Friday Mindset #180

Happy Friday!

This week, this, from BBC Maestro, caught our eye…

We’re using it to discuss the inevitability of inconsistent performance in the early stages of practice.

Last chance on this one: fancy a fifteen-session curriculum exploring effective, evidence-based revision for KS4 or 5 students? Maybe you want to come along to a session Martin’s running for Bath Spa University’s Network for Learning on March 12th. You get a handout for all fifteen sessions, plus the powerpoint if you want it. A bargain at twice the price! Here are the details - click the pic:

And another reminder: it’s the perfect time of year for snagging yourself a few copies of this beauty! Click the pic - or if you want to go direct to the publisher, you can do so here:

Right. Let's dive in.

Something we're reading...

We spent a long train journey to a college we’re working with, listening to this excellent episode of Amol Rajan’s Radical, in which he talks to Zero Gravity founder Joe Seddon about education and social mobility.

It’s a fascinating listen. We took a lot of notes. Seddon’s an economist, so there’s an undeniable value-for-money focus on his messaging, particularly on university courses - it’s something we’ve thought about a lot since listening. Seddon argues certain degrees from certain universities aren’t worth the time and debt; labour-market information shows us these graduates are highly unlikely to ever pay their loans back. Seddon’s position on this is clear - these courses shouldn’t be run. We’re a little less black-and-white on the issue…

Whatever your views, it’s a great conversation, time-stamped if you want to jump through it topic-by-topic. Enjoy!

Then, on the journey home we had a read of this - a recent report from The Sutton Trust, also worth a look:

Portal Talk...

A quick reminder of our newsletter promotion for you this week. Book a demo with us, and you get a free round of the VESPA questionnaire for up to 100 students:

Something to try...

A video and accompanying handout for subscribers today!

We’re often asked to record online material for CPD platforms. Some platforms survive, others pivot or vanish, and we’re left with the recordings and nothing to do with them. So this week we thought we’d clip a section to share with you.

In this one, you’re getting Steve and Martin introducing a Practice activity from The VESPA Handbook called Verbal Recaps. It’s a quick and powerful way to get students revising in a more cognitively active way…

Subscribe to our premium content to read the rest.