I love September. As someone who has always worked in education, I have always felt that September is my “proper” new year. New stationery, new shoes and a whole new school year stretching ahead, full of possibility. Even the slight change in weather, much as I love the summer, draws a line between the long hot days we have experienced and the cooler misty mornings and I can feel the scent of autumn already hanging in the air.

Returning to school always brings that heady mix of anticipation and excitement, but any first day nerves are always allayed for me once I see staff and students; school always feels slightly strange over the summer as it is unusually quiet!

This September feels very much like a fresh start. After several years of disruption and uncertainty in our lives, the return to genuine normality is very welcome and each opportunity to embrace being together as a community feels all the more special.

I’m sure we have all returned with our own set of resolutions for the year ahead.  I want to grasp the opportunity we are afforded by this return to normality to continue to spend more time with students in lessons, to spend more time in the Sixth Form and explore all the ways in which we can connect with the wider community.

I am guilty of always wanting to look over the horizon and seize new opportunities and work on what may be coming next. It can be tempting to try and juggle too many new ideas and priorities at this time of year, but resolutions and plans work much better if we try and carefully select just a few things and execute them brilliantly. This is most definitely the way to ensure that those new resolutions stick. Fresh starts can be incredibly powerful and also inspiring. This is the chance to start again; new classes, new people, we all have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves just a little and the benefit of a long break which has given us energy and enthusiasm for the weeks ahead.

Whatever your goals for the year ahead, I hope the term has started well for you. I have a feeling it’s going to be a really good one!