Andy Sprakes was the Head Teacher of Campsmount Academy for eight years, and Deputy Head for four years prior to that. During his time there, Andy led Campsmount out of a tragic fire disaster, and oversaw the full transition from the rebuilding of the school to its achieving record results at GCSE and A Levels shortly after. Following his work at Campsmount, Andy heard from his inspired coconspiritor, Gwyn ap Harri, who was was calling breathless from a visit to High Tech High in San Diego. In that call, Gwyn famously told Andy that he had just seen a school that, ‘is not part of the jigsaw, it is the jigsaw’, and Andy and Gwyn have since gone on to found the hugely successful XP school which serves the young people and families of Doncaster.
XP is a phenomenal school, and that’s why I wanted to visit it during my recent visit to the UK. I took a train up from Brighton with my good friend James Mannion, and we spent two days at XP, seeing lessons in action, meeting students and teachers, and just generally being inspired by the phenomenal culture that’s been built within the school. XP is something between five and 10 times oversubscribed, has founded its own trust and has two high schools and a number of primary schools now following the XP model, and has achieved phenomenal results at the same time as recording almost zero exclusions and allocating massive portions of school time to building a sense of community and running project-based learning expeditions.
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Links/resources mentioned in the show
- To get a summary of this episode, sign up at www.patreon.com/errr
- The XP School website
- The XP documentary, Above all, Compassion
- People to follow on Twitter
- EL Education
- High Tech High
- Ron Berger
- XP
- Gwyn ap Harri (and his blog)
- Books:
- An Ethic of Excellence by Ron Berger
- Leaders of their own Learning by Ron Berger and Colleagues
- How we XP – by Gwyn ap Harri and Andy Sprakes
- Also see Ollie's Books, Cognitive Load Theory in Action and Tools for Teachers
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This episode of the ERRR podcast is brought to you by Catalyst. Catalyst transforms students' lives through learning by developing excellent teachers and Leaders through evidence-based professional learning programs. Find out more at https://catalyst.cg.catholic.edu.au/
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