The Friyay Mindset - Issue #7

February 26, 2021

We hope everyone managed to get some screen free time over the half-term. We've had a fantastic week working with schools in South Wales on a programme to support their Seren learners. Seren is a Welsh Government initiative dedicated to helping Wales’ brightest students achieve their full academic potential and support their education pathway into leading universities in Wales, the UK, and overseas (@Seren_Network on twitter). There's been a lot of focus in the media about pupils who are 'falling behind' but we also need to give some thought about how the lockdown might have impacted high performing students and what we can do to get these learners operating at the level they need to be. You can read more about the Welsh Seren programme here:

Supporting Wales’ brightest year 8-13 students from state schools and FE colleges, and linking Welsh high achievers to leading universities.

Something to try...

With school opening in just over a week we thought it would be useful to share an activity we created inspired by Professor Cal Newport. In his fantastic book, How to Win at College, Newport argues that if you win Sunday night you win the week. Sunday, he says, is a great time take stock, look ahead and make preparations.

Now, for the last few months Steve's son has crawled out of bed at 8.30, had a shower and a bite to eat and then jumped online. No preparation needed, no thinking through equipment, no collecting together of scattered pens and pencils, no making sure that his PE kit includes his socks. But things are soon going to change - and disaster may beckon!

So here's a great systems activity for frameworking some Sunday night thinking, and for getting a grip on the week ahead. It should take about twenty minutes, and follows a simple and memorable A, B, C, D structure. Here's the grid empty of prompts:

And here it is with some questions to consider:

It's clear, simple and easy to operate. Low systems students might revisit it every evening as a final ritual to draw a line under the day's work. With the A, B, C, D checklist complete, students can get a good night's sleep free from worry, anxiety or sudden panic about the day or week ahead!

Here’s something we’ve been reading…

We've enjoyed Adam Grant's Originals - How Non-Conformists Change the World during lockdown. We went through it carefully thinking about what it has to tell us about leadership, vision, culture, expectation and risk-taking. It covered some similar ground to Dan Coyle's excellent The Culture Code (maybe we'll recommend that in coming weeks) and is full of thought-provoking stories, research, examples and practical takeaways. Good for anyone leading teams and interested in culture change, we reckon.

Buy Originals: How Non-conformists Change the World by Grant, Adam, Sandberg, Sheryl (ISBN: 9780753556993) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Our latest offer...

We rarely mention that we've written a book directly for students. The Student Mindset was written so that students can work through some of our ideas at their own pace and we've included a number of activities that aren't in the GCSE or A level Mindset. It's Steve's favourite of the three books, and there's a lovely review from UK Ed Chat here:

This book would help any educators to think about and evaluate their own teaching pedagogy and adapt it to the needs of their classes so that they can make the intended progress that they need to.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the sun if you have any. We're going to stagger out into the light and look for signs of Spring. Take care and stay safe,

Steve & Martin