GSW2: Live Class or Text Lesson, Why not both?
GREY MATTERS • IN CONVERSATION
Headmaster Kingsley discusses the revised teaching plan and the growing role of GSW Mobile in supporting Wizards beyond their studies.
An ambitious plan for a school eventually has to meet the lives of the people who will carry it forward. At The Grey School, recent conversations about live instruction have brought that meeting into rather clearer focus.
During Conclave and in discussions across the School community, pupils spoke about their enthusiasm for learning directly with Faculty. They also spoke about work schedules and family obligations, and how much rearranging an entire curriculum of live classes might require. Those conversations helped Headmaster Nicholas Kingsley refine the proposed transition, concentrating required live teaching on Core Classes while preserving text-based elective and specialist study.
Alongside that decision, another part of the School’s future has been taking shape. GSW Mobile is developing into a way for members to carry their connection with the School into daily life, with opportunities for Journeymen to continue participating as they put their education to use.
Together, these developments raise a larger question about what the School can become for its members over the years. An Apprentice needs teaching and guidance while learning the Trade. A Journeyman needs opportunities to practice, build experience, and remain connected with people who understand the work.
In this interview, Headmaster Kingsley talks through how those parts of the School’s next chapter are beginning to come together.
Grey Matters: You’ve revised the plan for moving classes into live instruction. What brought you to that decision?
Headmaster Kingsley: Well, I had some very good conversations with pupils at Conclave, and others around vGSW and the School Site, that gave me quite a bit to think about. Faculty had useful observations as well. These were things I’d considered, but hearing people explain how the change would affect their own lives brought them into rather clearer focus.
Our pupils are adults with busy lives. They love their studies, and many are already taking what they learn out into the world. I’m very pleased about that, because I’d like their education to have a useful place in the lives they’re living.
Very few of the people I spoke with felt they could attend all their classes if everything moved live. Some talented pupils were beginning to consider which family obligations they might have to drop to keep up, and that gave me pause.
Now, I do think education is important. Sometimes other parts of our lives have to give a little while we pursue a goal. At the same time, I don’t want the School asking for more sacrifice than the education actually requires.
I’m still very fond of the idea of more classes being live. I simply think we need to bend to reality a little in deciding how much of that participation we require.
Grey Matters: What will the revised arrangement look like?
Headmaster Kingsley: The Core Classes will move into live instruction, and we’ll add between two and four new Core Classes to cover gaps in the shared curriculum. Electives and courses within a pupil’s major or minor will remain text based.
Every class will still have work submitted for Faculty assessment. That includes the live classes, of course. Coming to class gives us time to teach together, and the associated coursework remains part of the pupil’s education.
The Outgoing Wizardry Exams will also become live and proctored. I think the Core Classes and the OWE give us a sensible middle ground: regular opportunities to know our pupils as they learn, followed by a direct examination of their understanding at the end.
There will be other live courses, and I intend for those offerings to grow over time. We’re also developing a more straightforward way for pupils to request courses and for Faculty to propose and create them.
The Magister structure and read-only Scholar path remain part of the plan as well. There’s still a good deal moving forward.
Grey Matters: Why are Core Classes the right place to concentrate required live teaching?
Headmaster Kingsley: Because that’s the foundation we’re asking every Apprentice to share. Whatever someone eventually chooses as their major, there are things we expect them to understand as a pupil of this School.
Teaching the Core live gives Faculty repeated opportunities to find out how pupils are getting on. We can hear someone explain an idea and follow up when their answer raises another question. Sometimes you discover that a pupil understands something rather better than their writing suggested. Sometimes a confident answer needs a little more work underneath it.
Those are useful things to discover while you’re teaching someone.
Pupils also benefit from hearing one another. Someone asks a question they hadn’t thought to raise, or brings an experience into the discussion that helps the subject make sense.
The additional Core Classes are intended to strengthen that shared foundation. Their subjects and placement still need to be settled, and each addition needs a clear educational purpose. A required course asks for a pupil’s time and a Faculty member’s continuing attention, so it should earn its place.
Grey Matters: How much did the School’s resources influence the decision?
Headmaster Kingsley: Quite a lot, and I think we should be fairly plain about that.
Moving all the classes live would cost more than we can presently afford. Even if we solved that part, the amount of teaching involved would leave us with very little room to do much else.
Much of it is technically possible. Our technology has improved considerably, and we have the means to bring people together. Once you begin looking at the timetable, though, you also have to ask who’s preparing each class and who’s available to teach it. Then you have to find times that pupils can actually attend.
Meanwhile, the rest of the School still needs attention.
I have quite a few things I’d like us to accomplish, as people may have noticed. GSW Mobile is a good example of the sort of development that also requires our time. We need enough room to improve the institution while carrying out its ordinary teaching responsibilities.
I want us to make commitments we can sustain. Concentrating required live instruction on the Core gives us a sound place to begin and room to keep developing.
Grey Matters: How will Faculty assess specialist learning when major and minor courses remain text based?
Headmaster Kingsley: Well, that’s what grading is there for, really.
Pupils will continue to read their lessons and submit the assigned work. Faculty will assess it, provide feedback, and expect the course requirements to be met. If a submission shows that something hasn’t been understood, that needs attention while the pupil is working through the class.
We already have a teaching process for that, and it will continue doing its work.
There’s also a great deal to be said for having time to sit with a subject. A pupil can return to a lesson, think through what they’ve read, and develop a response with care. Written study gives people room to do that, and Faculty assessment helps make sure the work is taking them somewhere useful.
The live Core Classes will give us further opportunities to know our pupils and hear their reasoning. The OWE will provide a final examination of their understanding, including their command of the major.
I’m comfortable with that combination. It gives us continuing assessment throughout the studies and direct contact at appropriate points.
Grey Matters: What are you considering for the Outgoing Wizardry Exams, particularly in light of AI?
Headmaster Kingsley: They’ll become live and proctored, and I’m considering a spoken format.
I rather like the opportunity to ask someone to explain what they know and then follow the conversation where it needs to go. You can ask why they’ve reached a conclusion, or how they would apply an idea, and hear them work through it.
AI is part of the reason we’re considering these questions. A polished submission can leave an educator wondering how much of the understanding belongs to the person submitting it. That’s a reasonable concern to address.
A spoken examination wouldn’t make cheating impossible, of course. What interests me is having a fuller picture of the pupil’s learning. We’ll have their assessed coursework, and live Core instruction will give Faculty regular opportunities to hear them discuss and apply the material.
The final examination can then draw on that longer educational process.
The spoken format remains under consideration. We’ll publish the examination format and implementation arrangements when they’re settled, with clear guidance on what pupils should expect.
Grey Matters: GSW Mobile seems to bring a much wider ambition into this conversation. Where does it fit within GSW2?
Headmaster Kingsley: It’s becoming a very important part of it.
The app began with a fairly modest idea: making it easier to listen to GSW Radio on a phone. As we worked on it, it became apparent how much more useful it could be. We already had parts of School life spread across different places, and here was an opportunity to bring more of that connection into something people could carry with them.
For pupils, that means easier access to School information and resources, with the academic side continuing to develop. It gives us another place to make participation more convenient and help people keep up with what’s happening.
But I’m especially interested in what it can do for Journeymen.
We spend a considerable amount of time helping someone learn the Trade. Once they’ve earned their Letter, I’d like the School to remain useful to them as they begin putting that education to work. They should have ways to stay connected, find opportunities to participate, and continue developing alongside other Wizards.
That’s a substantial part of the larger GSW2 vision. We’re considering how someone learns here and how the School can continue supporting them once they’ve completed the Apprenticeship.
Grey Matters: What would you like that relationship with Journeymen to become?
Headmaster Kingsley: I’d like it to feel as though they’ve entered a further stage of their relationship with the School.
Earning the Journeyman Letter is an accomplishment. By then, someone has devoted a substantial amount of time to their education, and they ought to be able to look back on that work with some satisfaction. There’s also a great deal ahead of them, because experience has a way of asking questions that a lesson can only begin to prepare you for.
A Journeyman will encounter situations where they have to decide how to use what they know. They’ll discover areas they want to study more deeply and occasions when another Wizard’s perspective would be helpful.
I’d like us to provide more support around that stage. Continued study should be available, and there should be worthwhile ways to participate in the wider community as people gain experience.
We already have the Journeyman path toward the Master’s Letter. GSW Mobile gives us room to develop more of the everyday connection around that longer journey.
I think there’s considerable value in knowing that the School is still there, and that there are people you can continue learning and working alongside.
Grey Matters: What might that look like in an ordinary week for someone using the app?
Headmaster Kingsley: Well, they might find an Undertaking that gives them a reason to investigate a subject or do something useful with their learning. A Waysite might draw their attention to a place worth exploring. They might use the reference material because a question has come up in something they’re doing.
The Towers are another part I’m keen on. They give people a way to bring others together around an activity or a request for participation. That could be a study group, some shared work, or simply an opportunity to spend time together.
And I do mean ordinary social occasions as well. If people want to arrange a movie night or a gathering, that can have a perfectly good place in community life. People become familiar with one another through those smaller occasions, and that familiarity can be useful when there’s more substantial work to do.
Someone with a full working life may have an afternoon available rather than time to take another course. I’d like the app to help them find useful ways to remain involved on that scale.
GSW Mobile is still in beta, so we’re continuing to develop it and learn from how people use it. The direction, though, is to make that wider life of the School easier to participate in.
Grey Matters: How do Prestige and the developing Journeyman features fit into that?
Headmaster Kingsley: Prestige gives us a way to recognise qualifying contributions as Journeymen participate. I’m interested in giving that continuing work some visibility, because a great deal can happen after someone earns their Letter that would otherwise remain fairly disconnected from the School.
Over time, someone builds experience through what they do and how they conduct themselves. Other people begin to know whether they’re dependable and whether their judgment is useful. That’s part of how a Wizard develops a reputation.
I’d like the Journeyman side of the app to support that development, with a clearer sense of continuing progress and opportunities for greater responsibility within the community.
There’s quite a bit of potential there. As that part of the system develops, it can help give shape to the years between completing the Apprenticeship and becoming a more experienced practitioner.
The important thing is that the activity remains worthwhile. I want people to have reasons to participate because the work is useful and the relationships matter to them. Recognition should help us acknowledge what they’re contributing.
Grey Matters: Does that change how we should understand the Apprenticeship itself?
Headmaster Kingsley: I think it helps us see more clearly what we’re preparing people for.
The Apprenticeship gives pupils a foundation in the Trade, with Faculty guiding their learning and assessing their progress. What follows is the continuing work of applying that education and becoming more experienced in its use.
When we consider both stages together, some of our decisions become clearer. We want pupils to spend enough time with Faculty to receive proper guidance. We also want them to develop the independence to continue learning when a teacher isn’t setting out the next assignment.
That’s another reason I’m comfortable retaining substantial written study. Pupils have to organise their time and work through material with care, while live Core instruction gives us regular opportunities to meet and examine their understanding together.
Then, through GSW Mobile and the wider Journeyman community, we can continue building opportunities for them to use that foundation.
Wizardry is a Trade, and I’d like the School’s arrangements to reflect the longer course of learning and practice that comes with it.
Grey Matters: What does this mean for Faculty and the other study paths?
Headmaster Kingsley: Faculty will continue to have substantial work within the written curriculum. Electives and major and minor courses still need their attention, and pupils will continue to need useful feedback.
Those teaching the Core will provide scheduled live instruction, and we’ll need Faculty involvement in the live, proctored examinations. Further teaching opportunities will develop as we expand other live offerings.
Current Faculty who wish to remain part of the School will continue to have a place in that work. People bring different expertise and availability, and we should make good use of that when organising our teaching.
The Magister Program will continue developing as a structured path of independent study, with written work and Faculty review central to it. Clearer requirements and formal stages of review, including proctored examinations, will support the developing track toward the Magister Letter.
The Scholar path will provide organised, read-only access to selected materials. Some people want a course of reading without entering an assessed program, and I think there’s value in making that available while keeping the privileges and responsibilities of enrollment clear.
Grey Matters: What should current Apprentices expect as the transition approaches?
Headmaster Kingsley: Their completed work and earned academic standing will be recognised. They’ve put time and effort into getting where they are, and we’ll carry that progress forward.
New Apprentices will enter the revised structure in Summer Term 2027. Current Apprentices will have the 2027 transition window to prepare, with the live Core requirements taking effect for them in Winter Term 2028.
The transition concerns Core Classes. Electives and courses within a major or minor will remain text based, so much of a current pupil’s study will continue in a familiar way.
If someone is partway through a Core Class when the transition takes effect, they’ll begin the live version from its opening sequence while retaining their overall academic standing. The FAQ explains that arrangement, and further guidance will help pupils understand how the requirements apply to their remaining work.
We’ll publish the OWE implementation arrangements separately, along with further information about the additional Core Classes as those decisions are settled.
Grey Matters: When you look at all of this together, what kind of School are you hoping to build?
Headmaster Kingsley: One that remains useful to people as their lives develop.
An Apprentice needs teaching and enough guidance to build a sound foundation. Later, as a Journeyman, that same person may be looking for an opportunity to put their skills to use or for people with whom they can discuss what experience is teaching them. Their relationship with the School should have room to develop with them.
That’s what makes GSW Mobile so interesting to me. It gives us another means of supporting that continuing relationship, and we’ve only begun exploring what we can do with it.
The conversations at Conclave also reminded me that our pupils are already carrying their studies into full lives. They’re applying what they learn while meeting responsibilities to other people. We should pay attention to that, because it tells us something about where the education is going.
I’m still keen to expand live teaching, and I have plenty of ambition for the School. This revised plan gives us a more sensible way to pursue it while leaving room to develop what comes after the Apprenticeship.
I’d like someone to earn their Journeyman Letter, go out into the world with confidence, and continue finding the School useful years later. There’s a great deal of work involved in making that possible, but I think we’re beginning to give it a much clearer shape.
Explore the School’s next chapter
The revised teaching plan and full transition FAQ are available on the GSW2 page. Members can explore the developing GSW Mobile beta at mobile.greyschool.org.
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