You cannot plan the whole year in the week before term, and trying is why that week disappears. Five jobs is enough. Do these and the first half term runs itself.
1. Map the half term
Six weeks on one page, before you plan a single lesson. Write in the trips, the assemblies, the assessment week and the two days you are out on training.
What is left is your actual teaching time, and it is always less than you think.
2. Block out the fixed dates
Now do the same for the year. Term dates, INSET, parents evenings, reports out, the school production.
The point is not the calendar. The point is seeing in August that reports are due the same week as the trip.
3. Sketch the monthly overview
One month at a time is the level most of us actually think at. Week by week is too fine for August and the whole year is too coarse.
4. Write your priorities down
Three things you want to be better at this year. Written down, not carried in your head, because by October you will have forgotten two of them.
5. Print the year planner
Print it, put it in the folder, and stop opening the laptop to check when half term is.
Do all five in one sitting
Every template above is free with Canva for Education. Print the set, fill them in with a coffee, and the week before term stops being a scramble.
One job this does not cover
Whole School Curriculum Overview Bundle, Y1 to Y6, £24.99. The first curriculum letter home is usually written in the fortnight when you have the least time. Editable parent newsletters for every subject and year group, so that job is already done.
Whole School Curriculum Overview Bundle, Y1 to Y6
Which of the five do you always skip? Tell me in the comments.
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