Something I remember well from my days as a full-time classroom teacher is the frustration I felt when my students were disorganised. David never had his pens, pencils or a ruler. Jenny left her work at home. Paul forgot his homework AGAIN! Samantha didn’t have time to prepare her talk. John’s desk was combination of screwed up paper, pencil shavings, spilt glue and the book we were always looking for was nowhere to be found. I often dreamed of just how much easier my role as a teacher would be if I could convince these children to become more organised, more independent and more responsible for their work.

I always believed that my students would become better learners and be better prepared every year throughout their entire schooling if they were more organised. I wanted them to see the merit in being organised and to value organisation.

Organisation has been carefully chosen as one of our five keys to learning success for students. It just cannot be stressed enough that if a child is organised, they will have a greater chance of being independent and allowed the chance to blossom with their learning.

When I think of our learners at O.L.D. being organised, I think of two important aspects; Personal Organisation and Work Organisation. Personal Organisation refers to matters such as bringing the right materials to class, completing set work, effective time management, prioritising work and so on. Work Organisation refers to how our students organise a task to be completed, making a sensible plan, assessing what needs to be done first, checking work for accuracy, checking sources and so on. In order for students to become ‘organised’, they must achieve both of these attributes.

If we can adopt a shared approach to organisation across our school and teach our students the language of what successful organised learners can do, then we will have something very powerful, and free them all on the road towards independence. The language we are focusing on is as follows;

We wish for our students at O.L.D. to:

• Be ready for learning by having the necessary equipment and readying their mind and body
• Break tasks down so they know where they are heading
• Make connections between their prior learning and new learning
• Manage their time
• Set learning goals for themselves

Self-regulated learners will have a strong and positive impact on their achievement. I encourage parents to promote the language of organisation for learning in the home. Together with other key dispositions like confidence and resilience, we can only create a great platform for students to be successful.

Something to think about

Stop waiting for the perfect time to get organised… take this moment and make some progress.