Friday Mindset #179

Happy Friday!

Hope you had a good break folks.

Three things before we kick-off. First, here’s a lovely one for the new half term: a motto or manifesto -

Next, a quick item of business - The Backpacker’s Guide to University continues to garner some lovely reviews, and it’s the perfect time of year to distribute some copies - why not bag your library a few?

And finally, an online training course. Run by Martin, this one’s via Bath Spa University’s Network for Learning. It’s a cracker - fifteen sessions to boost effective revision at KS4 and 5, each with handouts. There’s still a couple of places left so click the pic if you want to know more:

OK, all done. Onto this week’s stuff - let’s dive in.

Something we're reading...

We’ve really enjoyed this piece by psychologist Rob Lefort about failure. He writes with a measured clarity that students will, with a bit of work, really get.

“Most of us get stuck,” he argues, “because we can’t separate the act from the actor… make a mistake, and suddenly you’re not someone who did something wrong, you’re someone who is wrong.” And he goes on, expressing an idea in one sentence that we’ve tried and failed to say so precisely in hundreds of attempts: “when the mistake is who you are, rather than what you did, there’s nothing to build on.”

We don’t love the brief and weirdly pointless reference to the Manhattan Project (unless we’ve misunderstood something?) Other than that, it’s a terrific read, a really good one for students. Here it is:

Portal Talk...

The tabs problem is over.

You know the one. Student sits down for their termly review. The conversation is going well. You've got their VESPA coaching report open, you understand their mindset, you're getting somewhere, and then someone mentions their UCAS application and suddenly you're wrestling with three other windows, a PDF someone emailed you in September, and a reference you definitely started but can't find.

We’ve decided to do something about this!

Introducing VESPA's new UCAS suite — live now.

The UCAS application now lives right alongside the VESPA coaching report. Same page. Same conversation. No switching, no losing your thread.

Tutors get a full view of each student's application progress and can write their reference with a split-screen showing the student's VESPA report simultaneously. No more toggling back and forth trying to remember what you were about to write.

Better still: subject teachers can add comments directly, and students can request them. So by the time an application reaches a tutor, it already has a complete, 360° picture (the coaching data, the subject insights, the student's own words) all in one place.

The bit tutors will love most?

The UCAS Feedback Coach reviews each student's application before it reaches you. It gives tailored, specific feedback on draft personal statements so that by the time it lands on you it's already well-formed. You're adding your expertise and experience, not rewriting from scratch. Fewer back-and-forths. More meaningful conversations.

Coming soon: UniGuide 🧭

The final piece of the puzzle. A short conversation with our AI Uniguide advisor helps students figure out not just what they're applying for, but why, and surfaces the right courses and universities to match. Think of it as the conversation a careers advisor would have, available to every student, every time.

More on that very soon. In the meantime, if you want to see the UCAS suite in action, book in below.

Something to try...

A new VESPA activity for subscribers today! There’s already 120 of them - 40 in The A Level Mindset, another 40 in The GCSE Mindset, and 40 new ones in the award-winning VESPA Handbook… but we come across new research all the time, and we can’t help ourselves.

This is an Effort activity called The Try Your Best Effect. In 2014, 25,000 students were asked if they ‘tried their best’ to do three school/college related study things.

Those who said they did, had their exam results compared to those who didn’t. And the effect was marked…

Subscribe to our premium content to read the rest.