Weekly Wellbeing Focus – Following through on goals / Goals and academic rigour

Welcome to the Weekly Wellbeing Focus. The focus for this week is

Parent Wellbeing: Plato and Aristotle both believed in the importance of developing three wills: intellectual will – mind, emotional will – spirit, physical will – body. These three wills work together to assist you to become the person who you wish to become. Describe how you could develop each of them further in yourself.

Research has indicated, that just thinking about the goals that they want to accomplish, is not sufficient for them to be motivated enough to pursue them with long-term passion. They just remain dreams. To muster the necessary enthusiasm and drive to strive for their goals, it is necessary for students to write down their goals, obstacles they may confront and strengths and people who can assist them to accomplish them. Avoid shoot for the stars goals, because maintaining their passion and zest over a longer period of time is often too difficult for them.

Setting three term goals, and then breaking them down into two week targets to achieve, provides students with regular little wins, which over the term, combine to assist them to move steadily towards their goals. The most effective goals in nurturing personal and academic growth are process goals, where they focus on following a series of steps and receiving regular feedback on their progress.

Unfortunately, our current school system demands performance goals, which only serve to increase pressure on students and their teachers. Converting performance goals into process ones will deliver the intended learning outcomes without the stress. Encourage students to use the goal setting, goal action plan and goal reflection pages in their journal/planner every term.

Acknowledgement: Sheldon & Adams Miller

Some useful videos that discuss this week’s focus:

Jake McIntosh
Assistant Head of Secondary – Wellbeing