Getting Smarter Together: A Day at Plover

There is something really special about visiting another school and being given the opportunity to see the real work that is happening there. Not a polished version prepared especially for visitors, but the classrooms, Crews, conversations and questions that make up everyday school life. Our recent visit to Plover was exactly that, and I left feeling incredibly positive about both the work already happening in school and the possibilities for what we can continue to learn from one another.

The purpose of the visit was very much to work alongside one another. It wasn’t about reviewing, grading or auditing what Plover are doing, but about understanding where they currently are, celebrating the strengths that are already there and exploring together where there might be opportunities to develop further.

What struck me most throughout the day was the openness of both the staff and the children. There was a real willingness to share practice, talk honestly about the things that are working well and, equally importantly, ask questions about the things they are still exploring. I really value that kind of professional conversation because it creates the space for us to think together rather than feeling that we have to arrive with all the answers.

Walking around the school, there was a lovely sense of calm and purpose. We saw strong Expeditionary learning, children sharing beautiful home learning, thoughtful use of vocabulary and Communicate in Print, and protocols being used purposefully within lessons. There were also some lovely examples of children making connections between their case studies and other areas of the curriculum, as well as learning walls being used to support and deepen learning.

There was a similar feeling within Crew. We saw a calm feelings check-in in Reception and older children enthusiastically consolidating their maths skills through a supportive and competitive game. It was great to see the thinking that is already going into developing the Crew curriculum further, including reading linked to RfP, Diversity books and Protected Characteristics, alongside the conversations about how this might continue to develop and how RSHE learning could be captured.

For me, some of the most valuable parts of the day were the conversations around the questions Plover are currently exploring. How do we approach assessment in Primary Expedition? What documentation is genuinely useful and what could we streamline or archive? How do we continue to build rigour within Crew? How do we make sure that the creativity and love of Expedition remains at the heart of the work rather than the focus becoming the documentation around it?

These are exactly the sorts of questions that I think are worth exploring together. There doesn’t always need to be an immediate answer; sometimes the value is in opening up the conversation, hearing how another school is approaching something and then thinking about what might work in our own context.

I was particularly excited by the willingness to look beyond Plover and connect with other XP schools. There was already a real appetite to see how other schools are approaching assessment, to share ideas and to create opportunities for practitioners to learn from one another. That feels like such an important part of the work we are beginning across the Trust.

And perhaps that is what I enjoyed most about the day: it genuinely felt like the beginning of something rather than a one-off visit. We have already started putting dates in the diary to continue working together, share examples and revisit some of the questions that came from our conversations. There are opportunities to share resources and practice, continue Crew walkthroughs and take some of the wider questions into our Expedition networks.

As our Communities of Practice work develops, I think these opportunities will only become stronger. The more we can connect people who are working on similar questions, open up classrooms and share what we are learning, the more we can move beyond individual schools and start to build a genuinely collaborative culture across XP.

The strength of XP has always been in getting smarter together. That doesn’t mean that every school is doing the same thing, or that we have everything figured out. It means being willing to share what is working, being honest about what we are still trying to work out, asking questions and learning from one another.

Thank you to everyone at Plover for being so open, welcoming and generous with your practice and your thinking. It was a really lovely day, and I am excited that it is only the beginning of the conversation.