I am Shadow Headteacher at Walsall Academy. My Fellowship topic was The Impact of Expeditionary Learning Schools in Inner City Areas in the USA. My areas of work are within education and the use of methodologies to close the gap with disadvantaged children.

As part of my Fellowship, I travelled to the USA and spent time in New York City and Detroit. On my return I devised an approach to learning based on the principles of expeditionary learning as an intervention course with predominantly white working-class boys. Due to the initial success of the course, this has widened in its approach to more young people in several schools. The approach has been subject to several publications and is now the basis of a PhD research project. It is not about learning on an expedition, but the learning journey and whole design and student agency. There is an aspect of learning outside the classroom involved in the approach.

I have always loved to travel and I have spent many years leading expeditions of young people. The Fellowship meant that I could travel to learn and make an impact upon my return – just as I expect the expeditions that I lead to have an impact on my students.