamentals are that we should continue for the next five years to be a non-denominational, co-educational, Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12, three classes per grade, independent, university preparatory, International Baccalaureate, day school for families that live on the North Shore of Vancouver.

Values Statement At Mulgrave we believe: • Individual values are based on personal integrity and acting with respect towards others.

• our sense of community and friendship is founded on humility, empathy, commitment and inclusion.

• Lifelong learning is built upon curiosity, creativity and innovative thinking.

• A global perspective and environmental and social responsibility are central to becoming true world citizens.

• All members of our community strive for balance and understand that achieving one’s personal best should be enjoyable.

Mulgrave 2020 Executive Summary In the next five years it is our intention, while being true to our school’s mission, vision, values and traditions, to build on our success, and to develop Mulgrave from being a very good school to a great school.

are developed further across the PreKindergarten to Grade 12 continuum.

We will further enhance our Chinese language provision and develop our Global outreach Programme with more links to schools overseas.

Keeping our three strong academic IB programmes at the heart of our school curriculum, we are going to ensure that learning and the curriculum are more personalised to the individual student and that within the students’ curricula, they develop the modern skills and qualities that they will need to thrive in the future. We will strengthen the three other strands (arts, athletics and service) of education at Mulgrave especially through community partnerships and ensure that our outdoor Education and other general co-curricular programmes

We will improve our communications as a school and engage all our stakeholders in consultation about how we develop further. We will strengthen our sense of community with all stakeholders in all divisions of the school and will further develop our alumni association, especially as we look forward to our 20th anniversary in 2013.

We will aim to acquire land around the school to protect our environment and enhance our facilities to improve the education programmes for the students.

This will require a significant fundraising effort and we will look to develop our

advancement activities further to achieve this and to support bursaries. We will further review how we support, develop and remunerate our staff so that we can recruit and retain the best people and support them so that they can continue to inspire our children.

These priorities and initiatives have come from combining the hopes and aspirations of our parents and students and the educational vision provided by the leadership team and the staff at the school. The Board is committed to this agenda and looks forward to steering Mulgrave to new levels of excellence over the coming years.

Strategic Plan 2011 –2020 The Planning Process Under the direction of the School Board, the strategic planning exercise was carried out by John Wray, Head of School, with the assistance of a Strategic Plan Steering Group: a committee on which all stakeholder groups were represented. The review included intensive consultation across all sectors of the community via online surveys, dialogue sessions and focus groups. These consultations provided for a rigorous analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Mulgrave as an institution and a review of

its strategic fundamentals within the framework of the school’s history, current identity and local context. Informed by this feedback and a strong awareness of some of the best educational trends and developments worldwide—and not-just-a-smallmeasure of ‘blue skies thinking’—a strategic plan for Mulgrave has been developed. This plan, Mulgrave 2020: from Good to Great, has eight key focus areas.

The Eight Focus Areas 1 Personalisation of Learning, Support and Curriculum 2 development of Modern 21st Century Skills, Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 3 Strengthening the Arts, Athletics, Citizenship and outdoor Education 4 development of an International dimension

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5 Strengthening of Community 6 Valuing of Staff and development of their Capacity to Embrace Change 7 Acquiring of Land and Enhancement of Facilities to Support New Programme Needs 8 raising of Funds to Secure Future development

Personalisation of Learning, Support and Curriculum • We will ensure that teaching, learning and assessment in all divisions are more differentiated and student-centred according to individual styles and strengths.

• We will ensure that individual student support in all divisions is more personalised through access to a wider range of specialised support teachers.

• We will ensure that the curriculum will be more personalised through increased choices in the Middle and Senior Schools.

• We will ensure that the use of technology will be improved to provide more personalised education opportunities.

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Development of Modern 21st Century Skills, Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 • A Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 modern skills continuum will be established and embedded in the curriculum with students demonstrating higher levels of skill acquisition in all divisions.

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Strengthening the Arts, Athletics, Citizenship and Outdoor Education • We will develop strong and welldevised arts, athletics and service programmes in all divisions with some aspects of these being delivered in partnership with community providers.

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• We will have a strong, well-devised and developmental outdoor Education Programme, Kindergarten to Grade 12, which exploits our west coast mountain location and opportunities for experiential life-skills acquisition in the ‘greatest classroom on earth’.

Development of an International Dimension • We will have a well-developed and progressive Mandarin language programme meeting the needs of students from a range of language backgrounds so that they are at least reaching levels of functional oral fluency and are achieving good results in the diploma Programme.

• We will have a well-devised programme of global education opportunities with a focus on overseas partner schools and service learning opportunities.

Strategic Plan 2011 –2020 contD. 5

Strengthening of Community • We will improve our communications and consult with our stakeholders in the future development of the school.

• We will nurture a sense of ‘belonging’ at Mulgrave by strengthening community spirit and cross-cultural unity.

• In anticipation of our 20th anniversary in 2013, we will extend the hand of community to our young alumni association.

• We will strengthen our school brand to ensure that it is consistent with our mission, vision and values.

6

Valuing of Staff and Development of their Capacity to Embrace Change • We will create a working environment which will attract and retain the best possible teachers.

• We will invest in staff and their professional development in order to ensure their capacity to embrace change.

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Acquiring of Land and Enhancement of Facilities to Support New Programme Needs • We will acquire more land if it becomes available in order to protect our natural environment and give us options for the future.

• We will expand and improve our facilities across all divisions in order to support programming needs.

• An expanded campus will include a range of new facilities including an Arts Centre for the Junior School, design Technology Studios for the Middle School, a University Guidance & Counseling Centre for the Senior School and a further full-size gymnasium and all-weather athletics field for the whole school.

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Raising of Funds to Secure Future Development • With the aim of avoiding further debt and associated increase in tuition fees, the school will conduct a major capital campaign to raise funds for land acquisition and facilities expansion.

• Through the advancement function of the school, participation in annual and planned giving will be encouraged and target-driven.

• The school will explore alternative revenue streams in order to subsidise existing income through tuition fees and the government grant.

• The school will maintain its current level of commitment to bursaries and scholarships and aim to increase this over time.

Mulgrave 2020: A New Horizon Is it possible that Mulgrave’s ‘view’ could be any more spectacular? Matched only by the school’s outlook across the Burrard Inlet on a sunny day, Mulgrave 2020 is a clear, bold vision for the future of our school. The next steps are to write a detailed Action Plan and to complete a Facilities Plan. And then, with the support of our community, we

hope to embark on a major Capital Campaign: the first ever in Mulgrave’s remarkable journey. With the energy of a new era of leadership and a fresh vision, we hope to take Mulgrave to ever-increasing standards of excellence in education and to watch our school grow, ‘from Good to Great.’

Inspiring Excellence in Education and Life

IB World School

MULGRAVE SCHOOL 2330 Cypress Bowl Lane, West Vancouver, B.C. V7S 3H9

www.mulgrave.com