From the High School Deputies

Personal Goal Setting
Semester 1 is nearly over and the busyness of assessments and examinations are now completed for this term. Academic reports will be distributed soon, providing feedback on your child’s progress in his or her classes.

What do you do with the academic report? Do you read the comments and ignore the advice? Or use the comments to help your child formulate a plan or goal, in an attempt to improve further for the following six months, possibly even further ahead in life?

Students are required to set goals each semester in their Pastoral Care class. For some year groups, they will soon select subjects that they can study for the next couple of years, leading to the process of goal setting. It is hoped that this process will lead to the opportunity for students and their parents to discuss the importance and effectiveness of goal setting. Top-level athletes, successful business people and achievers in all fields all set goals.

Setting goals gives students a long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses their acquisition of knowledge, and helps them to organise their time and resources.

The following information goes deeper into goal setting and is summarised from https://www.mindtools.com

How to Set a Goal
First consider what you want to achieve, and then commit to it. Set SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realise your goal, and cross off each one as you work through them.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You’ll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

You set your goals on a number of levels:

  • First you create your “big picture” of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
  • Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
  • Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of setting goals by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next few years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Staying on Course and Achieving Your Goals
Once you’ve decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

When you’ve achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you’ve made towards other goals.

If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.

Key Points
Goal setting is an important method for:

  • Deciding what you want to achieve in your life.
  • Separating what’s important from what’s irrelevant, or a distraction.
  • Motivating yourself.
  • Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.

Set your lifetime goals first. Then, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Keep the process going by regularly reviewing and updating your goals. And remember to take time to enjoy the satisfaction of achieving your goals when you do so.

If you don’t already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you’ll find your career accelerating, and you’ll wonder how you did without it!

 

Important events for the start of Term 3

Week 1
Year 10 to 11 Vaccinations
High School South Metropolitan Zone Athletics Carnival
Yr11 Biology Camp
PISA Testing

Week 2
Year 11 (2019) Subject Selection Night
CSSA State Netball Gala Day and Soccer Metro Cup
Year 12 CAPA Cocktail Night

Week 3
Parent Teacher Night – Years 7 – 10
Year 12 Trial Exams

Week 4
Parent Teacher Night – Years 7 to 10
Year 9 (2018) Subject Selection Night

 

In His service,

Anthony Hudson
Deputy Administration
On behalf of the High School Deputies