The Friyay Mindset - Issue #16

May 21, 2021

Here comes the weekend! Steal a Bourbon Cream from the training room, make yourself a watery hot chocolate that you quickly realise isn't worth the calories, and barricade yourself in an empty classroom - it's newsletter time.

There are lots of new people this week, so if this is your first newsletter - a big hello from us. (We've even met some of this week's new subscribers in person in the past. Welcome!)

If you've been with us for a while, you’ll have seen that we’re obsessing about transition at the moment. And you’ll also know that we’re taking some time over the next few weeks to look at transition through the lens of VESPA, making some observations and suggestions under each element of the model, and sharing some new activities.

Here’s something to try…

We’ve never published these anywhere before and they’re all written since lockdown so if you had a go at them with a class, you’d be among the first to try them (after us…). Feel free to give us some feedback and suggest alterations! ([email protected] to say hello)

Today's activity is a new systems activity called Have to, Ought to, Want to. This is a good activity for this time of year because it asks students to consider tasks under three headings:

'Have to' tasks feel crucial and if ignored, keep us awake at night.

'Ought to' tasks are all about for building for the future and escaping cycles of inefficient work; the ones that make us think, 'if I just had time and a little headspace I’d do these helpful jobs/tasks...' and

'Want to' tasks are the ones we dream of having more time to do; 'if only I could design my life the way I want it, I’d have more time for...'

We've found these distinctions have worked really well for teachers, helping them design working weeks that are better balanced; less reactive, and more future-focused. For students planning for transition, it's a good one too.

Have a go and see what you think.

Something we’ve been reading…

This week's been all about the work of two Dutch professors and a Belgian researcher; it's 'Urban Myths about Learning and Education' by Bruyckere, Kirschner and Hulsof. It's a great read, particularly for those of us tasked with leading learning across departments, faculties, key stages or indeed full schools.

We're often launching new initiatives or projects, and we need to be prepared for entirely understandable resistance from exhausted staff in need of a break. The very staff we're speaking to might well know all about some of the debunked myths or studies mentioned in this book, so it pays to make sure you're abreast of what the research currently indicates... as well, of course, as bearing in mind that really innovative, positive change often comes from trying something without knowing whether it will work at all.

And if you're not sure and just want to dip in, an excerpt from the book on the theme of technology can be found here:

By Pedro De Bruyckere, Paul A. Kirschner, and Casper D. Hulshof

Our latest offer…

Our new website (link below) has everything you might need to embed VESPA in your context. If you're new to our online platform, Steve's put together a short video giving you a tour of what it can do. Might be worth checking out - the whole site is a terrific transition tool that allows you to get on top of potential issues as soon as students answer a simple 28-item questionnaire.

If you'd like a tour of the site and a chat about what it can do... say hello at [email protected].

One last thing...

Alright we've been bending your ear about this for three weeks now and we're sorry... but one more time in case you've missed it: 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 - but 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? ([email protected] will get to us as well) Many thanks!

That's it from us this week. Have a superb weekend. We can go to places! Pubs and cafes! Dive-bars and drinking dens! Or even the gym.

Take care,

Steve and Martin