This blog is a little like the image above, if you are reading it then you are probably the kind of person who is already going to start next year well. So…congratulations your mindset is already focused and next year is going to be great!

The end of the school year is a great time to reflect and reset. There are plenty of scaffolds out there:

Keep, Chuck, Change

More, Less, Different, Stop

or my favourite… Liked, Loved, Loathed, Learnt

Filling these out can be cathartic because we can dream of what next year could be. An example:

They then flow into simple scaffolds like:

Next year I will do… more of the things I loved. 

Less of the things I… loathed. 

And viola! The plan is set for next year. Job done. Right?

Unfortunately, all these scaffolds work on the idea that you can: 

1. evaluate them subjectively and 
2. are empowered to make sweeping changes to what you will do next year. e.g. I loath writing lessons, writing reports and marking but can I do less of it next year? 

So, what are the three things we can do now to set up next year well?

1. Plan your activities without a timeline. (Model your logic)
2. Set your markers for success. (Plan your evaluation and monitoring)
3. Bring your team with you (Build on strong foundations)

Planning your logic 

Can be as simple as listing the things you are going to do, in the order you are going to do them. A useful scaffold is If we…then…so that…

Next year if we…create a safe place for students to record how they feel

Then… students will learn how to identify their feelings

So that…they can begin building a repertoire of strategies for regulating their emotions

Setting your markers for success

It is important, particularly in the wellbeing space, that you don’t set an unrealistic timeline for when these things will happen. Instead, you may find it beneficial to set sensible evaluative questions with sensible success markers (indicators). 

For example:

1. When/How will we know we have created a safe place for students to record how they feel (and they are using it well)? 
   • Success Marker – More than 90% of students are completing an emotion check-in 3 or more times a week. 
2. How will we know students have learnt to identify their feelings? 
   • Success Marker – All classes have completed the Identifying Emotions lesson successfully
3. How will we know if students have strategies for regulating their emotions?
   • Success Markers – reduced negative behaviour incidents, increased % readiness to learn, journal notations

Bring your team with you

“Your leadership can’t exist in isolation to those you lead.”

It is critical that you bring people with you as create next years plan. The ‘Ikea effect’ is a cognitive bias that normally is used to describe people overvaluing things they have created or contributed to building themselves. In education implementation, however, you can harness this for the greater good by giving teachers and students the opportunity to have voice and agency so that they feel connected to what is rolled out in 2025. If your team feels connected and that they have some ownership of the plan then your chances of successful implementation increase dramatically.  

Talk the talk, walk the walk, walk together and finally it happens without you.

[ Rydr Tracy is the Head of Education at Life Skills Group and former Director of Strategic Priorities at CESE. He is a specialist in evidence-informed practice in educational innovation, with a career focus on strategic change that improves student outcomes. He draws on a rare blend of successful experience in schools, system leadership roles and industry practice – experience that has given him a deep understanding of the complexities of the education sector from the classroom to the boardroom and a demonstrated capacity to generate practical recommendations that are grounded in context and evidence. ]