The beginning of the school year is notably different from the start of the calendar one. For one thing, the new school year is marked with considerably fewer parties and popping champagne corks, and Jools Holland is rarely wheeled out to celebrate it with an all-night music fest.

One thing that both have in common, however, is the setting of resolutions. This year, people tell themselves, things will be different.

The participants in a recent #edchat shared their new-school-year resolutions. @teresagross625 said: “Less teacher talking and more student talking. The person doing the talking is doing the most learning.”

As well as talking, listening was a common theme. @tkraz pledged to “find ways to hear from more students every day”. @lookforsun hoped “to start the year by having small group lunches with every student in the first six weeks”.

Other teachers focused on how their goals and those of their students could intersect. For example, @lourdes39603769 said: “This year my goal is to learn as much as possible about my students and their life goals to help them get there.”

New year’s resolutions tend to get broken in a few weeks. Teachers’ new-school-year resolutions, we suspect, will last far longer. Sarah Cunnane

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