This New Year’s Eve felt…heavy. It was hard to see it as the fresh start we so often attribute to the change from one year to the next.

But I decided to keep to the annual tradition of making a resolution. Not everyone is into new year’s resolutions, but I actually quite like to press the reset button and find an intention to focus on for the coming months.

A friend of mine (who happens to be a Head Teacher) is very strict about resolution making. According to her, they should follow the SMART objectives: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound. That way we’re more likely to see them through. I frustrate her every year by making completely non-specific, unmeasurable and therefore unachievable and unrealistic, totally open-ended promises to myself that, of course, I never keep!

So, I can’t help but wonder that perhaps she has a good point?

Resolutions can take many forms, and they can be individual or communal. Setting an intention as a staff team could be just the thing for 2021. Something to bring you together when things are still so challenging and fragmented. If you haven’t already, you might like to try one of these ideas:

·         Choose a word for your team to focus on for the year – one that sums up something you are aiming for e.g. ‘Communication’ – this could then represent an aim to find ways to meet the challenges of communicating as a team, and with your families, and your teaching and learning community. You could make a screen saver with your word on, or put it up in every room in your setting.

·         Choose 21 things you will do for 2021 – this could include small things, like tidy the Tea Cupboard, or bigger things, like do a diversity audit to improve your resources, provision and approach.

·         Go SMART – choose something that you can achieve and timetable into the year. For example, ‘Each month the children will make a class or group recording to send home to their families about the learning they have done that month’.

Remember, setting an intention for the new year should be something to aim for, not something that quickly becomes a stressful chore. 

Wishing you all a happy and hopeful New Year.