Gwyn ap Harri, chief design officer at XP School Trust, exploded onto the scene in 2014 with his tiny secondary school, where children don鈥檛 wear uniform and are in 鈥榗rews鈥 rather than tutor groups. Now with eight schools up and running, Jess Staufenberg finds out how ap Harri is expanding his anti-orthodoxy model across the country Gwyn ap Harri must have the best name in education. The full extension is Gwynfor Dafydd ap Rhun ap Harri. His father was Welsh, and the name literally means Gwyn, who is the son of Rhun, who is the son of Harri. It鈥檚 an unusual name, and it suits this quite unusual school leader. Schools Week met ap Harri before, at XP School in Doncaster a few years ago. The school鈥檚 2017 鈥榦utstanding鈥 Ofsted report, and distinctive ideas (kids don鈥檛 wear uniform, do 鈥榚xpeditions鈥, or projects, and belong to 鈥榗rews鈥 rather than tutor groups) has garnered a fan following among progressives as an antidote to schools with strict behaviour policies and traditional curriculums. But the question then was: could ap Harri scale it up? The most radical thing about the trust is the small (or 鈥榙eliberately sized鈥, as he calls them) secondaries. All three have fewer than 300 students. In his blog, he states with characteristic bluntness that the idea that the model is not scalable is 鈥渂ollocks鈥. Since then, the trust has expanded to include one infant and four primary schools, added XP Gateshead secondary in the north-east 鈥 its first school outside Doncaster 鈥 and two new free schools are in the pipeline (but he can鈥檛 say where). Last week, I visited the good-graded Green Top primary in Doncaster, which joined XP in 2017. Ap Harri鈥檚 own children attended when it was 鈥榬equires improvement鈥. But it was the idea of secondary school that dismayed their father, prompting him to set up his own 鈥 XP School 鈥 for his two sons instead. 鈥淭he conventional model is for secondary schools to look down on primary schools, but it should be the other way around. Primary school practice is amazing.鈥 Ap Harri with his wife Kate and sons Jac and Dylan The problem with secondaries Ap Harri has two big issues with secondaries. First, he says creativity is squeezed out. 鈥淚 knew my kids wouldn鈥檛 get into trouble and they鈥檇 do their exams. But there鈥檚 a cost, and the cost is the creativity of our kids. I don鈥檛 want my kids to pay that.鈥 Second, many secondaries set (or allocate to streams) their students. The US school which inspired the XP model back in 2012 鈥 High Tech High in California 鈥 bans streaming children. Doing so 鈥済roups kids according to social demographics鈥, ap Harri says. Primary school teachers manage to differentiate their lessons for different ability children, so why not secondary? 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 evil, but I don鈥檛 think secondary school teachers are evil,鈥 he continues. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 always know a better way.鈥 This is typically punchy language from the softly-spoken trust leader. All this means Green Top primary doesn鈥檛 feel like a radically different primary school, probably because ap Harri already agrees with so much about the primary school model. The children are in what looks like uniform (although he says it鈥檚 a loose dress code) 鈥 white polo shirt, darkish trousers, green jumper 鈥 and like many primaries the school is covered with displays of poetry, paintings and social change messages. Year 6 pupils Lola, Ruby, Harrison and Ava show Schools Week around The kindness ethos What does strike me, however, is how kind the children are. I鈥檝e been put in the care of four year 6s: Lola, Ava, Ruby and Harrison (and, for the first time ever, they鈥檝e been sent off without a supervising adult). When we get to nursery, they all hug the tiniest ones. Ofsted inspectors have already noted the lack of bullying across XP schools (and the trust strapline is 鈥楢bove All, Compassion鈥). This ethos around kindness seems related to ap Harri鈥檚 philosophical suspicions about power and the abuse of power. He believes there are two types of leader: 鈥淭hose who want power, and those who empower鈥. It鈥檚 about 鈥渃onformity versus creativity鈥. The intensity of his feelings on this might be explained by his background. Aged 14, the young ap Harri was living alone. His dad had moved in with a girlfriend in London, and his older sister was often away. His mum had died when he was 18 months old. As we speak, ap Harri chokes up. 鈥淚鈥檓 51,鈥 he says, 鈥淚 should be over this.鈥 He swallows and continues. 鈥淲hen I was 17, I found out that my mum killed herself.鈥 It turned his world upside down. Left without a guide, ap Harri turned to reading. 鈥淭his sounds really weird, but I got my moral compass from comic books. They were the literature for working-class kids, because they were 8p.鈥 I got my moral compass from comic books A particularly influential character was Judge Dredd, the violent lawmaker now of movie fame who oppresses society. 鈥淭his was about ordinary people triumphing over corrupt governments. Judge Dredd was a fascist, so I learned about fascism at eight years old.鈥 So, is he an anti-authoritarian? Uniforms and isolation 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say I鈥檓 anti [but] we had the privilege of a blank sheet of paper when we set up XP School,鈥 he responds. However, he鈥檚 tweeted that pupils wearing uniform 鈥渓ooks dystopian鈥. 鈥淎dults are forcing kids to look exactly the same,鈥 ap Harri nods. Uniform 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 fix bullying鈥, he continues, and poorer children can still be identified. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all a myth.鈥 Instead, what is really dangerous for children from ap Harri’s perspective is the anonymity of schools, which uniforms can actually reinforce. Ap Harri knows this well 鈥 his isolation as a teenager went almost unnoticed by his secondary school. A classroom at Green Top primary school in Doncaster Just one teacher, Brian Parkinson, broke protocol and invited ap Harri to live with him and his family in sixth form, enabling him to eventually study computer science. The same teacher later helped ap Harri get his first teaching job, at Hatfield High School in Doncaster. I learned about fascism aged eight years old 鈥淭eachers don鈥檛 normally do that,鈥 ap Harri says, displaying real emotion. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I would be here if he hadn鈥檛 offered.鈥 What about school leaders who believe their strict policies aren鈥檛 about power, but empowering children? Ap Harri pauses. 鈥淚鈥檒l think about that.鈥 Smaller schools Perhaps he is quite similar in some ways to other very vocal, very mission-driven school leaders who just happen to be running very strict schools? 鈥淲e鈥檙e good at branding,鈥 he admits. 鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 see the relevance otherwise.鈥 Ap Harri鈥檚 deep commitment to small schools also now makes a lot of sense. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand why we have big schools where kids are anonymous, and can go for seven years and the adults don鈥檛 know them very well. What鈥檚 a killer of young people? Suicide,鈥 he points out. 鈥淲hen adults don鈥檛 know kids, they can鈥檛 care about kids.鈥 The big question is, of course, how ap Harri has made this financially possible. Not only does he dismiss the idea that small secondaries are unviable, he says the trust is 鈥渘ot facing a financial crisis鈥, even with energy costs increasing. Three strategies enable this, he says. First, a big waste of school money is 鈥渂uying resources they don鈥檛 need or they鈥檝e already got鈥 (which sounds very Lord Agnew). 鈥淧eople don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 in the cupboard. Or the maths department gets a budget of 拢15,000, so they spend it.鈥 At XP, all departments must 鈥渏ustify why they want something鈥. In addition, every term there is a 鈥渄egunge鈥 鈥 all resources are collected in one place and then re-distributed. Usually, there鈥檚 enough of everything, says ap Harri. Second, schools waste money on bad technology and IT technicians. 鈥淭hey cripple the technology with logins and use big servers.鈥 At XP trust, there are no IT technicians. All staff have an Apple laptop connected to the cloud, and nothing breaks, he claims. Ap Hari outside his house converted from an old cinema in Doncaster Finally 鈥 and here he pauses, weighing his words 鈥 鈥渢he biggest waste of money in schools is ineffective leadership鈥. 鈥淪chools are paying tens of thousands of pounds for a person who has no impact on the kids. And everybody in those schools knows exactly who they are.鈥 Instead, XP trust just has the chief design officer 鈥 ap Harri鈥檚 role 鈥 the chief operating officer, then age phase leaders, crew leaders, and staff with responsibility for attendance, admissions, curriculum and so on. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nobody sat in offices not connected with the kids.鈥 It鈥檚 a powerful set of claims. Of course, ap Hari鈥檚 trust – where his wife Kate is also a paid advisor – still has a lot to prove.. It has yet to take on an 鈥榠nadequate鈥 school 鈥 all have been 鈥榞ood鈥 except one which was RI 鈥 the attainment data across the schools is average, and none of the secondaries is planning to trial the XP model at sixth form level apart from a small offer at XP East. The latter is also awaiting reinspection after ap Harri鈥檚 team successfully challenged an RI grade in February. Meanwhile, with 360 pupils, Green Top primary is actually bigger than any of XP鈥檚 secondaries. But ap Harri has his eye on the very top. Emphasising his Doncaster dialect, he declares: 鈥淲e want to be best schools in鈥檛 world.鈥