The A Level Mindset is out today!
The book represents the culmination of five years’ work into the influence of character on performance, motivation, resilience and commitment. If you’re not wholly familiar with the work we’ve been doing, this post will represent a sort of primer. Maybe you’ll want to grab a copy of the book afterwards. We hope so.
Our work starts from this observation: the correlation between success at GCSE and success at A level isn’t as strong as you might think. Sure, there’s a relationship there – but anyone who’s ever set eyes on a chances graph will see that, coming from the identical starting point, students can end up achieving a wide range of grades. Look at chances graphs for non-coursework subjects (pre-linearity, we mean) and you’ll see even wider spreads. Two A level Mathematicians with identical GCSE achievement might get an A and an E respectively at the end of year 12.
Our studies show outcomes like these could well be dependent upon character. When we studied underperforming students with identical GCSE profiles, we saw huge variations in learning behaviour like this:
Where students sat in classrooms relative to the teacher.
Who they had as peers around them.
How detailed their note-taking was in class.
How organised their files were.
How they recorded independent tasks and homework… when they revised,
How they challenged themselves.
At first, we didn’t know quite what to do with this information. But gradually over the years, we developed the VESPA system of character development. We believe that high performing students have the following qualities and characteristics:
Vision: They know why they are taking A levels and what they want to achieve.
Effort: They equate success with hard work, and work relatively harder than their peers.
Systems: They organise learning resources well and this accelerates their learning. They organise time well.
Practice: They challenge themselves, often working at the very edges of their understanding and ability.
Attitude: They aren’t afraid of failure, and use feedback to improve performance.
That’s it. And in The A Level Mindset, we share 40 resources you can use to strengthen students’ performance under each of these headings. It makes them better learners, happier and more productive people, and it fosters ambition and determination. We’ve seen it work with hundreds and hundreds of students over the period of our work.
To find out more, order the book today.
