Best Practice

Top 10 tips for… December and the lead up to Christmas

The lead up to Christmas can be an incredibly special time in the primary school. Suzanne O’Connell offers 10 ideas to help celebrate the end of term and to support tired staff and pupils
Image: Adobe Stock

1, Ring the changes

After a few years in school leadership it can become tempting to follow the same format for your Christmas activities and events year-in, year-out. Why don’t you take one aspect of school life (and leading up to Christmas there are plenty) and set out on a mission to refresh it. It doesn’t need to be you directly – you can ask others to contribute their ideas too. New members of staff will bring with them a whole range of traditions some of which you might even prefer.

 

2, Make time

Everyone becomes tired towards the end of the autumn term, including you. Look at your meeting schedule and try to ensure that the last couple of weeks are not too intensive when it comes to after-school events and meetings. If possible, cancel your final staff meeting and replace it with a celebration or simply allow some time off for staff (perhaps to do their Christmas shopping). It can be very difficult for people to fit everything in at this time of year and any help you can provide will be appreciated.

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