ERRR #086. Gwyn Ap Harri on Building, Breaking, and Fixing a World Famous School

Ollie Lovell · ERRR #086. Gwyn Ap Harri on Building, Breaking, and Fixing a World Famous School

This episode we’re speaking with Gwyn Ap Harri. Gwyn is the CEO of XP School Trust, a group of schools in the UK designed to support its students to express who they are through their work. Gwyn is also the CEO of realsmart, an edtech company that empowers users to learn more and learn it faster.

I first came across the work of XP via their youtube film, Above All, Compassion, I’ve linked to this in the Shownotes and, if you haven’t watched it already, I highly recommend it. Following that, I visited XP, Twice, in 2022, because I couldn’t get enough. I was blown away by a number of things, but particularly by how students could talk about their project work, and about the conscious approach to building crew and strong relationships between students and teachers. 

This is my second ERRR podcast discussion with Gwyn. Listen to our first here.

But this episode of the ERRR podcasts is a little different. In this episode, Gwyn shares some of the challenges that XP has faced in the process of ‘scaling up’, and talks us through how he and the XP team are going about overcoming those challenges.

This episode is a pretty unique opportunity to hear from a school leader, bearing all, and honestly sharing the challenges of running a school, and a trust of schools, and how we can think about putting in place systems and, crucially, principles, to avoid similar challenges in future.

I’m extremely grateful for Gwyn coming on, and for his courage in willing to share at this sensitive time in XP’s development.

To get a summary of this episode, sign up at www.patreon.com/errr

The ERRR podcast can also be listened to on Spotify, apple podcasts, and all other podcasting apps.

Links/resources mentioned in the show

• ERRR #070. Gwyn Ap Harri on Impactivity, Leadership, and Smoothly Unfolding Sequences
• Documentary about XP: Above all, compassion
• Books mentioned
  • Good to Great
  • Radical Candor
  • Simon Sinek's work
• Ollie's Books, Cognitive Load Theory in Action and Tools for Teachers
• To get a summary of this episode, sign up at www.patreon.com/errr

This episode of the ERRR Podcast is brought to you by John Catt Educational

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/

Listen to all past episodes of the ERRR podcast here.

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