The Friyay Mindset - Issue #10

March 19, 2021

Happy Friday! It's been a crazy week - again - as further year groups return and the whole school and college community come together for the first time this year. Testing, bubbles, one-way systems... and for us, lots of online training. The weekend has come just in time.

We're running some fascinating projects at the moment - we've mentioned our work with the SEREN network helping Wales' brightest students make progress through KS3 and GCSE so they're well-placed to make successful applications to prestigious universities; we've also got some interesting training running with some super-professional switched-on staff from the Girls' Day School Trust.

Here’s something to try…

Twelve Coaching Questions for Returning Students:

  1. How do you feel on a Sunday night? Ready for the week ahead or not? How do you make sure?

  2. If you could change one aspect about the way you work – what would it be and how would you change it?

  3. In your studies – how do you feel/react when you have made a mistake?

  4. Name a student who works harder than you. What do they do?

  5. Tell me about a time you had to start something again from scratch. How did you feel at the time? Once it was done?

  6. What have you done since January that you are proud of?

  7. What is next week looking like for you?

  8. What is the biggest obstacle to your progress?

  9. What’s the biggest mistake you have made so far? What have you learnt/how did you deal with it?

  10. What’s the hardest exam question you expect to face? What are you doing about it?

  11. When was the last time you tested yourself?

  12. Which subject do you work the hardest on? Why do you think this is?

Here’s something we’ve been reading…

We've become slightly obsessed with Beattie, Laliberte and Oreopoulos's paper, Divers and Thrivers.

ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for free.

The researchers studied thousands of smart undergrads beginning degrees in Economics and Business. The entry requirements for the course are a test score average of 87%, so these are students who have the smarts to succeed. At the end of the study period, the researchers examine the behaviours of "divers" - those students who end up in the bottom 10% of their year group - and "thrivers", those who end up in the top 10%.

The findings are fascinating. For a word-document digest of the paper, contact us at [email protected] , we'll be happy to share!

Our latest offer...

We've had a lot of interest in our new platform vespa.academy, so we are running a FREE session next week to demonstrate what the new platform can do and show you can use the MyVESPA course to help raise the performance and well-being of your students.

Eventbrite - Steve Oakes & Martin Griffin presents The VESPA Platform - Tuesday, 23 March 2021 - Find event and ticket information.

And that's it for this week! Take care, stay safe, and rest up.

Steve and Martin