EXPLAIN:

In Session Nine, we looked at our values as a foundation to create clarity about the type of person we wanted to be. Building on this idea, we'll now create tangible goals that move us towards achieving those values or at least a feature of them. Goals are an essential tool to check where we are heading or how we are progressing. They're a natural reflection tool, and while our goals shouldn't be an end in themselves, they do prevent us from focusing too much on what we plan to do –someday– instead of on what we will do now.

Today, we're going to start by working on a goal we want to achieve. Think about the work we did on our values. Think about your passion and purpose, and don't worry if you find this difficult. Most people would struggle with this. It's important not to overwhelm yourself by trying to set lots of goals in every area of your life, so pick just one thing. Typical areas for goals might be:

• School/education

• Community

• Health

• Hobbies/Interests

• Relationships (with yourself or others)

• Social impact

• Profession/Wealth

• Faith

In your groups, discuss your goals. Spend 5-10 minutes thinking about the following questions to help you and noting down your responses:

• What do you love to do outside of school? Is it about technology, music writing, performing?

• What things make you feel full of energy, happy and lose track of time? These could be activities you do or interactions you have with other people.

• What do you care about most? It could be to do with your community, the environment, a particular social cause or something else that is bigger than yourself.

• How would you like to inspire others? Is there someone that has inspired you and you want to follow in their footsteps?

• Finally, have you already got a huge goal that defines your life or a future you are striving to achieve? Don't worry if you haven’t.

Write down your goal on sticky notes and post them on the wall.

EXPLAIN:

You've established your goal, so now what? Should you just let it rattle around in your brain until it's over and done? Nope. You should write it down and then make it as vivid as possible. The ability to visualise your goals is essential because:

• It teaches your brain to recognise what resources it will need to help you succeed.

• It creates an inner motivation to strive for your goals and dreams.

• It promotes positive thinking, which will help you stay on track to succeed in the long run.

Set pupils the challenge of finding a way to bring their goal to life and 'socialise' it, i.e. tell people all about it. The act of visualising, articulating (preferable in a written or pictorial form) and then sharing a goal strengthens the commitment to it and increases the likelihood of success.

1. Encourage students to use visual aids and technology to create a 'dream' or 'vision' board, perhaps using tools like Pinterest or other social media sites to express that vision through pictures, video, music and imagery. Consider utilising apps that exist to make goal-setting much more engaging. Or you can always go back to basics and let them cut up magazines to create dream boards. This can be a helpful visual hanging on the wall as a constant reminder of where they should spend their time and focus.

2. Encourage pupils to share goals publicly (online or offline). Committing to goals in this way improves the likelihood that young people will stick with them. You might want to encourage them to turn their goal into 'pledges' by using a pledge template.

3. Set goals up in healthy competition. As part of the process, all goals should have fixed endpoints, perhaps the end of next term. Challenge students to achieve their goal(s) sooner than other individuals or teams. Find something they'd like and use it as a bonus (try not to make it material – a good reward could be more privileges or recognition in the broader school context). If your students can set and accomplish goals, that's a great indicator of trustworthiness.

SHOW: Explainer Animation (to be available 2023)

EXPLAIN:

Explainer Animation Script: Becoming SMART

Time moves so quickly, and it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day that we forget about the big picture. By taking our purpose and values and working out the actionable steps we needed to get there, we can ensure that we don't just understand our purpose and values, but we live them, preventing life from simply passing us by.

Rather than living a 'one-day' life, focusing on what we hope will happen one day in the future, setting goals that carry us towards that future makes it far more tangible and far more likely that we'll actually get there! It's all about moving from thinking and talking about what you want to actually working out how to get it, so adopt the mantra of 'Think big, start small, start now!’

Living our purpose requires a plan; because the stepping stones from where we are today and where we want to be in the future are simply a set of goals. These goals help define our identity because they establish a long-term vision of the person we want to become and something we can look forward to. It sounds simple, but the truth is, setting and then sticking to goals requires thought and discipline; while ensuring that they are not so challenging that they make you want to give up or ignore them. Quite simply, goals need to be SMART! That is, they need to be:

Specific — it's tough to take action and know if that action is working when your goal is vague. It's therefore helpful to have specific steps you will take, stating where you'll take them and who or what is involved. For a goal to be effective, it needs to be specific – so don't be afraid to dig into those nitty-gritty details.

A specific goal answers questions like:

• What objective needs to be accomplished?

• Who is responsible for it?

• What steps will you take to achieve it?

Thinking through those prompts will help you set a realistic goal that lays out what you're aiming for and gives that vital context. For example, imagine you are JK Rowling, trying to write the Harry Potter books. A vague goal might be "I'm going to write a story one day", but a specific goal might be, "I'll sit at my desk and produce a draft for a story about the adventures of a young aspiring magician". You could break this down into even smaller steps, deciding how many chapters there might be, who the other characters are, the series of different adventures within the story, what time of each day you'll write, and so on. The more specific your goal, the easier it is to measure progress towards it, and the less chance you'll be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task before you've even begun.

Measurable — being specific is a solid start, but it's missing something important: numbers. Quantifying your goals (that is, making sure they're measurable) makes it much easier to track progress and know when you've reached the finish line. A quantifiable goal for JK Rowling might be: 'Every morning, I'll sit at my desk for 30 minutes and produce one chapter of a story about the adventures of a young aspiring magician’.

Achievable — Goals should be realistic — not high pedestals from which you inevitably tumble. Achievability means ensuring that your goal is within reach. Put simply; this is the point in the process when you give yourself a serious reality check. Is the goal you've outlined attainable? Is it something you could accomplish? It's important to consider any limitations that might impede your goal. For JK, having a goal that said, "I want to write a bestselling book that goes on to become a series of movies and has a theme park", may not have been a realistic goal at the outset. However, aspiring to finish writing the story over a set timescale certainly is.

Relevant — Nobody sets goals purely for the fun of it. There should be a real benefit attached to reaching your chosen objective. That's what's meant by 'relevant' here. During this step, you evaluate why the goal matters to you. It's reasonably well known that JK Rowling struggled for years and was even advised by her editor to get a day job before she finally got her big publishing break. Still, the goal was relevant to her because of her interest in the history of alchemy and magic and her love of children's books.

Time-bound — Good goals don't stretch into infinity, let alone beyond! – they have a deadline. The final component of the SMART goals framework is ensuring they have a deadline. Working to an endpoint is another crucial piece of measuring success, so you should aim to be clear about when a goal has been reached. Setting a timeframe within which to achieve your goal does two things. Firstly, it helps make it even more specific. Secondly, it helps with motivation by giving a very concrete point by which you aim to do something, driving your actions. Without a timeframe, it's easy to lose focus, drift, or put off doing anything that moves you forward. It changes the mindset of 'one day' to an actual day. It's therefore helpful to set a day, date and time to achieve the goal, or as close to this as you possibly can.

EXPLAIN:

Looking at what you've already noted about your goal, we're now going to make it SMART, so what we do next should be something that moves you towards the more significant thing you have noted but doesn't necessarily achieve this ambition in one step.

You could look back at the results from your Choices Diagnostic Tool completed last time and identify an area where your score was lower. Think about how improving in that area could move you closer to your broader ambition.

Using Worksheet 12, students should then work through the process of making their goals SMART.

As students refine their goals, it may be helpful to reorganise the groups based on any shared goals they have. Working collaboratively on these can dramatically heighten engagement and the impact of goal-setting. However, as some goals might be very personal, give students the choice of working together or individually.

As an example, students should end up with something like: My goal is to [quantifiable objective] by [timeframe or deadline]. I will accomplish this goal by [what steps you'll take to achieve the goal]. Accomplishing this goal will [result or benefit]. Encourage students to post this on their or the school social media feeds.

EXPLAIN:

You've already taken a significant first step by using the SMART criteria to set results-based targets. But there are a few other ways to set yourself up for success:

1. Set regular check-ins

We're all familiar with that rush of excitement we feel when we're about to tackle something new. But once you get a little further in, that feeling quickly fades — it's why so many New Years' resolutions are kicked to the curb by February.

Any goal worth achieving probably won't happen overnight, and it's essential to check in on your progress regularly to ensure you aren't falling off track. For instance, you could institute a weekly catch-up where you tell one of your trusted friends all about your progress or update on a Confluence page to keep everybody in the know. Making your goals public, or 'socialising' them, as we discussed earlier, is an excellent way to make yourself accountable, and it's likely to result in encouragement and support. Those recurring reminders and opportunities for feedback will keep you motivated, which is especially important for larger goals that span months or even years.

2. Celebrate your wins (even the small ones)

Don't wait until your entire goal is accomplished to celebrate; recognising smaller wins and milestones can keep you moving in the right direction.

We'll spare you the in-depth science lesson, but, essentially, you get a dopamine spike whenever you anticipate that something important is about to happen (like accomplishing something you set out to do). That's what triggers a motivation boost.

So, by setting smaller, incremental goals and then giving ourselves a hearty pat on the back when we achieve them, we can increase those dopamine spikes, which encourages us to stay the course.

EXPLAIN:

During this term:

1. We've understood ourselves in terms of our identity - everyone believes they make their own choices. Still, we now know that these are sometimes influenced by others; and even by our own psychological needs. Many of our decisions are affected, and others can exploit this situation, which puts us at signifcant risk if we allow it. (Sessions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6).

2. We've learned that we can't just wait until we spot these situations happening because we understand the timing of decision-making is critical (i.e. we can't just react when our choices have run out) (Session 7).

3. We've begun building a support structure that enables us to be the ones that make out own choices. Doing this requires a set of tools (knowing yourself, understanding what's at stake and the potential consequences, and having a network to turn to). The only influence to shape the choices we make should come from that circle of trust. (Sessions 8, 9, 10).

4. We've identified areas where we can develop our decision-making capability and practised facing different situations armed with this knowledge and these tools because we understand that we can't always do this on our own. (Session 11)

5. We've recognised that, at moments of change, transition and challenge, we are more susceptible and so need to maintain the things detailed in point 4. Take a few minutes to note your reflections from today's session and also your journey through the Choices Programme.

• What have you learned about yourself and how to navigate the move to secondary school successfully?

• How will you use this in the future?

Reflect on the stories of others. These might include classmates you have heard from or people who have inspired you. Record your own stories about times they have shown high moral or ethical standards.

SHOW: Slide 9

Prompt with the following questions:

Facts — What happened? What did I experience?

Feelings — What impacted me, and how did I feel?

Findings — What truths/assumptions did I have about the session/myself/the process? What can I learn?

Future — How would I like to apply my insights in the future?

Friends — Share reflections, learnings and actions with others

Allow students five minutes to think about and write down their reflections from today's session. Then, in groups of 3, encourage students to spend five minutes sharing their reflections.

Note: encourage students to take responsibility for what they share. Some things they will likely want to keep to themselves as 'personal reflection’.