21 Examples of School Goals

John Spacey, September 13, 2019

School goals are targets that a student sets for a semester, school year or as a long term plan. These may be developed as an assignment or activity at school. It is also possible for students to develop their own goals. The following are illustrative examples of a school goal.

Grades

Targets for grades. These are a type of end-goal that say nothing about how you will achieve the goal.

Visibility

Getting noticed in class. For example, a goal to ask and answer questions each school day.

Experience

Gaining valuable experience such as work experience from a summer job.

Time Management

Targets for improving your use of time. For example, capping your screen time with video games, apps and internet to an hour a day.

Productivity

Targets for how much you produce in an hour of work. For example, completely focusing on homework to get it done in less than two hours on most nights.

Diligence

Improving the quality of your work. For example, a goal to improve your grades on English essays by carefully proofreading before submission.

Fitness

Fitness goals such as an improved running time.

Sports

Sports related targets such as making a sports team in your freshman year of university.

Competition

Competitive goals related to sports, academics or activities. For example, a goal to win a soccer championship.

Creativity

Creative pursuits such as developing as an artist. There are numerous ways to measure this. For example, a target to complete 3 paintings in a semester.

Health

Health goals such as a target to get more sleep by turning your mobile devices off and strictly going to bed at a particular time.

Financial

Financial goals such as earning a scholarship.

Administrative

Administrative tasks that you need to complete such as applying for universities.

Skills

Improving a skill such as listening skills in a second language.

Decision Making

Making a decision such as choosing a university major.

Social

Social goals such as making friends.

Personal Resilience

Building up your personal resilience to better deal with the stresses of school life. For example, a goal to become more self-confident and outgoing.

Leadership

Developing leadership skills. For example, getting in the habit of taking the lead on group assignments.

Public Speaking

Gaining public speaking skills and experience.

Self-Fulfillment

Pursuing your hopes and ambitions. For example, preparing for a gap year of travel.

Community & Environment

Doing good things for people and planet such as organizing an outing to clean ocean plastic from a local beach.

Smart Goals

It is common for schools to request that goals be designed to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound or SMART. This isn't a big deal as it simply means that you need to choose realistic goals, set a target date and have a concrete way to measure that goals have been reached. For example, "I will work harder" isn't measurable and therefore isn't SMART whereas "I will complete all my Spanish assignments on time in first semester" is SMART because it can be measured. Anything that can be clearly marked as completed is measurable.

Overview: School Goals
Type	Personal Goals
Definition	Targets that a student sets for a semester, school year or as a long term plan.
Related Concepts	Personal Goals » End Goal » Work Experience » Time Management » Productivity » Creativity »