ABSTRACT
Having targets is not the same as having vision. Targets help to identify specific areas for attention, but parents, others in the community and pupils themselves need to know why these targets seem important. A policy statement should inform all members of the school community about why the school approaches writing – or anything else for that matter – in the way it does. It should make clear the teaching approaches chosen, the classroom
practices about response to work or spelling, for example; it is a key document which makes it possible for homes and school to work together. Policy, about any area of the curriculum, grows from the school development plan, and this is the document in the school which should be founded on vision. Figure 9.1 shows the relationship between planning and target setting and vision seen as three phases.
