Time to regroup and set long-term targets

11th January 2002, 12:00am

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Time to regroup and set long-term targets

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/time-regroup-and-set-long-term-targets
How was your staff Christmas lunch? Feels like ages ago now, I’m sure, but I’m hoping you went along.

Such get-togethers provide a great opportunity for you to think again about some of your colleagues and it’s fun catching up with those you don’t normally see because they work on the other side of the school. I never realised games teachers wore anything other than track suits and it’s great to see dresses instead of lab coats on some of the scientists. The transformation in some people when they are I how shall I put it I relaxing is marked and overall these socials can be a blast.

But now, here we are in January, a very different month.

Congratulations on making it safely into term two!

If you are anything like me, though, then right now you’re probably skint and can’t believe your holidays are over already. Christmas is such a special time and you want to savour every moment. Instead you are back at work before really getting the chance to reflect, never mind play with your presents. It doesn’t help when friends in other lines of work tell you they only get something like four weeks of holiday a year.

Sound familiar? Well, we could mope around to infinity and that might be fun for a while but I suggest we take a deep, cleansing breath and start looking ahead instead.

The mornings may be dark and your bed amazingly cosy (in contrast with your car, which may seem permanently covered in frost) but look on the bright side. You can combat the freezing conditions with all those lovely jumpers and woolly socks you received as presents and a six-pack of de-icer for your car should see you into February.

So you haven’t much money but, realistically, where do you want to go this month? Home to a bowl of hot soup and a bubble bath is about all you are going to feel like doing, if truth be told.

There is probably all sorts of sickness going around your school right now - flu, chest infections and colds of one sort or another - so make sure you keep up your defences. Take those multivitamin tablets, get some fresh air, finish all the Christmas goodies and start eating a healthy diet and, dare I say it, restart that exercise routine you decided to miss once sometime in September and then never got back to.

If the new year is a time of new beginnings, then you can see January as the month that allows you to regroup and set targets for the year ahead. This is a busy term on the school calendar, with lots of reporting, parents’ nights (which you’re an expert at now) and lots of internal assessments, whether that be for national tests, Higher Still or national assessment bank items. It is, therefore, essential to plan ahead so that you divide your time appropriately.

You might not feel highly motivated right away and your pupils may also be quite sluggish to start with (it’s the adjustment to seeing the mornings again!) but as soon as you can, start getting them geared up and on top of their own forward planning and target-setting.

My advice is to keep it simple. Long-term goals need to be complemented by short-term, achievable targets.

By the way, that’s why it is all right to buy that coat in the January sales as well as planning to put money aside for your wonderful summer holiday.

Diane Allison teaches in Midlothian and is author of The Year of Living Dangerously: A Survival Guide for Probationer Teachers (City of Edinburgh Council, pound;4.99)

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