Beyond The Frame

We can't [...] until [...]

Two weeks of rewrites. Some stories hold us together. Others hold us back.

May 14 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

April 2025

🇺🇸 Uncommon, unsettled, unresolved

I went to New York City looking for answers and all I got was a brand new bunch of questions to mull over and over and over and over and over and over…

Apr 17 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

How to build a mandate for change (when no one’s asking for one)

No crisis? No permission? No problem.

Apr 13 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

March 2025

The false economies we can’t afford

Making space for what really matters

Mar 30 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

Please hold, your future is important to us

A fresh look at schools through the lens of queueing theory—exploring how visible and invisible waits shape young people’s experience, and what we might…

Mar 23 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

Re-designing school trusts from first principles

Deliberately structured to remove friction, unlock potential, and make it easier for the people closest to children to do their best work.

Mar 22 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

The problem with Brutalism, Brasília and blueprints

Schools are complex systems—let’s stop managing them like machines

Mar 1 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

February 2025

Preface: Beyond The Blueprint

Schools are complex, adaptive systems yet we manage them as if they were machines. This series explores how trust structures can evolve—moving from…

Feb 26 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

A service designer, a behavioural economist and a mediator walk into Parents’ Evening…

What would Parents' Evening look like if we designed for the edges?

Feb 19 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

Apollo 13 & the linear illusion

Leading in a polycrisis

Feb 9 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

1

The allure of behavioural solutions

Matryoshka dolls, Bronfenbrenner and systemic change

Feb 2 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick

January 2025

Preface: Beyond The Obvious

This is a short(ish) personal reflection on how challenging it can be to look 'beyond the frame' (even when I've expressly said that is what I want to…

Jan 30 • 

Sam Fitzpatrick