Island Christian Academys Vision Journey

In April 2010 at a Board retreat the Generations Christian Education Board

reviewed their motto and wrote a new one - Loving for Today, Learning for
Tomorrow, Living for Eternity. They also revised the Vision, Mission and
Values. Current IslandCA parents were on the board at that time.

In August 2012 Island Christian Academy opened its doors to students for the
first time. The GenCE vision, mission, motto and values were adopted. (By
agreement of the School management committee and parents)

Below are snippets from the Annual report of 2011 showing the Generations
school vision, mission and values and IslandCAs earliest mission, values,
vision and motto:

Motto:

In May 2014 the current IslandCA school principal started at the school. The
schools vision, mission, motto and values were reviewed and it was decided
that there was too much and that all these statements were not child friendly
or user friendly. It was decided that a child / user friendly vision was needed.

From May to July 2014 a document with ideas was discussed and various
ideas were brainstormed.

See discussion document below:

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In July 2014, after collaboration with various stakeholders, IslandCA confirmed

taking the cue from the motto:Loving for Today, Learning for Tomorrow, Living
for Eternity and have the 3 main words: LOVE, LEARN, LIVE as the overarching
umbrella for the schools shared vision. This way even the youngest students
starting school at 4 years old had something that was easy to remember.

The IPC personal goals, ICA values and focus of the strategic plan were aligned
under Love, Learn, Live as seen below in the table completed in July 2014. This
was shared at the start of the new school year with the whole community.
Teachers and leaders focussed on one section each term: LOVE, personal goals:
Respect, Cooperation, Thoughtfulness, etc in term 1; LEARN, and the relevant 3
personal goals in term 2 and so on.

July 2014 :

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During the mid year review, in time for the start of term 2, 2014/15, we
realised that thoughtfulness was better aligned with Learn, as the main focus
was in relation to thinking for learning, rather than being thoughtful in the kind,
loving sense. So thoughtfulness was then linked to Learn rather than Love.
Communication was moved to Love instead; the thinking behind this was that
collaborative classroom practices are essential to learning and teaching at
IslandCA and communication, cooperation and respect are all important
ingredients of Love.
We also took out the IslandCA values as these were considered too much for
learners, teachers and parents to focus on.
As the three Greats are very important to a Christian school we decided to
align those to the 3 Ls: the Great Commandment is about loving God and
loving your neighbour as yourself, so fits very well with Love. The Great
Commission aligns well with the original part of the motto Living for Eternity,
so aligns with Live. The Great Mandate is about being good stewards, caring
for creation and sustainability, so is not out of place with Learn.
International Mindedness was also added under the three areas, to ensure
that this was learnt systematically.

During our end of year review, before the start of the 2015/16 school year,
and learning from our training sessions with IPC trainer, Fiona, we realised
that developing a growth mindset was already a major part of our developing
IslandCA community culture.
It also became clear that there is a natural link between developing a growth
mindset and Luke 2:52; the overarching scriptural guideline from the strategic
plan that describes how Jesus grew as a boy growing in wisdom, stature
and in favour with God and man.
This scripture was already the Generations and IslandCA big picture of WHY
we wanted a holistic education for our learners, leading to why the IPC was
chosen for Generations schools and why we wanted our learners developing
the personal goals / learning dispositions that are the foundation of our
schools shared vision.
Although we still teach the 3 Greats, we took it out of the schools shared
vision as they do not seem to fit specifically with the description of what kinds
of people we are helping to develop. They also seemed to be causing
confusion among a few people as to what the fundamental shared vision is for
the kinds of children we are helping to develop.
Finally, during term 2, and as a result of a late mid year review, we made
International mindedness the 3rd goal under Live. (a) As our teaching and
learning of Live and the personal goals progressed, and (b) as we had a
number of international groups visiting in relation to learning about the Great
Commission (c) we had a couple of International Mindedness events all
occurring during the term it was a natural progression and development.
2016/17. Before the start of each school year, leadership write an annual
implementation plan and action plans. These are based on feedback
(including formal reviews) of the previous year.
See below for our reviewed and revised shared vision for 2016 (a cut
and paste from our school handbook):