Who owns the school?

Ask around: Can you find anyone around you who is convinced that he or she owns the school? Probably not even a member of the school board elected by the municipal assembly would be persuaded to make this statement.

We head teachers often like to talk about «our school». It fills us with pride to represent the school. But we also keep a low profile when it comes to the question of who owns the school.

When the organisation chart is upside down

Let's dare to look beyond the country's borders and our education system. We find what we are looking for in the far north and - perhaps surprisingly for you - in the financial sector. The financial institution Svensk Handelsbanken has an organisation chart that is upside down, so to speak.

The customer appears at the top, i.e. in the place traditionally reserved for the Board of Directors. Directly below them are all types of customer advisors who receive requests in a solution-orientated manner. The third tier is occupied by middle management, who give their all to ensure that the customer advisory service can work efficiently and successfully.

Continue the story at this point until it reaches the Board of Directors via the CEO - do you recognise the pattern? This is about customer orientation. Everything in the organisation is geared towards this. And even if Svensk Handelsbanken is effectively owned by the shareholders, the customers are still the top priority.

Those affected are stakeholders

The Swedish bank's recipe for success can easily be transferred to our school system, albeit with a decisive change in terminology. As learning is not a spectator sport and schools must not make the mistake of seeing themselves purely as a service organisation, the terms «user» are more appropriate for pupils than «customer». And because you as parents are jointly responsible, you should always be mentioned as well.

Make an appearance and offer to help shape your school.

The vision of a modern school - «Schule21 macht glücklich» - of the Swiss Association of Head Teachers is based on precisely this way of thinking: Schule21 is a school that sees itself as part of our entire society, in which those affected become participants. Pupils and their parents are explicitly given the highest possible consideration as key players when it comes to inclusion, co-determination and co-determination.

So if you have already fulfilled your New Year's resolutions, why not add another one on top: make an appearance and offer to help shape your school. Together we will build Schule21 - a modern school in which the question of who owns it takes a back seat.

And if the question is asked anyway, the answer is immediately clear to everyone: School21 belongs to the pupils and their parents.