LEARNING GAP
Bridging the learning gap I
n our second feature this month, we focus on bridging the learning gap over the
summer, and hear from Gwyn ap Harri of Doncaster’s XP School on how his school used the The Outward Bound Trust’s transition course to ensure his incoming year 7 cohort was ready after the summer holidays for the move to secondary school. XP School in Doncaster opened its doors for
the first time to 50 Year 7 students in 2014 but not before they all participated in a four day
residential programme in August that year at The Outward Bound Trust’s Aberdovey Centre in Wales. Why? The school wanted all of its students to be ‘school ready’ and prepared from the outset for a new and different way of learning. In 2012 Gwyn ap Harri, CEO of XP School Trust
in Doncaster was in San Diego visiting High Tech High school, a charter school which practices “project-based learning”, or PBL. This school recommended that Gwyn should also meet with Ron Berger, Chief Academic Officer for
Expeditionary Learning (EL) in the U.S.A. Little did he guess then that this school visit and his meeting with Ron Berger would lead to a total overhaul of his professional life resulting in opening a new school in 2014 and that by 2016 he would be in the process of creating another school XP East School opening in Doncaster in 2017.
About Expeditionary Learning Schools Operating since 1993 in the USA and now with over 150 schools covering thirty states and the District of Columbia, Expeditionary Learning schools (EL) are characterised by ‘learning expeditions’ - project-based, interdisciplinary, group learning experiences, which eschew subject-based, traditional teaching methods and emphasise meaningful, in-depth learning processes. Assessment comes through cumulative products, public presentations and portfolios with tasks requiring perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. The underlying belief is that children learn best
through engaging with their emotions and that they require challenge and full support to realise their potential. This, it is argued, doesn’t happen automatically, and not necessarily always in a classroom, so EL schools facilitate situations where adventure and the unexpected can take place. The idea is that if children can overcome their fears, they can do far more than they ever believed they could. EL works with a number of key design principles - ‘The Having of Wonderful Ideas’
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www.education-today.co.uk July/August 2016
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