In October of 2024, 9 members of staff from across XP Trust travelled to San Diego to work with the best project based learning teacher in the world – Jeff Robin. Each teacher brought with them a personally crafted exemplar – a tangible product of their passion and planning – to refine and inspire transformative future Expeditions. Inspired by Jeff’s groundbreaking work at High Tech High, the school that inspired XP, they sought to elevate their teaching through creativity, activism, and lasting legacy. Away from the familiar, they embraced new ideas in a setting that ignited their imagination.
This is the story of Jeff Tech High.
Arrival: Why We Went to San Diego
In the vibrant city of San Diego, far from the classrooms of XP Trust, a shared purpose brought nine educators together: to rediscover the foundations of great teaching. They weren’t just there to observe—they were there to solve problems, challenge assumptions, and rekindle their practice. Their mission? To refine their craft by returning to first principles and learning from one of the world’s most innovative educators.
Our first day involved circling up, setting norms and sharing expectations as a Crew. We did this in the idyllic setting of Windansea Beach in La Jolla – sheltered under the Palm Tree Shack. Many of us had not worked together before, but we got to know each other very quickly and became comfortable sharing common experiences across XP Trust, as well as unique challenges that we wanted to address over the course of the trip. We reflected on the nature of Crew and Expeditions and how these two crucial aspects of our curriculum overlap to be greater than the sum of their parts.
‘I think the trip was important because it showed how important it was to Gwyn for XP to be the school that he first envisioned when setting it up. Investing in staff to take this trip was an important step to reestablishing how XP began and why.’
Emily Jones – XP Doncaster
First Day with Jeff: A Tour of Creativity
At the heart of the journey was Jeff Robin, a teacher, artist, and visionary. On the first day, Jeff welcomed the group into his home – a living museum of creativity, filled with projects that told stories of impact and passion. It was here that Jeff introduced his ethos: do the project first. This simple yet profound idea would shape the rest of the week, sparking discussions, revelations, and a deep connection to the craft of teaching.
It was amazing to be in Jeff’s place. What first struck us all was how much student work he had collected over the years and how proud he was of the work they had done. He had also kept a lot of his own model products or ‘exemplars’ as he called them – a sign to us that the craftsmanship and attention to detail early on in the process was crucial to inspiring beautiful work with a real lasting legacy. He very quickly became a member of our Crew and really made us feel welcome in his home.
Who Is Jeff Robin?
Jeff Robin is a pioneer in project-based learning and one of the founding members of High Tech High, a school that has inspired educators around the world. Known for his creative and student-centred approach, Jeff champions the philosophy of “doing the project first” to ensure authenticity and purpose in teaching. His belief in the power of tangible, meaningful work has made him a transformative figure in education.
For XP Trust, Jeff represents a direct connection to the roots of our practice and a chance to deepen our understanding of how to craft beautiful work with purpose. We’ve been really lucky to have had Jeff be a crucial part of our story since day one.
To see a full list of the projects Jeff worked on with students at High Tech High, click here. You can also read more about Jeff’s story and see all of his artwork at jeffrobin.com.
Teaching Like an Artist: Embracing Critique and Passion
Jeff’s philosophy challenged each teacher to think like an artist – to embrace critique, push boundaries, and harness their unique passions. In reflective sessions, they dissected projects from Jeff’s book of the same name (which he kindly gave each of us a copy of), reimagined approaches, and uncovered new ways to allocate roles and answer big questions.
It was an invitation to view teaching not just as a profession, but as a creative and collaborative art form.
Seeing the curated collection of work from High Tech High opened a lot of different conversations – before we’d even started any work on our model products in San Diego. We found ourselves examining our current approach at XP and looking at what really works and has the most impact on our students.
Jeff had a simple approach. Teach from the heart, be inspired and inspire the children you work with! Jeff helped us to see past the constrictions our education system can pose and to challenge the institutions.
Stuart Longley – Plover School
Model Products: Crafting Excellence Together
With three model products in hand, the XP Crew embarked on an intensive process of tuning, refining, and reimagining their work. Each pair of teachers brought a unique concept – a tangible representation of their passion and planning – to San Diego, ready to learn from Jeff’s expertise.
Below you’ll find the evolution of each product in three stages – an introduction, a tuning check-in with the whole Jeff Tech High Crew and then a final tuning session with Jeff to consolidate the product.
If you had asked me before I would have said ‘we always do the project first at Norton’ After experiencing it we did but at a very superficial level. We maybe made a mockup of a page from a book we didn’t grapple with individual skills needed to create artwork. We didn’t try a range of materials to know which was best and know exactly how they would work. We weren’t relentless in ensuring all members of the expedition teams has ‘done the project’ including support staff. That has all changed at Norton now. All staff do the project, leads practise the lessons to ensure we are delivering effectively and in turn enabling support staff to support much more effectively.
Laura Parsons – Norton Campus
Ready, Steady Grow – Laura Parsons and Stuart Longley
Seeing is Believing – Emily Jones and Chris Morrison
If you had asked me before I would have said ‘we always do the project first at Norton’ After experiencing it we did but at a very superficial level. We maybe made a mockup of a page from a book we didn’t grapple with individual skills needed to create artwork. We didn’t try a range of materials to know which was best and know exactly how they would work. We weren’t relentless in ensuring all members of the expedition teams has ‘done the project’ including support staff. That has all changed at Norton now. All staff do the project, leads practise the lessons to ensure we are delivering effectively and in turn enabling support staff to support much more effectively.
Chris Morrison – XP Doncaster
It’s Got To Be Perfect – Rebecca Marshall and Tilda Macphail
Reflections from Jamie Portman
Bonus Features: An Inspiration Day
As an added extra (both in this story and the JTH experience in San Diego), the last full day in California was a directed ‘day of inspiration’. With all of the staff models complete and ready to take back to XP, Jeff sent our staff out to various corners of San Diego to find inspiration for future products.