Teachers top resolutions are to achieve work-life balance and not work evenings and weekends

You won’t be hearing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ or the sound of fireworks, but teachers across the country are ringing in the New Year, with a poll revealing 87% of 3,470 educators see September as the new year rather than January.

Research conducted by the online educational publisher Twinkl also reveals the top new year’s resolutions of UK teachers, with achieving a work-life balance coming out as the most popular, followed by not working evenings and weekends.

Other new year’s resolutions included being more organised, sticking work into books before leaving school, going to more places with family and, in keeping with typical January resolutions, doing more exercise.

More unusual resolutions such as not using glitter in the classroom, getting messy and smiling more were also included on the list.

Jonathan Seaton, CEO and Founder of Twinkl, said: “It isn’t surprising that teachers see September as the New Year and the time to make a fresh start. But it is concerning that the top resolutions are centred around workload as teachers continue to strive to achieve a work-life balance.

“The results are interesting for Twinkl as the company exists to help those who teach and we strive to improve the lives of educators wherever possible.”

The idea for Twinkl came when Jon’s wife, Susie, was having to spend her evenings and weekends making resources for her job as a primary school teacher. Founded in 2010, Twinkl is now home to over 500,000 resources that teachers can download and adapt to support their lessons.

“Twinkl was created to plug that gap and provide teachers with high-quality resources that they could trust,” explained Jon.

“It’s worrying that teachers are still finding the work-life balance their biggest challenge and begs the question of what else needs to be done.

“We know that Twinkl is making a difference to teacher’s lives, with a recent open survey finding 97 per cent of our customers agree that using Twinkl improves their work-life balance, but there is still a lot more to do.

“Twinkl will be working hard over the next year and continuing to engage with the teaching community to find other ways we can support teachers. Through this we can continue to understand what challenges teachers are facing, what their aspirations are and how we can help, all key resolutions for us for the new year ahead.”