Friday Mindset #184

Happy Friday!

It’s the business end of the year, the sun’s out and exams are approaching. Lots to share in the coming weeks, so let’s dive in!

Something we're reading...

This is an interesting read for at least two reasons - (i) it’s real and recent, drawing on large data sets and (ii) it demonstrates something we felt would happen.

The workplace analysis company ActivTrak study organisations and report on how employees are spending their time, what kind of work they’re doing, and what they feel about it. In the piece below, ActivTrak analysed millions of hours of white-collar employee activity in preparation for their 2026 state of the workplace report.

Their focus? How AI was changing employee workplace behaviour. Now, we regularly hear from doom-mongers that AI will do everything for us and there’ll be no jobs left. (The doom-mongers in question are, of course, in charge of large AI companies who are trying to secure funding and want to look like they have a revolutionary product.)

When ActivTrak examined this, what did they find? Rather than remove jobs entirely, AI has actually increased workload. And get this: “The amount of time AI users devoted to focused, uninterrupted work - the kind of concentration often required for figuring out complex problems, writing formulas, creating and strategizing - fell 9%, compared with nearly no change for nonusers.”

So AI seems to be increasing workload at the same time as decreasing opportunities for focus. 

This is well-worth reading if we’re going to give students balanced, objective, hyperbole-free advice about the world of work, and steer clear of the I-feel-sorry-for-your-generation pessimism they might be hearing from elsewhere.

And a neat piece to go with it as well. Cal Newport looking at the extent to which AI is affecting the graduate job market and finding… well, it doesn’t seem to be.

Newport posts these videos/podcast episodes every Thursday, debunking lots of industry-driven nonsense, so they’re good to check-in with. Enjoy:

Portal Talk...

There are few sounds more familiar in school life than:

“Sir, I can’t log in.”
“Miss, it’s not loading.”
“Which tab am I supposed to be on?”

We can’t promise to solve every admin problem in education, we’re not miracle workers! But we have been working very hard on one of them. So, say hello to VESPA Academy 2.0

Over the past year - as always - we’ve been steadily improving the VESPA platform. You may already have noticed some of those changes: refreshed designs, updated activities, improved layouts and a cleaner experience for students and staff.

We haven’t changed what works. The VESPA Questionnaire, student reports and core activities will all still feel familiar. What we have rebuilt is the engine underneath, making the platform faster, simpler to access, easier to navigate, and much more useful for staff working with whole cohorts. VESPA Academy 2.0 is designed around the way schools actually use VESPA: finding the right students quickly, understanding the story behind the data, and turning questionnaire results into meaningful coaching conversations.

What’s new?

One-click sign in - staff and students can sign in with their existing Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace accounts. No more password spreadsheets.

A proper student hub - questionnaire, report, activities, task board, study planner, calendar all in one place. Dark mode included, because apparently this matters very much…

A redesigned home page - a cleaner starting point for staff and students, helping everyone get to the right place more quickly.

Student Voice - a brand-new tool that lets you ask your own custom questions alongside the VESPA questionnaire. Think of it as a pulse check that runs itself.

New UCAS application system - students can build and share their UCAS applications more easily, with pastoral and subject staff able to view, support and advise at the right points in the process.

Lightning-fast dashboards - cohort data loads dramatically faster, with clearer national benchmarks, percentage-based comparisons and improved distribution charts.

Smart coaching overview - filter, sort and drill into student data faster than ever. AI-generated coaching narratives, intervention finder and simple export options are all built in.

“But I’m happy with the current system…”

No one in education is sitting around thinking, “What I really need this week is a brand-new system to learn.” So, just to be clear, the questionnaire is familiar. The reports are familiar. The activities are familiar. The coaching model is familiar. The difference is that the new version is quicker, cleaner and much easier to manage especially for staff working across large cohorts, coordinating UCAS support, or trying to spot which students need help before small issues become big ones.

The current portal isn’t disappearing overnight, so there’s no need to panic. But VESPA Academy 2.0 is where we’re heading. Schools already using it are telling us the speed difference alone makes a real impact, especially when trying to get useful data quickly before tutor meetings, interventions or student conversations.

Ready to move across?

Migration is straightforward, and we’ll support you through the process. We can help set up your staff accounts, connect your student directory, and make sure your existing VESPA data carries over smoothly. In most cases, schools can be up and running very quickly.

Book a quick call and we’ll show you the new platform:

New to VESPA Academy?

This is a great time to take a look.

VESPA Academy helps schools turn questionnaire data into meaningful coaching conversations, giving staff a clear way to support students with motivation, organisation, revision, resilience and attitude. The new platform makes that process faster, clearer and easier to manage across a whole cohort from VESPA reports and coaching conversations to student voice, UCAS support and targeted interventions.

Book a quick call below and we’ll take you through it.

Something to try...

Every now and again an idea drops in our lap and we can’t resist turning it into a VESPA activity. Maybe these will build-up enough to make a new book, maybe not…

Anyway, we were reading about Nir Eyal’s new book Beyond Belief, and tracked down an extract which explored a really neat idea for behaviour change. Eyal explores the Three Bs: Behaviour, Benefit, Belief. When combined, he argues, people tend to feel more motivated, and are more likely to follow through with commitments to improve their lives.

So we’ve given the idea a study-based twist in this effort activity…

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