The Friyay Mindset - Issue #14

Hello everyone and happy Friday! If you read our newsletter last week, you'll have seen that we are really focused on transition at the moment. What does a good transition to KS4 look like? (From 9 to 10, or indeed from 10 to 11.) And what does a good transition to 6th form look like? What does a great start to year 13 look like? Most importantly - what does this process of transition look like in a Covid context?

So in the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at transition through the lens of VESPA, making some observations and suggestions under each element of the model, and sharing some new activities.

We’ve never published these anywhere before. If you had a go at them with a class, you’d be among the first to try them (after us…). So please give us some feedback and suggest alterations! ([email protected] to say hello)

Last week's click-through rate was our best ever so hopefully you're getting something out of these newsletters... (*feeling nervous*) Anyway - off we go with today's session:

Here’s something to try…

We are going to start with the theme of Vision for a few weeks. Like last week, we’re going to go big; looking at motivation, self-awareness, attitudes, values, and perceptions of the world of work rather than short-term goal setting. High vision students often know what they want because they know themselves. And for year 11s or 12s looking at a long summer ahead, these questions are good ones to tackle now.

So this activity, ‘A Question of Money' is another big picture activity that is designed to encourage lots of discussion and reflection. We've really enjoyed running this one so far.

Let us know what you think!

Here’s something we’ve been reading…

If you've been following us for a while, you'll probably think we are on some sort of commission from Cal Newport. Sadly not. If you're not yet familiar with Newport, he's a computer science professor and the New York Times bestselling author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work and his articles on technology, culture, and productivity have appeared in the New Yorker, WIRED, and the New York Times. There's a link to his website below.

This week are going to recommend taking a look at, 'How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out)'. This is a great book about using time effectively to stand out and make an impressive university application - a great transition text, particularly for those of us thinking about getting 11s A level-ready, or 12s fired-up for the application process in year 13.

How to Be a High School Superstar A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out) Do Less, Live More, Get Accepted What if getting into your reach schools didn't require four years of excessive A.P.-taking, overwhelming activity schedules, and constant stress?

Our latest offer…

If you follow us on Twitter @VESPAmindset, you'll have seen our publishers are now offering the digital licence for both GCSE and A-Level workbooks. If you teach vocational courses, there's also an FE version that has no references to A-Levels. To order, you can contact Jess at Crown House @ [email protected].

Have a great weekend!

Steve & Martin

p.s. We think our email server has been playing up recently. We're at inbox zero right now - every single email we can see has been answered. (Wohoo! This never happens!)

Trouble is... we suspect we might be missing a few. So I've you've got in touch recently and not received a reply, something's gone wrong. Please could you try again?

Many thanks!