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chools admitted that the involvement of all the staff together with students and parents in the planning process, gives them a sense of ownership. However, one can say that it is quite impossible to involve all the staff members when it is a large school. For this problem Hopkins and Lagerweij (1996 p84) states that when it is impossible to involve everyone, a representative of every department must be present. Carol Cardno (1998, pp112-113), in her study states that involving everyone in strategic planning is quite an unhealthy process. Cardno suggests that only those people who are affected directly or indirectly by the decision should be involved.

To what extent does the teaching staff own the development plan?

Far from planning the implementation process is important. Hopkins and Lagerweij (1996, p60) argue that in the 1970’s:“It was clear that implementation is an extremely complex and lengthy process that requires a sensitive combination of strategic planning and individual learning and commitment to succeed.”Fullan (1992, p87) suggests that implementation is concerned with what a person can change within herself. The principal must be the first one to initiate this process and must serve as a model for the other staff members to start implementing the plan.

Implementation is the toughest part of the whole process because it’s easy to say things than to do them. On the other hand when people mean what they plan together, and when they do it not for the sake of doing it, they will own it and put it into practice. All this, will lead to school effectiveness and improvement. Drucker (1994, quoted in Lumby, 1998, p101) says that:“Good intentions, good policies, good decisions must turn to effective actions... Effective organisations take it for granted that work isn’t done by having a lovely plan.”

Planning is time consuming but considering the benefits of it, it is worthwhile doing it

Contrary to this although people are involved in the planning process, sometimes ownership will be lacking. Plant (1987, cited in Busher, 2002, p282), presents what causes people not to accept or work on a desired change. He argues that sometimes it is because of “fear, lack of confidence, lack of skill, and particular beliefs.” It can also become a shelf document if it does not have attainable goals linked to students’ needs and learning. The action plans of an SDP should be identified and assigned to particular people so that everyone will know his responsibility. All this leads to a focused plan. A good leader according to Busher (2002, p282), is one who although doesn’t find any support and cooperation from the staff, never looses heart in trying to convince everyone to put the plan into action despite the disagreements.

Implementation requires both monitoring and evaluation to evaluate the results of a development plan. Monitoring is done to check what is being done and to amend certain parts of the plan if needed. The evaluation is normally done at the end of the time frame of an SDP to weigh up what has been done and achieved.

In the OFSTED inspection in UK every school is monitored on the implementing strategies and the evaluating process of the SDP. Throughout the SDP timeframe, continuous evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness and the implementation of the action plans. Fullan (1992, p91) argues t