We have borrowed this term from business and home construction and we use it metaphorically to illustrate the steps a FL school Owner/Director needs to take before the beginning of the new school year so that in late August-September his/her school will be in ready-to-operate condition.
As we see it, there is a specific procedure and a number of steps/projects that need to be planned and carried out starting right after the end of the current school year in June and going up to the beginning of the following year in September.
JUNE - JULY PROJECTS (listed per major topic):
1 CURRICULUM & SYLLABUS DESIGN:
1.1 FINAL DECISIONS re. CURRICULUM (New Programs) and SYLLABUS CHANGES: research and selection process should have taken place from the beginning of the current school year.
1.2 PLACEMENT TEST: test quality checked and/or replaced. Staff needed to administer it must have been appointed.
2 PERSONNEL:
2.1 ADMINSTRATIVE PERSONNEL: SECRETARY If a new one, needs to be hired by June to be trained.
2.2 TEACHING STAFF: *New staff? Interviews and final decisions made so they can start preparing.
2.3 TEACHERS' ORIENTATION MEETING: *Date set at the last Staff Meeting in May. *Teachers assisting or presenting during the meeting must have been asked to do so in advance.
3 BUILDING:
3.1 Maintenance and re-vamping, if necessary.
3.2 TEACHERS' ROOM: Refreshed and fully equipped, audio-visual material ready and functioning.
3.3 Set up a PRIMARY CLASSROOM(S), if you haven't done so yet.
3.4 Interactive White Boards: updated software, if necessary.
4 LEGAL MATTERS/TAXES/ACCOUNTING:
4.1 Updated re. possible new regulations, taxes, fees, responsibilities, etc.
4.2 Changes in tuition? Reduced and/or special fees.
5 PROMOTION/MARKETING:
5.1 School's brochures or promotional flyers.
5.2 Brochures with information concerning school's methodological principles, policies, goals.
5.3 Progress Reports per Learning Cycle.
5.4 Reception Area/Waiting Room decorated with: *Small flags from all the countries represented by your student body. *A poster announcing the dates of the major school events till December. *A poster with the photographs and short bios of the Director and all staff members. *A power point/Video/DVD (shown on an LCD screen) featuring photographs of your students from last year's events, classroom projects, etc., interspersed with maxims referring to children & learning, as well as with a number of your students, especially those from foreign countries, presenting themselves in English or any other of the FLs taught at your school.
5.5 REGISTRATION PROCEDURE: *Person(s) responsible, material prepared, a brief demo of a young learners' micro-lesson in action to be shown on a digital photo frame or a laptop as registration discussion is taking place between Owner/Director and parents.
5.6 PARENTS' ORIENTATION MEETING: date and material to be used pre-planned.
Ideally, just about all the steps/projects above should have taken place by the end of July so that there will be enough time for a summer vacation and rest, but also so that there will be room left for the unexpected, which is a fact of life. However, there are times that certain things are left behind or have not been anticipated. In this case, one needs to do what is absolutely necessary. It is better late than never. Even up to the end of September and, for some projects, beginning October, by working selectively, we need to take care of the areas we cannot overlook: CURRICULUM & SYLLABUS DESIGN (e.g., Final decisions re. Syllabus changes), PERSONNEL (e.g., training the new Secretary & planning a Teachers' Orientation Meeting), and PROMOTION (e.g., revamping our Reception Area, planning the school year-round events, setting a date for the Parents Orientation Meeting, etc.).
And a question on our part: "What is the image YOU have projected in your community? And what is your CLIENTS' image? How responsible have we been in "shaping" the needs our clients express?
