Ignite your child’s creativity at XP East!

At XP East, we believe that creativity is a powerful tool for learning, expression, and personal growth. Our Visual Arts Aptitude route offers a unique opportunity for Year 7 students with a natural flair for creativity to gain a place at a school where the arts are truly valued. 

This pathway is open to all children, no prior art training or experience required, just a passion for drawing, designing, and thinking creatively. 

Through an inspiring curriculum, expert support, and dynamic extra-curricular opportunities, students will develop their talents across a range of visual art disciplines. If your child loves to create, imagine, and explore the world through art, this is the perfect chance to help them shine. Click here to see highlights from our recent annual XP Festival of Arts and Culture – https://youtu.be/-tcB979lD_g

Apply now and let their creativity take centre stage! Find out more about this here: https://xptrust.info/XPEVA

Applying for a place at XP East – Fair Banding Assessment

To ensure a balanced intake of students across all ability levels, all applicants to an XP secondary school must sit a Fair Banding Assessment. 

This multiple-choice test focuses on non-verbal reasoning and helps us place students into one of five ability bands. There is no pass or fail, and results are used solely to support a broad and representative admissions process.

Completing the assessment is a key part of the application and must be done to be considered for a place. 

Please ensure your child is registered by 31st October 2025 and prepared to attend the assessment on 22nd November 2025.

Find out more here – https://xptrust.info/XPTFBA

If your child has an aptitude in visual arts, find out how to apply for a visual arts aptitude place at XP East here: https://xpeast.org/ignite-your-childs-creativity-at-xp-east/

Celebrating the power of inspiration: Exploring Black History Month.

Crew CSP have been honouring the remarkable achievements and contributions of black individuals who have shaped our world we live in today. This celebration is a powerful reminder of the importance and appreciating the experiences of black communities.

With this in mind, I set crew a challenge to research and write about an inspirational figure from Black History Month, exploring their life and lasting impact on society.

Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman are just some of the icons figures they chose to write about. Crew CSP took immense pride in their work and showcased their understanding.

Crew Dufton Takes on the “100 Skips a Day” Challenge for Cancer Research UK

This October, Crew Dufton are getting active for a cause close to all our hearts — we’re taking part in Cancer Research UK’s “100 Skips a Day” challenge! Cancer Research UK

Every member of our crew has committed to doing 100 skips (with a skipping rope) on each day in October, and raise funds to support life-saving cancer research.

Why we’re doing this:

  • Nearly 1 in 2 people will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. Cancer Research UK
  • Every penny we raise helps fund research grants, cancer nurses, and trials for new treatments. Cancer Research UK

We’ll encourage every member of the crew to track their 100 skips per day and share motivational updates, photos, and progress. We hope to show that when a community unites, even a small effort each day can add up to something powerful. We’ve set a goal of £130 (£10 per crew member raised). Please cheer us on, share our journey, or sponsor us — your support means everything.

Let’s skip for hope this October!

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/jodies-giving-page-3376

— Miss Buckley, Crew Dufton Crew Leader

XP Outdoors – Year 7 Take on the Mighty Task of Litter Picking

Last week, our Year 7 students took on the mighty task of litter picking in and around our school site. Armed with bags, gloves, and plenty of energy, they were eager to collect as much as possible and make a real difference to their environment.

From the very start, their enthusiasm shone through. Students worked together to ensure every corner was covered, leaving our school grounds looking truly impeccable. It was inspiring to see how committed they were to keeping not just our school, but the surrounding community, clean and litter-free.

Well done Year 7, you’ve set a fantastic example for the whole school community, showing that together we can take pride in our environment and play our part in protecting it.

Crew Dufton & Crew Windsor Wise Wednesday

Crew Dufton and Crew Windsor teamed up to tackle our Wise Wednesday topic last week. This was about managing stress in key stage 4. The students had some fantastic input into how easy it is to slip into stress creating habits – which is exactly what we need to avoid during our GCSE studies over the next two years! We collectively created an anchor chart to represent this! Well Done!

Crew Anning- GAS Y9

Crew Anning have kindly sorted through the lost property, and we now have a collection of unclaimed items ready to be returned. If you recognise any of the belongings, please ask your child to visit the East office to collect them.

Thanks Miss Askin and Crew Anning

PE this week W/C 29/9/25

Wednesday- Netball and boys football practice 3.30-4.30

Thursday – Cheerleading practice 3.30-4.30 and girls football practice 3.30-4.30

Please come along and join in.

Thanks Team PE

Sharing our Stories: 26/09/2025

Beautiful work this week

Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!

To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.

Top of the Blogs

Class 6’s visit to 1666 @ Green Top

Amazing craftsmanship and quality in home learning @ Plover

]Crazy Crew Challenge @ Carcroft School

Outstanding Craftsmanship and Quality in X29! @ XP

Crew Hoy – Not Passengers @ XP East

Continuing Our Marvellous ME Expedition @ Norton Infants

Weekly Update for Families @ XP Gateshead

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Crew Anning – GAS E30 (Y9)

Today our crew came together in the sports hall to celebrate a fantastic achievement – we’re still at the top of the Year 9 leaderboard for both attendance and praises! This is a real credit to everyone’s commitment and teamwork, and it was great to take a moment to recognise our success together with 208 praises as a crew and attendance at 97%.

I also had the chance to drop into some lessons and check through crew members’ books in Spanish and HUMS. It was brilliant to see the effort going into their work, the quality of what’s being produced, and the way everyone was engaging so positively in their learning.

I’m really proud of how our crew is focusing – let’s keep it up!

Thanks Miss Askin

Crew Hoy – Not Passengers

In crew today as part of Thoughtful Thursdays we considered if we are passengers or pilots of our crew boat. We used a paper boat to symbolise our crew and added pebbles to show how our poor choices may stop us floating.

It was a great reminder to us all that our actions have consequences and that we all need to work together to ensure our ship floats.

Mrs Desborough really enjoyed this session and it is something we will be repeating as part of our academic crew sessions.