Friday Mindset #155

Happy Friday!

Announcement:

Some news, folks.

We love doing this newsletter, we’re excited about all the things we’ve got to share, and we’re looking forward to next academic year. But to keep this show on the road, we’re changing to a subscription model. If you do nothing, you’ll still get Something we’re Reading and Portal Talk as usual, but the other two features, Something to Try and Our Latest Offer, will only be available to paid subscribers.

Why? Well, each issue takes us between three and four hours to complete and we’ve done nearly 160 free issues - that’s 120,000 words. We’ve had some lovely donations via Buy Me a Coffee, and we thank you profusely if you’ve ever helped out this way, but we’ve spent it all ten times over on postage 🤣

So if we’re to keep the project going as we want to (and we really hope we can!) we need a number of paid subscribers per month. The price will be very reasonable, about the cost of a coffee, and it’ll mean we can keep doing the work; that’s 32 newsletters per academic year as usual.

Aa-nyway… you’ve still got six totally free, old-school issues to come, all the way through to July 11th. So let’s enjoy them.

Lots to share this week, let’s dive in…

Something we're reading...

Listening to, actually. We happened to come across this relatively new podcast from the BBC, featuring Doctors Chris and Alexander van Tulleken. Any parent will likely know these guys from Operation Ouch or you might, like us, have read Chris’ book Ultra Processed People.

Whatever. The new pod, What’s Up Docs, is a decent listen, exploring a different topic each week. We were particularly taken with the opening episode, which explores Willpower. It’s a subject we know a fair bit about, and have written about ourselves in an educational context at least, but there was still plenty new to us.

This will make a good tutorial listen at KS4 or 5.

We can’t overstate this - it’s important kids hear voices like the ones featured. The sort of students we work with are genuinely baffled, sometimes shocked and appalled, by the ‘weirdness’ of Radio 4, so it’s a good builder of cultural capital and transmitter of expectation.

(Recently, when we explained to a group that we were going to be listening to it together, an appalled student - who in a year’s time will be attending hour-long university lectures - said, “But Sir… what do I do with my eyes?” 😂)

Here’s the episode. Pause regularly, ask questions, discuss the content. It’s interesting stuff.

Portal Talk...

We’re excited to share that some fantastic updates are coming soon to the VESPA Portal! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be revealing new features and improvements designed to make the platform even more impactful for students and schools.

And since we’re entering “awards season,” we’re proud to announce that the VESPA Portal has been shortlisted for a British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) Award in the Evidence and Impact category. This recognition reflects the hard work and measurable results we’ve seen across partner schools using the Portal.

If you're not yet subscribed or just want to learn more about how it works, the short video below gives a great overview of what the VESPA Portal offers and how it can support your school community.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Want to see more? Use the link below to schedule a free demo to discuss how the VESPA Portal can be used to impact the students in your setting.

Something to try...

In The VESPA Handbook there’s an effort activity called ‘Becoming Indistractable.’ It’s an old activity - one of the first we wrote for the book - inspired by reading Nir Eyal’s Indistractable, which was pubbed five years ago now.

But the core idea, raising levels of effort by beating distraction, is more relevant than ever, and certainly for classes approaching exams. So if you’ve got a tutor group in year 10 who want to start thinking about this, or a bunch of 12s heading into end-of-term tests, this is a session you might want to consider.

We’ve only just come across Eyal exploring distraction on BBC Ideas, even though, like the book, the clip’s half a decade old. Ah well, you can’t catch everything the moment it appears, right?

Start with the clip:

Then have a go at assessing internal and external distractions using the following handout:

Our latest offer...

Thanks for your feedback on the potential training day. Here’s what we’ve decided:

VESPA training day with Steve, Martin and Tony, Tuesday 15th July, Central Manchester, 9:30am-3:30pm

We’ll cover whatever you want, but if we don’t have specific suggestions, it’ll be: (i) building engagement and aspiration, (ii) raising levels of effort, (iii) evidence-based revision strategies, (iv) effective coaching and intervention, (v) implementing VESPA.

There’s a cost so we can cover venue hire, catering and so on. Here’s the Eventbrite page if you’re interested:

And we’re done! OK folks, the sun’s shining, the classrooms and corridors are empty, and the kids have long since lost their minds. It’s time to get out of here.

All the best to you and yours,

Steve, Martin and Tony

p.s. we’re going to be following this project - right in our own backyard - with interest. A quick, interesting read, and one worth sharing with sixth formers: