Best laid plans

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promis’d joy!

                                                            from To a Mouse by Robert Burns 1785

The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry. Or so the common translation suggests Scottish poet, Robert Burns was trying to tell us in this stanza from his poem To a Mouse, published 235 years ago.

Planning. Creating plans. Discarding plans. Changing and/or re-writing plans. The first four and a half months of 2020 seems to have been a never ending process of planning and replanning. Often plans created over days have become obsolete within hours of being finished. Holding multiple plans simultaneously has become integral to traversing this crisis. Scenario planning!

At present, school leaders are elbow-deep in planning. A plan is needed for how each school can, and will, accommodate on site all community members from 25 May when the remaining grades of students will return. How do we create a plan that is consistent with all the advice, including inconsistent messages, from layers of government? That advice is being updated almost daily, making planning even more complex.

What we can do is create plans that are reasonable. We can ensure the plans are practicable. And we can focus on people and their well-being at the centre of that planning.

And we can remember that our planning only complements the planning that is already in place.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

                                                            Jeremiah 29:11

Stay safe and well

Dennis