CEIAG & Careers Leaders
Set Yourself Up to Suceed & Survive
Wednesday 4th September 2013
We all do it, make all these new term resolutions
"This year I'm going to return all work marked within 2 days"
"This year I'm not going to let the filing pile up"
We all know that, chances are, it's doomed to failure from the start. Most teachers in charge of careers learning, work related learning, aspirations, call it what you will, have other responsibilities. Leadership roles, teaching commitments, form tutor etc. So I've created a time saving checklist to help you plan your academic year. Once you've done this, you'll find it saves you time, year on year. Obviously include your line manager in this process for agreement of any activities. This will probably take you an afternoon but that is time well spent and will be recouped many times throughout the year.
STEP ONE ORGANISE
Create (or get your IT dept to create) a dept calendar in outlook (For Luddite schools buy a large year planner and stick it on the wall. Add holidays, meetings etc then add your standard activities. Work Experience, Mock Interview Day, National Careers Week etc.
From this you can then work out rough deadlines for tasks, these may be agreed with outside providers such as the EBP, or they may be internal.
STEP TWO PRIORITISE
Put these deadlines in your calendar (Using sticky notes if using a wall planner) Look out for conflicts with other commitments. EG don't schedule getting application forms ready for submission the same week you're grading BTEC modules. Bring forward external dates in your calendar if necessary. Move things around, the main aim is to spread the workload throughout the year. If you have admin or others support, identify who is responsible for individual deadlines.
STEP THREE IDENTIFY CONFLICTS
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If there are unavoidable 'flashpoints' where your workload is going to be horrendous, (Yes I've worked in a school, I know every week is horrendous!) Let your line manager know about these in advance, negotiate support for those times. Trust me they'll be impressed with your organisation rather than think you can't cope.
STEP FOUR ACTION PLAN
Now write a brief action plan for all the activities you want to take place during the year. breaking down all the tasks for each deadline. An example plan can be found here. Example activity plan
STEP FIVE COMMUNICATE
Make sure that your department, line managers etc have copies of the plans and are aware of the calendar. Make it a regular item on the dept meeting agenda. It's not set in stone and can be tweaked as you go on if you find you need to.
STEP SIX REFLECTION/DEVELOPMENT
This is where you add in new items, things you've not done before, I don't necessarily suggest doing this the first year, but certainly once you're organised and have the action plans ready they only need tweaking from year to year and that should save time which can be used for new activities. Talks, visits etc.
STEP SEVEN
