A school, on any level of analysis, is a business and needs to act as one, but it is also much more than just that. With an annual turnover of over $77 million and over 350 ongoing employees (over 600 when peripatetic music staff and sports coaches are included), Melbourne Grammar School is a medium sized business organisation.
Of course, schools are different in that they operate on a ‘not for profit’ basis. A not for profit organisation provides services to the community and does not operate to make a profit for its members (or shareholders, if applicable). Money earned by or donated to a not for profit organisation must be used in pursuing the organisation’s objectives and to keep it operating.
Melbourne Grammar has a core purpose of teaching and learning for over 1,800 students, more than 4,000 parents and 18,000 former students and, therefore, it is important to recognise that the School operates as a very large and, hopefully, engaged community.
In the MGS Strategic Plan, the central value is expressed as ‘a sense of community’. This is described as ‘valuing community, both within and outside the School, and the need for all citizens to be positive and productive members of society. When our values are actively engaged, the result is a supportive environment where everyone feels that they belong.’ It is in this way that a school is a different kind of business.
In Term 2 this year, I attended an enjoyable Old Melburnian business breakfast in which the guest speaker was James Shipton (OM 1987), Chair of ASIC, who was interviewed by Terry McCrann (OM 1966), award winning journalist. A detailed account of James’ background and excellent speech is covered on page 27 of this edition of Grammar News.
During his address, James talked about his desire as Chair of ASIC to see greater professionalism in the financial industry in Australia. He referred to specific examples which emerged from the recent Royal Commission into Financial Institutions to back up his view. He described professionalism as including the need for greater competence and conscientiousness.
There is no doubt that these two aspects are vitally important, but I would argue that there were many financiers who appeared at the Royal Commission who had been both competent and conscientious in their workplace activities. I would add that, to be truly professional, there is a need for an agreed ethical framework of behaviour in all financial organisations. Schools are businesses in which professionalism, based on clear ethical principles, is intrinsic to their raison d’etre.
Educational writer, Michael Fullen, once stated that “thirty years ago a school leader would be placed in a straight jacket if they admitted to having visions, whereas today no aspiring school leader can get a job without having a clearly articulated vision.” Business principles have positively influenced schools in many ways and the MGS governance structure is completely cognisant of this need.
However, as always, the real issue is one of balance and I am convinced that when schools become dominated by such thinking they can lose their commitment to having a community focus. This was reflected by esteemed Australian, David Gonski, in a paper he delivered to Australian Heads on School Governance in 2018 in which he wrote, “I am not against KPIs, but a school is a community on its own right and that means that KPIs cannot be used where care, heart and soul is more important.”
Successful schools are those which reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve and build upon them to create students who look beyond the ordinary, to achieve the extraordinary, and to make a difference to the world in which they live.
Roy Kelley Headmaster
