XP East Year 9 students showed excellent focus and engagement during today’s DofE Skills session as they painted their model figures. The calm, purposeful atmosphere allowed students to concentrate, develop fine-detail techniques, and take pride in their work.
This creative activity supported key DofE skills such as patience, resilience, and self-motivation, with students demonstrating real commitment throughout the session.
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.
Key Stage 1 Community Crew @ Green Top
Fruit Tasting and Painting @ Plover
Sticky knowledge – Maths reasoning @ Carcroft School
Weekly Update for Families @ XP Gateshead
Maths, Mysteries and Masterminds @ Norton Infants
High Energy and Big Wins @ XP East
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!
On Thursday 12th February 2026, Year 10 will be taking part in fieldwork to Wabtec Rail – the former Doncaster Plant Works site.
This fieldwork has been planned to support their learning in History – to support their GCSE exam knowledge, and is a brilliant opportunity to bring the students’ learning to life in an exciting and engaging way. The experience will be used to support learning back in the classroom to help the children better understand the content and develop a deeper understanding of the Doncaster Plant Works, ready for their GCSE papers this summer.
Mrs Elliott’s class will depart school at 9:15am and our expected arrival time back at school is 12:00pm. Mrs Hannam’s class will depart school at 1:15pm and our expected arrival time back at school is 3:15pm.
Lunches will not be affected by this fieldwork. We have secured a coach to take us to and from Wabtec Rail.
Students will need the following equipment: charged devices, pen, pencil, ruler, water bottle – and anything else needed daily.
If you have any questions about this fieldwork, please contact me on [email protected] or get in touch with your child’s crew leader.
With thanks,
Sarah Hannam
What a difference forty-eight hours makes! After a fantastic start to our Pila adventure, the transformation in our students is nothing short of incredible.
Yesterday was a true “mountain milestone” day. Under stunningly clear blue skies, we faced our first full day on the slopes. As expected, there were plenty of falls and even more laughs, but amidst the snow-dusted jackets was some excellent technique. Every single staff member was blown away by the headway the students made; their determination to get back up and try again was the highlight of the day.
To celebrate a successful day of skiing, we headed into town last night for a legendary pizza night. It was a sea of smiling faces and “unlimited” slices, fueled by plenty of drinks and topped off with a well-earned round of Italian ice cream. It was the perfect way to recharge the batteries and bond as a group away from the chairlifts.
We returned to the slopes this morning with a newfound confidence. The improvement was visible from the first run—so much so that the groups were able to move considerably further up the mountain. As staff, we couldn’t be prouder. Beyond their skiing ability, the students are conducting themselves with maturity and spirit. They are representing the school brilliantly, getting better with every turn, and looking out for one another every step of the way.
After another trip into the local town for some post-ski gelato (you can never have too much ice cream in Italy!), we’ve headed back for our evening meal. The students are now settling down, resting those hard-working legs, and getting ready for another intense, high-energy day tomorrow.
See some of the fun we’ve been having. Congratulations to our Golder Skier and Moose of the day yesterday!
See more of our photos in the gallery below.
After a 22 hour journey across the UK, France, and Switzerland we have finally arrived safe and sound in Pila. We had a nice lunch, before heading to get fitted for our ski equipment. This evening gave us the opportunity to unpack and relax before our first full day of skiing. We look forward to keeping you updated!
The ski trip to Italy is on its way – lots of happy excited children and staff.
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.
Extended Study Learning @ Green Top
Amazing home learning in Year 6 @ Plover
Baking biscuits @ Carcroft School
Weekly Update for Families @ XP Gateshead
Crew Hamilton: Orienteering Extraordinaires @ Norton Infants
Academic Thursday in Crew White @ XP East
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!
1 more sleep until the Ski trip departs. Hope everyone is excited.
Quick notice regarding departure time from XP. Can you get to XP School at 12.30pm. This allows us to load the coach at 1pm and depart at 1.30pm. Please enter through the normally car park entrance.
Students will need to wear their ski hoodies to travel in.
Please make sure you have all your child’s medication clearly labelled with a copy of their prescription.
See you all tomorrow.
It has been a fantastic week of sport and leadership at XP. We started the week with badminton practice where we saw some great shots from students across all year groups. In PE lessons students in Year 10 and Year 11 took part in glow in the dark zumba with Abbie from Legacy Sport, some even led their own routine.
On Wednesday we hosted The Laurel Academy who played our year 7 and 8 netball team. Year 7’s started with a fast paced game with lots of goals but unfortunately could not quite catch the year 7 Laurel team, we had some outstanding performances and never gave up. Well done to our Sport leader who umpired the whole game. The year 8’s were up next and what an exciting game it was, both teams delivered some excellent plays. XP had the final edge and won 7-6 with some great teamwork performances. Well done to our players of the match.
On Thursday XP hosted Legacy Sport for their primary basketball event with the support of our Year 10 BTEC Sport leaders. Not only did the students show teamwork, communication and a positive motivating attitude they were also fantastic role models.
Thursday also saw the Key stage 3 badminton team go to the finals at Outwood adwick where a mixture of year 7-9’s played a variety of school. There were some fantastic shots played and outstanding teamwork performances.
The year 7 football team also took a trip to Outwood Adwick to play a variety of school. The first game saw a great goal as Mr Currie said an “absolute belter of goal” and a winning 1-0 victory.
Next week in PE W/C 26th Jan
Wednesday- Netball practice 3.30-4.30
Thursday – Year 9 netball tournament away return at 5.30. Cheerleading practice 3.30-4.30
Have a lovely long weekend.
Team PE
