It is a privilege to work at XP Trust but I don’t reflect enough on the wonderful things I see and experience every day as I work alongside students, teachers, colleagues and other stakeholders in, and across, our Trust. As one of our Design Principles is ‘sharing our stories’ I have made a commitment to share my stories on the Trust website so that those moments are captured and celebrated more often.
So, here we go!!!!
One of the highlights for me in January was the Festival of Learning organised by XP University. The event took place on a Staff Day as staff from across our Trust gathered together as Crew to explore, critique and contribute to our newly proposed Trust wide Teaching and Learning model. The model draws together best practice from across the Trust and from other schools so that we have a consistent way of talking about, sharing and developing high quality learning experiences for all our young people and staff.
The model is underpinned, crucially, by five fundamental principles that inform our lesson design. These are:
- Learning through expeditions
- Feedback
- Leaders of our their learning
- Curriculum
- Literacy
In addition, we proposed using a simple but effective methodology to inform lesson planning that ‘Activates, Constructs, Demonstrates and Consolidates’ learning or AC/DC for short!!! Staff worked through the model in a series of practical workshops and made a commitment to develop and embed this practice in every school across the Trust.
Check out this short clip that shows highlights from the day!
It was a fantastic day and showed how dedicated and determined our staff are, across the Trust, to ensure our kids create beautiful work, grow their characters and achieve academically.
To conclude…