Planning for Next Year
Planning for Next Year
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Planning for Next Year
Targeting the often-overwhelming transition to a new academic year, this resource unpacks the practical study skills students need to independently plan and manage their upcoming workload. It bridges the gap between passive learning and proactive organisation, balancing explicit strategy breakdowns with immediate interactive checks. By focusing on actionable habits early, it helps learners conquer the hurdle of self-regulation before academic pressures escalate.
What makes a successful year?
Brainstorm initial ideas and vocabulary about study skills for students - planning for next year.
Stretch: Ask students to justify their reasoning or provide a real-world example to support their answer.
Device-Free: Complete this task as a whole-class activity using a show of hands, verbal calling, or mini-whiteboards.
Create realistic goals for next year.
Develop a simple action plan for success.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives page - easy to modify these if you need to!
Goals give us direction.
Planning reduces stress.
Good habits build success.
Reflection helps improvement.
Why Plan Ahead?
Information slide.
What went well this year?
What challenged me?
What am I proud of?
What would I improve?
Reflection
This open-ended reflection prompt shifts students from passive listening to active, honest evaluation of their past academic year, forcing them to pinpoint which study habits served them well and which caused unnecessary stress.
Stretch: Ask students to identify their single biggest academic setback from this year and write a brief justification explaining how a specific planning strategy (such as time-blocking or digital calendar alerts) would have mitigated it.
Device-Free: Pair students up for a "two-minute post-mortem" where they verbally share one major study win and one planning failure from the past year, focusing on what they would tell their younger selves to do differently.
Academic achievement
Organisation
Confidence
Friendships
Something else
Which area would you most like to improve next year?
Running this poll gives an immediate snapshot of collective class anxieties, allowing you to check the consensus on whether students struggle more with time management, revision tracking, or physical organisation before diving into specific planning strategies.
Stretch: Task students with writing a single-sentence justification explaining why transforming this specific weak area will have the greatest positive impact on their academic performance next year.
Device-Free: Conduct a quick "heads-down, hands-up" vote for each improvement category, or have students write their chosen area on mini-whiteboards and raise them simultaneously for an instant visual tally.
The video here is set to end early, but if you have time you could adjust the settings to watch the whole video.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
SMART GOALS
Information slide on SMART goals.
Which is the most SMART target?
Do better in maths
Complete 20 minutes of maths revision each week
Find out why I'm not doing as well as I could be
Ask for help
This multiple-choice question directly flushes out common misconceptions about goal-setting by forcing students to differentiate between vague intentions and structurally sound, actionable SMART targets for the upcoming academic year.
Stretch: Challenge students to isolate one of the poorly framed incorrect options, identify exactly which SMART component is missing, and rewrite it to make it fully compliant.
Device-Free: Conduct a quick finger-voting exercise where students hold up 1, 2, 3, or 4 fingers against their chest to signal their chosen option, allowing for an instant, low-stakes understanding check.
Different students have different priorities.
Success looks different for everyone.
Goals should reflect your own values.
Information slide.
What makes a goal achievable?
Why do some goals fail?
Which strategy could help you?
DISCUSS AND FEED BACK
This categorisation task develops conceptual sorting and thematic grouping skills by forcing students to distinguish between the traits of achievable goals, the root causes of goal failure, and the specific planning strategies needed to stay on track next year.
Stretch: Challenge students to select one item from the 'why goals fail' category and write a short justification pairing it with the exact planning strategy from the third category that completely neutralises it.
Device-Free: Draw three columns on the main board ('Achievable Traits', 'Failure Risks', 'Strategies') and have students write a single factor on a sticky note to physically place in the correct category, explaining their choice to the class.
Which is the most SMART target?
Get better grades.
Be more organised.
Use my planner every school day for one term.
Try harder.
This multiple-choice question directly flushes out common misconceptions about goal-setting by forcing students to differentiate between vague intentions and structurally sound, actionable SMART targets for the upcoming academic year.
Stretch: Challenge students to isolate one of the poorly framed incorrect options, identify exactly which SMART component is missing, and rewrite it to make it fully compliant.
Device-Free: Conduct a quick finger-voting exercise where students hold up 1, 2, 3, or 4 fingers against their chest to signal their chosen option, allowing for an instant, low-stakes understanding check.
Specific: A goal that is clear and detailed, so you know exactly what you want to achieve.
Measurable: A goal that can be tracked with numbers or specific criteria to show progress.
Achievable: A goal that is possible to reach with effort and resources.
Relevant: A goal that is important and makes sense for your personal growth or situation.
Time Bound: A goal that has a deadline or a set time frame for completion.
Be SMART
This fill-in-the-blanks task focuses on technical vocabulary retrieval and reading comprehension, ensuring students can accurately define and distinguish between each component of the SMART acronym for their upcoming planning.
Stretch: Challenge students to pick one letter of the acronym and write a short paragraph justifying why an academic goal completely fails if that specific element is neglected.
Device-Free: Read the definition statements aloud with a dramatic pause at the missing keywords, requiring students to write the correct SMART component on mini-whiteboards and display them simultaneously.
Include:
One academic goal
One wellbeing goal
One personal goal
Three actions for each
Create a "Success Roadmap" for next year.
This open-ended prompt shifts students from passive listening to active, deeper evaluation of their upcoming academic milestones by forcing them to outline concrete checkpoints and potential obstacles for the year ahead.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the single biggest potential bottleneck on their roadmap and write a short justification explaining how they will adjust their study habits to overcome it.
Device-Free: Have students draw a quick, three-step timeline on their mini-whiteboards, marking their top academic goals for the upcoming terms to share with a partner
One thing I want to achieve
One habit I will build
One challenge I will overcome
One person who can support me
My Plan for Next Year
This categorisation task develops conceptual sorting and thematic grouping skills by forcing students to segment their upcoming academic preparation into distinct, actionable pillars of success, habits, obstacles, and support networks.
Stretch: Challenge students to select their chosen habit and write a short justification explaining exactly how it directly mitigates the specific challenge they identified in the third category.
Device-Free: Divide a physical piece of paper or a mini-whiteboard into four quadrants matching these headings, allowing students to map out and discuss their individual action plans in pairs.
Planning helps create direction.
Reflection improves future performance.
SMART goals are more effective.
Small habits create big results.
Success comes from consistent action.
Key Takeaways
Information slide.
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