http://www.the-project-hub.co.uk/

AKtive Educational Consultancy Ltd, London (2026)

08/09/2026

It felt really lovely to be back with Miles Chester & Colette Quinlivan and their fab team at Merchant Taylors’ Prep School yesterday for the second September INSET in a row.

This one was built from a much longer piece of work. I’ve had the joy to listen to staff, the incredible boys and their parents as the school designed their approach to culture and behaviour, drafting its new Behaviour for Learning policy.

Our morning was spent exploring together how to make this live beyond the pages. We discussed case studies, had some deeper conversations, deliberately designed routines, noticed where bias might creep into our professional judgment and considered repair as something we explicitly plan for.

One mid-session reflection capture things beautifully: ‘Consistency in behaviour support is not the same as identical. Each child is different, it the consistency is that they are approached with the same expected calm, caring and clear adult behaviours.’

Exactly that.

It’s been a privilege to be a small part of MTP’s journey and to see its growth and development.

If your school is looking for thoughtful, practical, engaging, fully bespoke support to listen to its community, strengthen its culture or turn policy into consistent practice, please get in touch!

📧 [email protected]
💻 www.the-project-hub.co.uk

08/09/2026

It felt really lovely to be back with Miles Chester & Colette Quinlivan and their fab team at Merchant Taylors' Prep School yesterday for the second September INSET in a row.

This one was built from a much longer piece of work. I’ve had the joy to listen to staff, the incredible boys and their parents as the school designed their approach to culture and behaviour, drafting its new Behaviour for Learning policy.

Our morning was spent exploring together how to make this live beyond the pages. We discussed case studies, had some deeper conversations, deliberately designed routines, noticed where bias might creep into our professional judgment and considered repair as something we explicitly plan for.

One mid-session reflection capture things beautifully: ‘Consistency in behaviour support is not the same as identical. Each child is different, it the consistency is that they are approached with the same expected calm, caring and clear adult behaviours.’

Exactly that.

It’s been a privilege to be a small part of MTP’s journey and to see its growth and development.

If your school is looking for thoughtful, practical, engaging, fully bespoke support to listen to its community, strengthen its culture or turn policy into consistent practice, please get in touch!

📧 [email protected]
💻 www.the-project-hub.co.uk

04/09/2026

Felt very fortunate yesterday to spend the morning in glorious Bath with the equally glorious Bath College staff, in a comedy club, complete with spotlights.

What a fab crew you have, Dave Trounce!

It was definitely the biggest workshop-style session I’ve delivered so far. It also included my first virtual ‘fed-in facts’, discussion-driven exploratory case study for more than 250 people. The engagement and energy from everyone was fantastic. Love an Oracy protocol, no matter the age of the audience! 😊

Huge thanks to Laura Moon and Sam Kenny for their support in both the design and delivery of the morning. I was so pleased to be part of the day and I’m very excited to see how the next steps in the college’s impressive journey unfold.

If engaging, interactive, context-specific staff development on culture, leadership, relational practice or curriculum development could help in your setting, please get in touch!

📧 [email protected]
💻 www.the-project-hub.co.uk

04/09/2026

I kicked off a big week with the brilliant whole-staff team at Cupernham Junior School, supporting their launch of the next steps in their already impressive development journey.

The focus was culture: how it is created through hundreds of small moments across a school and shaped by everyone, from leaders and teachers to support, office and site staff.

We explored the hidden curriculum within our everyday interactions: what children learn from our tone, body language, routines, responses and the assumptions we bring into difficult moments.

Staff reflected honestly on how pressure can affect their professional judgement, practised responding to real situations from across school life and considered how to combine deep and genuine care while holding clear and aspirational expectations.

We also explored consistency without uniformity. A shared culture does not require every adult to use identical scripts or become the same kind of practitioner. It requires shared principles, dependable expectations and adults who can make thoughtful, considered decisions within them.

Huge thanks to Simon and the whole Cupernham team for the warmth, openness and energy they brought to the morning. What a great team!

If engaging, interactive, context-specific staff development on culture, leadership, relational practice or curriculum development could help in your setting, please get in touch!

📧 [email protected]
💻 www.the-project-hub.co.uk

04/07/2026

⚙️ ⚙️

A common misconception about project-based learning is that it means less rigour.

Less coverage. Less knowledge. Less depth.

But when it’s done well, I think the opposite is true.

This Year 1 project began with clear curriculum objectives: nocturnal animals, seasonal changes, light, simple circuits, clay sculpture, design, making, predicting, discussing and explaining.

Using The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, the children explored one question:

How could we help someone who is afraid of the dark?

They learned the science. They developed the vocabulary. They designed, sculpted, tested and made working nightlights to help Plop feel brave in the dark.

The curriculum was all there, now it had purpose.

Authentic outcomes deepen learning because children are more invested. They are not just completing work for a teacher to mark. They are creating something for a reason.

That does not reduce rigour - it gives rigour somewhere to live.

📧 [email protected]

27/05/2026

Today was such a fun day, delivering a fully bespoke Project in a Day™ INSET at Melrose, The Ladies’ College, Guernsey, as part of their journey embedding their project-based learning approach across the pre and junior schools.

The example project centred around Guernsey wildlife and conservation, with staff stepping into role as part of “The Creative Conservation Studio”.

Across the day the team researched species, analysed sources, explored colour theory and composition, created artwork, wrote poetry, critiqued and redrafted work, and produced outcomes for a real audience and purpose.

Prepping for the day was a great reminder about how great it feels to think deeply about planning meaningful learning - no matter the age group or audience!

It was really interesting watching adults experience tiny moments that children navigate every single day:

* the excitement of a strong hook
* the anxiety of using a skill you don’t feel confident with (always drawing!)
* the balance of receiving, accepting or rejecting feedback
* the challenge navigating time restrictions when engrossed in something you’re enjoying
* the buzz of in-flow discussion and collaboration
* the satisfaction of creating something to feel proud of

It was great stepping in and out of the immersive experience together, then as educators, thinking about sequencing, scaffolding, critique, immersion, challenge, audience and purpose.

Huge thanks to the staff at Melrose for throwing themselves into the day with openness, thoughtfulness and energy.

If your school or setting is working on , , embedding or on your own journey, get in touch! 📧 [email protected] 🖥️ www.the-project-hub.co.uk

25/05/2026

All prepped for a full day’s training this week, delivering a bespoke Project in a Day™ in Guernsey!

Throughout the day we’ll toggle between a custom-designed conservation / science / English / art project celebrating Attenborough’s 100th, alongside professional learning around Project Based Learning and the impact it can have on learners.

With schools navigating how best to implement the Enrichment Entitlement, this approach to curriculum design weaves enrichment purposefully through the curriculum as a whole. Primary, secondary, further ed — the interdisciplinary, high-quality product and authentic audience approach places enrichment at the heart of learning, rather than as an added extra.

If your school is exploring this work, and bespoke whole-staff professional learning would help, get in touch! 📧 [email protected]

11/02/2026

⚙️ ⚙️

This one ended up being about legacy artefacts.

It was our first year as a fully built start-up school and my first year as Head of Middle School. I felt completely overwhelmed. Standing at the bottom of a very big mountain, basically.

That feeling became the spark for a whole-school mini project with surprisingly big impact.

Every coaching group from Year 5 to Year 8 was named after a mountain or mountain range. It started as a quiet nod to my own nerves and also felt like a safe bet. Mountains don’t tend to cause controversy.

Each founding middle school group learned about their mountain and co-designed a badge to represent both the place and their coaching group. What I loved was how collaborative it became. Lots of talk, negotiation, drafts, feedback, changing minds.

The final designs were never one child’s idea. They were genuinely shared.

When the badges were made and handed out, they became something more than a nice product. They became markers of belonging. Students collected one each year. Some wore them. Others kept them at home on badge banners.

Over time, little cultures formed around the names themselves, even as children and coaches changed. Certain mountains developed reputations. Some became leaders. Some dominated sports days. Some were just proud they could spell their name.

It reminded me how powerful naming and shared artefacts can be, especially at the start of something new. They anchor culture in quiet ways.

This is the kind of work I now do with schools. If it sounds useful, get in touch 📧
[email protected]
www.the-project-hub.co.uk

11/02/2026

⚙️ ⚙️

The conversation around the new autism-inclusive Barbie has been really interesting. Some people feel deeply seen by it. Others feel it risks reinforcing a narrow idea of what autism “looks like”.

It’s a useful reminder that representation isn’t one thing, even within the same community. Identity is layered and personal.

It took me back to a KS3 project we ran around the question: How important is it to be seen?

Students explored representation in the films, games and franchises they loved, asking whose stories were centred, sidelined or missing. Then they turned that lens on themselves and their communities.

After that, they became designers. They created original characters representing identities and experiences they felt were under-represented, complete with backstories and physical designs as custom Funko Pop figures.

We took the project to Comic-Con and something unexpected happened. Students with niche interests, often quieter or underestimated, became experts. Their knowledge mattered. Their voices carried weight.

The learning wasn’t about getting representation “right”. It was about listening, complexity and making space for more than one story to be true at the same time.

Thoughtful curriculum design shapes voice, belonging and culture. Always worth paying attention to.

11/02/2026

⚙️ ⚙️

This one started in the forest school during some extra playtime.

We’d just opened the green space at our inner London school, and I found myself watching Year 5 boys doing the kind of creative, collaborative play you usually reserve for EYFS - building, imagining, debating, problem-solving together.

One boy paused mid-run, crate under his arm, and said: “This is SO fun!”

It made me think of those old films where kids build soapbox racers and go-karts. Not really a UK (or Australian) thing - but the idea stuck.

That question became The Fast and the Physics:
How can we make our racer rule?

Working with a designer, we created bespoke, flat-pack, IKEA-style go-karts. Year 5 and Year 7 worked together in cross-phase teams. They were given the manuals, the materials, one big unsorted bag of fixings - and then we stepped back.

What followed was some of the most focused learning I’ve ever seen.

Children sorted bolts, tested friction, explored forces, decided rider–pusher combinations, designed branding, pitched to local businesses for sponsorship and raced their carts on a hired track.

Play became engineering.
Science became decision-making.
Learning felt completely real.

That’s how The Fast and the Physics became a project.

This is the kind of work I now do with schools - thinking carefully about culture, learning and how experiences are designed.
📧 [email protected]

AKtive Educational Consultancy Ltd

08/09/2026

08/09/2026

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

04/07/2026

27/05/2026

25/05/2026

11/02/2026

11/02/2026

11/02/2026

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