Tuesday 26 April, 2016
Our Strategic Direction
Principal Heather McRae explains our strategy and vision for the future.

The inspirational Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who is professor of business at Harvard University, says that “a vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more”. And so her inspiring words explain our desire to reach into our heartfelt values to create our future at Diocesan. Over the last year we have set about defining our vision and strategy for the future.

Strategy is about setting a direction that can inform decisions and underpin school development over forthcoming years. Last year the Board of Governors worked with the School on our strategic direction so that consultation with staff could bring it to life. The strategy was the result of careful analysis of the history of Diocesan as well as examining the changing Auckland and international economic, social, educational and technological environments. As Steve Jobs said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future.”

Bishop Neligan’s vision for Diocesan was a very edgy and trailblazing concept at the turn of the last century. Educating women to the highest academic and moral standards was foundational in establishing a future for women that recognised them as confident individuals who could achieve highly and contribute to our fledgling democracy. This vision helped our country to continue the legacy of world firsts including the appointment of Diocesan alumna Dame Sian Elias as New Zealand’s Chief Justice. We want to continue providing that trailblazing approach as we seek to define our future in the same way. Our mission is to lead boldly so that our young women can do the same and make their mark on the world.

Our strategy sets out our vision for each area of the School including our culture,community, education, leadership and environment. Each of these areas is underpinned by our guiding values that inform and permeate our decision making as we bring the strategy to life. The values are:

Fostering empathy

Inspiring confidence

Demonstrating integrity

Encouraging curiosity

Striving for excellence

The values spell ‘FIDES’, the Latin word for faith. As the foundation for all our work at Diocesan is informed by our Anglican expression and our motto Ut Serviamus, the service learning philosophy encourages us all to contribute our knowledge and capabilities to help others.

Over forthcoming years, Diocesan staff will unpack the strategy into successive Annual Plans that connect to each area of our vision. Our aim is to be clear about who we are, what we want to achieve.

Each Annual Plan in the future will respond to the changing needs of girls while working towards our trailblazing vision. We also set aspirational targets and monitor against them in every area of school life. As Michaelangelo said: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

Diocesan is a vibrant centre of excellence with opportunities that abound and what hasn’t changed is our propensity to educate amazing young women with the strength of character and the moral fortitude to be ‘more than they ever imagined’.

View our Strategic Direction

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