How to prep for the New Year
How to prep for the New Year
As the winter break comes to an end, you’re going to be thinking about how to prepare for the New Year. With lots of Christmas crafts and celebrations happening in your school, you may not think there is time to prep for the New Year. Here at GLS, we have you covered. We have set out ways to help you prep for the new calendar year.
Write a to-do list
The first thing to do before anything else is write down a list of everything you need to do. Think of any key dates that are coming up in the next few months that you could prepare for. This will act as a reminder of the important tasks that need to be carried out.
Your list could look like:
- Open events and parents' evenings
- Governors' meetings
- January and February management information
- Staff and student wellbeing support
Don’t forget about your own workload and personal lives when it comes to writing the list. Ensure to add in any personal tasks. These could include planning, cooking, and exercising.
These tasks won’t be entirely down to you to carry out, other members of staff will assist with these. However, whatever is listed should be tasks you feel responsible for.
Stock up on school stationery
When you're in the middle of planning for the New Year, it can be easy to forget about one very important thing: your stationery. The start of a New Year is a great time to stock up on all the things you need for your school including textbooks, pens, pencils and notebooks.
As the New Year starts, it can become very busy as students prepare for their classes, activities and assignments. Keeping a stock of stationery in your school, like diaries and staplers can help make your day-to-day tasks easier.
Make sure your school is clean
School cleanliness impacts the health of teachers and students. Having clean classrooms and hallways prevents viruses and germs from spreading around the school.
Cleanliness is important not only for the health of students but also for teachers. Teachers are in close contact with their students throughout the day, so it's important that they have a clean environment in which to work. When classrooms and hallways aren't kept clean, germs can spread easily throughout the school, which can make it difficult for students to focus on their work.
SBMs must ensure school classrooms and hallways are clean before the start of the year. Start by using detergents, anti-bac soaps, and cleaning wipes to clean floors and surfaces. In addition, maintaining a clean classroom helps keep students focused. If they see their teacher spend time cleaning up after them instead of teaching them new material, it can make them feel like they aren't being taken seriously as students or valued as people.
Think about your finances
SBMs must ensure the school makes the best possible use of resources through effective planning and considering all financial and other resource implications. In terms of finances, SBMs will regularly have to obtain the agreement of budgets and monitor them against accounts.
Here is a list of things to consider when it comes to financing:
- Develop ways of estimating your expenses.
Ask yourself questions such as: Are there categories you can readily cut back on? Did we really overspend, or do we simply need to cut back? - What will be needed for the school and its activities?
- Keep yourself informed by linking the school’s finances to curriculum planning and any potential changes that may impact the budget in the future. This could include, resources, staff requirements and funding allocation.
Other things to do
As an SBM it can be difficult to include everything for the preparation of the school year. Here at GLS, we want to make sure that you don’t forget the little things. Here’s a list of the other things to do that are important but often forgotten due to the hectic nature of the job role.
- Outline your goals for the year
- Organise your filing centre- tidy files reduces stress and helps find important information.
- Workout how you’ll manage your work/life balance
- Find new easy recipes for quick and easy lunches
- Plan out your personal routine
- Buy a book for lunch downtime
- The night before work- get a good night’s sleep!
Overall, it’s important that SBMs have thought about all there is to make sure your school is prepped for the New Year. Following these steps will ensure you come back after the New Year ready and prepared.
For more blogs like this read our recent blog on Top Tips for Smarter SBMs.
