Term 4: What can we do to set ourselves up for next year?
Term 4! The home stretch of another school year. It's that wonderful time when teachers are juggling assessments, reports, excursions, graduation ceremonies, transition activities and all those other things that seem to appear on the calendar towards the end of the year. And, of course, we're still teaching!
With everything going on, it's tempting to focus entirely on getting through the remaining weeks. But Term 4 is also an important opportunity to make decisions and put things in place that will make a real difference when students and teachers return next year. We don’t need to add another dozen things to everyone's already overflowing to-do list! Rather, I'd encourage teachers and school leaders to think strategically about a few things that are worth prioritising now, instead of leaving them until the beginning of the new school year.
Here are my top planning suggestions for Term 4…
For classroom teachers
1. Start transition planning for students who need additional support
For some students, moving into a new classroom, year level or school is exciting. For others, particularly some students with disability, it can be a significant source of anxiety and uncertainty, particularly if there are moving to high school or a new section of the school. Rather than waiting until the beginning of next year, consider what can be put in place now:
Arrange additional orientation visits for students who need them, particularly those moving to secondary school or into a different area of the school.
Help students become familiar with their new classroom, teacher, timetable and routines. Photos, maps and visual schedules can be useful.
Consult with students and their families about what has worked previously and what might help with the transition.
Identify any adjustments that need to be organised before the first day of school, such as access to assistive technology, modified resources or physical adjustments.
Plan a social story or photos to send home for the holidays so that parents can look through together with their child.
2. Make your handover information genuinely useful
Most schools have some sort of process for passing information about students from one teacher to the next. But how useful is that information? Assessment results, grades and reports are important, but they don't necessarily tell the next teacher what they need to know about how a student learns. Think about the students in your class who might benefit from a more detailed handover.
For students with disability, this might include:
Adjustments that have been effective (and those that haven't).
Behaviour triggers and important supports that work.
Current learning goals and progress towards them.
Strategies that support independence, participation and self-regulation.
Information about equipment, resources or support arrangements that need to continue.
And don't forget gifted and talented students who have been working beyond their year-level curriculum! If a student has accessed accelerated content in mathematics, for example, their next teacher needs to know exactly what has been taught, what has been mastered and what learning should come next. Otherwise, there's a real risk that the student will start the following year repeating content they've already learned. A useful question to ask yourself: If I were teaching this student next year, what information would I wish someone had given me?
3. Review and update Individual Documented Plans
If you're using Individual Education Plans (IEPs), Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) or similar documents, Term 4 is an ideal time to review them. Don't simply carry the same goals over into the following year. Consider:
Which goals have been achieved?
Which goals need to be continued, revised or replaced?
What evidence do we have of progress?
Which adjustments have been effective?
What should the receiving teacher know or prepare for?
Where appropriate, involve the student, their family and relevant support staff in reviewing progress and planning next steps. The aim is for the next teacher to receive an accurate, useful picture of the student's current learning and support needs, rather than having to rediscover this information during Term 1.
For school leaders
1. Give teachers time to review and improve their programs
We often ask teachers to reflect on their teaching and use evidence to inform their planning. But when do we actually give them time to do this? Rather than filling every available meeting or professional learning session with new information, consider allocating some dedicated time for teachers to review their programs and begin planning for next year.
And give that time a specific focus! For example, ask teachers to bring a unit of work or assessment task and review it through one particular lens, such as:
Differentiation: Where are the opportunities to adjust the level of challenge or support?
Inclusive assessment: Can all students demonstrate their learning? What barriers could be removed?
Inquiry: Where could students engage in more meaningful questioning, investigation or student led learning?
Pre and formative assessment: How will teachers identify what students already know and use that information to make instructional decisions?
The important thing is that teachers leave with something improved and ready to use, not simply another set of ideas to think about.
2. Introduce next year's strategic priorities now
If your school is planning to introduce a new instructional priority or strengthen an existing one next year, why wait until the first day of Term 1 to tell everyone? Term 4 is a valuable opportunity to communicate the direction, explain the rationale and help staff understand what it will mean for their practice. This doesn't mean launching a major professional learning initiative when everyone is already exhausted.
It might simply involve sharing:
The key priority for next year and why it has been selected.
What this will look like in classroom practice.
What teachers will be expected to do differently.
What support and professional learning will be provided.
How the priority connects with work the school is already doing.
A little clarity now gives teachers time to consider the implications for their planning, rather than arriving back in January to discover that the expectations have changed.
3. Prepare your middle leaders
If a new school-wide focus is planned for next year, middle leaders need more than a briefing at the same time as everyone else. They're often the people who will be helping teachers interpret the expectations, plan collaboratively, solve problems and maintain momentum. Use Term 4 to work with curriculum leaders, heads of learning areas, year-level coordinators or other relevant staff. Help them develop a clear understanding of the priority and their role in supporting its implementation.
You might ask them to:
Identify where current practice already aligns with the proposed direction.
Anticipate questions or challenges teachers may raise.
Prepare examples or resources relevant to their teams.
Identify what time, support or professional learning their staff will need.
This also provides an opportunity to listen to middle leaders' perspectives and refine the implementation plan before it reaches the whole staff.
4. Be strategic about class placements
Term 4 is also when many school leaders are making decisions about class placements for the following year. Of course, there are lots of things to consider. Student friendships, behaviour, individual needs, teacher strengths and the overall balance of classes all matter, but I'd encourage school leaders to also think carefully about how class placements can support student learning.
For example, if you have a small number of gifted students in a year level, consider strategically clustering them together rather than distributing them evenly across classes. This allows them to work with intellectual peers and makes it easier for teachers to plan appropriate challenge and differentiation.
Similarly, think carefully about how you allocate students to split or composite classes. These classes can offer excellent opportunities for differentiation and acceleration, but only when placements are made thoughtfully. Simply placing the highest achieving students from the younger year level into a composite class doesn't automatically mean they'll receive appropriately challenging learning.
A few questions worth asking:
Have we deliberately considered opportunities for gifted students to learn alongside intellectual peers?
Are we using class placements to support differentiation, or simply trying to create 'balanced' classes?
How will students' curriculum and learning needs be met within split or composite classes?
Have we considered teacher expertise and the support needed to make these placements successful?
Class placement is an educational decision, not simply an administrative exercise. It's worth giving these decisions the same attention we give to other aspects of teaching and learning. If you'd like to explore this further, I've discussed the benefits and practical considerations of clustering gifted students in an episode of the Growing Up Greatness podcast. Listen to the clustering episode HERE.
5. How will you explicitly manage teacher workload next year?
Every year, schools introduce new priorities, strategies and expectations. But how often do we explicitly identify what teachers can stop doing? Before introducing something new, consider:
What will this replace? If we're introducing a new strategy or expectation, what existing practice or requirement can we remove?
How does it connect with current practice? Can the new approach strengthen or refine something teachers are already doing, rather than becoming another separate expectation?
What is no longer required? Be explicit about which previous practices, documentation or processes teachers can stop doing.
Are we making the connections clear? Help teachers understand how different school priorities fit together, rather than create confusion by expecting them to implement multiple initiatives that may contradict one another.
Teacher workload doesn't improve when we continually add new expectations without removing or integrating existing ones. Make it clear what teachers should continue, what should change and, importantly, what they can stop doing.
A final thought
I'm certainly not suggesting that every teacher and school leader needs to tackle everything on this list before the end of Term 4. But I would encourage you to choose one or two priorities that will make a genuine difference.
Perhaps it's ensuring that a student with disability has a carefully planned transition into secondary school. Maybe it's documenting the accelerated learning a student has already completed. Or perhaps it's giving teachers time to improve an assessment task before they teach it again next year.
For school leaders, it might be preparing middle leaders for a new strategic direction, making more thoughtful decisions about class placements or ensuring teachers have the time and information they need to plan effectively.
The aim isn't to finish the year having done more. It's to finish the year having made some thoughtful decisions that will make the beginning of next year more successful. And perhaps, just a little less frantic!