Assessors
All your goals should be S.M.A.R.T.:
- Specific: Which service you would like to do? What exactly are you going to do in this chosen challenging activity?
- Measurable: How often can/would you attend the chosen service? How will you measure this activity to know if you have achieved your goal?
- Achievable: Is there somewhere you know about where you could do this activity? Is it a goal that can actually be achieved? It is great to be ambitious, but there is no point to set yourself a goal that may not be achievable in 3/6/12/18 months, due to external circumstances or time.
- Relevant/Realistic: Could you commit to what is required for the whole time needed? Are there any barriers/reasons that can stop you from achieving this goal? If these barriers/reasons completely prevent you from achieving the chosen activity, then the activity needs to be changed.
Examples of types of barriers/reasons why your goal may not be realistic:
- I have no access to a tutor who can teach me this skill and be my assessor
- The nearest tutor is too far from where I live, and I cannot travel that far.
- I am not feeling motivated enough to do this activity/the activity is not challenging enough
- It is not safe at all to carry out my chosen activity
- I want to achieve this goal, but I am scared of doing it
- Time‐bound: Will this be completed in required timescale? What timescale/dates are you giving yourself to achieve the goal?
Answer these questions and most likely your goal will be SMART:
- Where are you now / how much experience do you have?
- Where do you aim to be in 13 / 26 weeks /52 weeks- realistically?
- How do you intend to get there—what do you intend to do to get there?
- When and how often will you do it?
- Where will you do it?
- Who will assess you?
Examples of SMART goals:
Skill
- Glass painting: I am a beginner at glass painting. I will produce one glass painting every two-three sessions after practice and challenge myself by doing harder levels each time (harder designs). There are beginners, middle and intermediate. I will upload pictures of each painting and will be able to complete this challenge by going once a week for 3 months to the Glass painting in school.
- Piano: I am currently pursuing my Grade 8 Piano exam. My goal is to pass it with a distinction. I have already completed Grades 1‐7 and am now preparing for the final one. I have passed most of them with a distinction and the others with a merit. Furthermore, I have been playing the piano for 10 years and I hope to attain my goal. Additionally, learning the piano will enable me to excel in my GCSE Music course, which will help me obtain the highest grades possible.
- Language: Over the course of the 26 weeks, I aim to improve my ability in German. I, with the use of the internet, aim to go from having no knowledge of German at all to being able to read and write a small amount of German that a native German speaker can understand. I aim to be able to produce a short essay about myself, in German, that can be understood by my assessor, who is a native German speaker.
- MUN: I will attend debate club for the next 13 weeks. By week 3 I want to have an understanding of the debate club meeting procedures. By week 6 I would like to have an understanding of all basic documents-position papers, resolution papers, etc.- and be able to write them. By week 13 I want to be able to talk confidently and competently to a crowd with a prepared speech in hand, and be able to have a moderate improvisation.
- Online training: I will improve my skills in creating animations and short films on Adobe after effects and Premiere. This will be done through online courses on udemy.com. I will spend at least one hour per week for the next 26 weeks and my assessor (an I.T. teacher in our school) will review my progress on a regular basis. If I complete the course in less than 26 weeks, then I will start a follow-up course in consultation with my Award leader and Assessor.
- Guitar: I would like to continue playing guitar, and achieve a high distinction in my grade 4 exam, which is in May I also need to be confident in playing the C minor chord which is common in one of my chosen songs, as well as in my theory work.
Physical
- Netball: To be selected for the ‘Long List’ for the U17 European Championships and to be able to pass over 100 chest passes in one minute. I will be attending my weekly Wednesday’s netball trainings.
- Swimming: I have been swimming since I was eight years old, but I only started to swim competitively and seriously when I was eleven. My aim is to (1) improve my time for backstroke (50 m) from 75 seconds to 60 seconds, (2) improve time for butterfly stroke (50 m) from 80 seconds to 65 seconds. This will happen at Nicosia Olympic Swimming Pool during my 1 hour session each week.
- Running: Over the course of 26 weeks, I aim to improve my running ability through practice and through the use of the internet. I aim to be able to run 7.5km in one hour by the end of the 26 week time period.
- Yoga: To learn at least 15 asanas (poses) and to be able to do 35 surya namaskars (sun salutations) at the end of 6 months. I will set a time once a week to practice yoga, for at least 1 hour a week.
- Football: My aim is to improve my own footballing ability, especially my attacking play including my passing and shooting ability, and also become fitter in the process, and I aim to achieve this by April. In order to achieve this I will partake football training once every week.
- Badminton: I will attend the school’s badminton club once a week for the next 26 weeks. I am a beginner and have no knowledge or sills in this sport. At first I want to learn the basic rules of badminton and as I gain skills I want to learn how to serve (short and long serve) and also how to smash and how to drop a shot. I will provide video evidence of me doing these 3 moves by the end of this course.
Service
- Tutoring/ help to others: I am going to be helping out in the primary by listening to year 5 students read and helping them develop their higher reading skills. I have received training on this. I now know that I need to ask at least 5 specific questions and giving them tips to make sure they understand what they are reading and improve their reading in general. I’ll be able to achieve my goal by going to an hour a week (3 or 4 times a week to complete an hour ). I will know I achieved this goal when I see the teacher is satisfied by the progress the children and I made and indicates this on the assessor’s report.
- Mentoring/ Coaching: My aim is to help the under‐8’s improve their footballing ability, including teamwork, attacking and defending and to build relationships with the young children playing at the club by March. In order to do this I will attend the club and work with the kids once every week.
- Environmental/ Working a Cleanup Campaign: To noticeably reduce the littering in our school by spreading awareness, to promote environmental education and by keeping an eye out for those who do litter. I aim to set up a website, bring influential people to speak at our school, film interviews and hold an environmental booth at our school’s Charity days. I will attend the environmental club 4 breaks per week and work on my other initiatives as and when needed.
- Food bank/ soup kitchen: My goal is to help at the soup kitchen in my town, to volunteer my time to help those less fortunate than myself. To start with I’ll help to prepare the food in the kitchen, but by the end of three months I would like to have grown in confidence in working in the soup kitchen to progress to serving the food and interacting with the vulnerable people.
- School Yearbook: To assist in the managing, planning & publishing of the school’s Yearbook. This will include page design, content planning as well as weekly meetings and the gathering of information & photographs with a team of journalists to set tasks for the week ahead. Our aim is to publish the Yearbook by April next year. Throughout the process I will upload examples of the pages that I will be designing.
- School Magazine: The Print: I will help with the publishing of the school’s magazine (published once a month). I will provide thoughtful articles which I will do in my free time, free lessons and breaks. The editorial team will meet once a week to plan the next issue and to distribute tasks. I will also help with the photography and video footage of interviews and events. I will provide the photos, articles and videos as evidence of my commitment and service.
Adventurous Journey
The Adventurous Journey objective should give the journey a purpose – such as studying the impact of humans on the environment or noting types of fauna and flora, rather than just completing it as a team, using map reading skills, cooking etc.
- Example 1: We aim to explore the flora and fauna in the Akamas mountains of Cyprus. Also, we would like to investigate the level of pollution by people in the area.
- Example 2: Our aim is to visit Macheras Monastery to collect information about the historical events that happened in the area and to document this in our presentation
- Example 3: To investigate the impact of humans on the environment in Troodos over 3 days and 2 nights by foot for 6 hours each day. This will allow us to learn how the hunting taking place in Troodos and how it is affecting the surrounding environment and create possible future improvements.
- Example 4: To understand and interpret the human impact in the Akamas mountains of Cyprus and how much humans have affected the wildlife, flora and the man‐made monuments. Also to work well within our team and efficiently cover the required distance while taking appropriate and necessary pictures and notes for our project over 3 days.
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