Friday Mindset #195

Happy Friday!

Quick one re. staff CPD - we’re full now until the Spring term. If you’d like Martin to talk to staff about VESPA, evidence-based revision, coaching, building independent learning, vision and aspiration, resilience, successful pre-university study habits… or something context-specific/bespoke, just say hello at [email protected] and we’ll see if we can fit you in January/February.

Heads-up on PISA scores if that’s of interest - we know they’re declining and have been for ten years or so, but there’s signs that science has stabilised rather than continuing to drop. We haven’t had time to read the full report yet, but here’s Times journalist James Marriott:

And a counterpoint: the Beeb covering England’s recent success:

OK, onwards. Let’s dive in.

Something we're reading...

This is doing the rounds, so apologies if it’s already familiar to you, but it’s a really interesting tutorial activity to try with students. If they’re allowed on their phones, they can each do this activity, if they’re not, you can demonstrate it three times at the front of the class.

You’re going to get a random life from human history:

1. When they were born

2. Where they lived

3. Their sex. Once these three factors are generated, there’s a lot of fascinating things to read. You’ll learn their typical age at marriage, their life expectancy, the type of house they lived in, their diet, and the likely causes of death. Then…

4. Their life in full

And you get to read what happened to them.

It’s a sobering experience. Here’s the message: however hard we feel our lives are today (one of our students told us recently, “Sir, gen Z is cooked”) this tool gives us a sudden sense of perspective.

We all have electricity. Access to all the information we could ever wish for. 24-hour entertainment. Enough food to stave off hunger, enough warmth to feel comfortable. Most fatal diseases from the past have been dealt with. It’s unlikely a local tribe will raid and destroy our village. We have a bed to sleep in. We get free schooling until the age of 18 instead of having to begin work at nine or ten. We have clothes. Houses. Headphones.

All this… and we’ll likely live into our eighties. We’re the most fortunate people in history. What are we going to do with this gift?

Something to try...

More on resilience today! Last week, we introduced our model, the resilience circle, and shared part one of a powerpoint that’s been built over a number of months as we’ve read the research about academic resilience.

Today you’re getting part two. Where part one covered how to help students through the emotional fallout of academic challenge, this week we’re turning our attention to the composure that follows, and the importance of better self-talk and goal-setting.

Let’s get into it…

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