Strategic Subtraction, Teaching Sprints, and Pruning: How Schools Create Space to Improve with Simon Breakspear, Mind the Gap, Ep.113 (S6,E11)
Episode description
On this episode of Mind the Gap, Tom Sherrington is joined by Dr Simon Breakspear - educational researcher, author, and system leader based in Australia - for a wide-ranging conversation about how improvement actually happens at scale. Together they explore Simon’s distinctive role working across classrooms, schools, networks, and entire systems, and why sustainable change depends less on policy mandates and more on relationships, trust, and practical tools that respect teachers’ limited bandwidth. The discussion digs into two of Simon’s best-known ideas: pruning - a disciplined approach to strategic subtraction that tackles overload and “additivitis” - and Teaching Sprints, a short-cycle, evidence-informed model for collective professional learning that prioritises deliberate practice over sprawling initiatives. Moving fluidly between the macro view of systems and the micro detail of meetings, habits, and classroom routines, this episode offers a clear-eyed account of how leaders can reduce noise, focus effort, and create the conditions for meaningful, long-term improvement.
Dr Simon Breakspear is a researcher, advisor and speaker on educational leadership, policy and change. Simon develops frameworks and tools that make evidence-based ideas actionable and easy to understand. Over the last decade his capability building work has given him the opportunity to work with over 100,000 educators across more than 10 countries. Simon is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at UNSW. He serves as an advisor to the NSW Department of Education and sits on an expert steering committee for the Australia Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Simon received his BPsych (Hons) from UNSW, his MSc in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford and his PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge. Simon began his work in education as a high school teacher.
Tom Sherrington has worked in schools as a teacher and leader for 30 years and is now a consultant specialising in teacher development and curriculum & assessment planning. He regularly contributes to conferences and CPD sessions locally and nationally and is busy working in schools and colleges across the UK and around the world. Follow Tom on X @teacherhead
This podcast is sponsored by Teaching WalkThrus and produced in association with Haringey Education Partnership. Find out more at https://walkthrus.co.uk/ and https://haringeyeducationpartnership.co.uk/