Your VISION is your picture of what your organization should look like in the future.

Forming a strategic vision should describe what kind of enterprise the organization is trying to become and infuse it with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our school look like in five to ten years from now?

Vision statements often begin with words like:

– We strive for
– We believe that
– We are committed to

Your MISSION describes what your organization does, with whom (or for whom) and, in broad terms, how it does it.
If you think of the vision as the end point for what your school stands for, then your mission is your means and it points to how you are going to reach your dream.

To write a mission statement, answer the questions:
– What is our business?
– Who are we serving?
– How will we accomplish it?

A mission statement communicates to others what you do and how you do it; and helps to clarify and focus the work of the organization.

The three elements of the Mission Statement are:
Who? What? How?

In developing your mission statement, ask the following questions:

– Does our mission statement describe who our customers are?
– Does our mission statement explain how the organization will serve its stakeholders?
– Is our mission statement realistic?
– Is it clear and easily understood? Short and sharply focused?
– Is it memorable?
– Does our mission statement reflect what we want the organization to stand for?
– Is it motivating and inspiring?
– Does it focus on our key customers?

Your ORGANISATIONAL VALUES are the shared values that underpin the work of the organization and its relationships with users and other stakeholders. Values reflect what the organization believes is the right way to do things and to deal with people, and what the organization believes about the way in which the world ought to be organized.