Aim High

Setting goals is often a new school year task. With younger children you may be setting goals for them. Older children may be setting their own goals for the year. They may be little goals like getting a particular letter or number formation right (and we all know that is HUGE when it finally clicks) or it might be bigger goals like reading a particular book, improving their level in a certain subject significantly or being brave enough to speak in assembly.

Whatever goals you are setting for your children and yourself this year, I wanted to tell you a little story about my holiday to encourage you to be a little more brave than you might be inclined to be. I am a huge fan of the power of story to inspire so whilst this tale isn’t related to teaching I know you will see the relevance. It is the holidays after all.

Every year I go on holiday with lots of my family. Last year we were limited to numbers but because of that we were all the more determined to get all the gang back together this year. As soon as dates were announced we booked the biggest house we could find (one we had visited before as it turned out), in Edenhall near Penrith.

This beautiful old farmhouse and its little annex accommodated all 17 of us ranging from 18 months to 70+ and we had a week of love and laughter, as always, just enjoying each other’s company.

My Big Goal!

On the second day my brother in law, Tom, suggested that some of us might want to tackle one of the many mountains in easy reach — Penrith is just…