Wed- Netball practice 3.30-4.30
Thursday- Cheerleading practice 3.30-4.30
Reminder: Applying for a place at XP Secondary Schools – 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. Completing the assessment is a key part of the application and must be done to be considered for a place.
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.
Key Dates:
- Registration Deadline: 31st October 2026
- Assessment Date: 21st November 2026
Find out more and complete your registration here:https://xptrust.info/XPTFBA
Crew Rosa Parkes
It has been an action-packed term for Rosa Parkes! The students have hit the ground running, tackling new subjects and fully immersing themselves in their GCSE courses. It really has been non-stop, and their hard work is absolutely paying off. I am bursting with pride over the praise our students have received this term, and I couldn’t wait to share some of these highlights with you!
Students have been completing extended study in Maths and Science, working really hard on SPARX and Tassami. All this hard-work will help you prepare for your GCSE’s
Netball superstars
This week in netball, our Year 7 and Year 9/10 teams took to the court against Sir Thomas Wharton. Across both teams, our students demonstrated fantastic teamwork, clear communication, and a fierce determination to succeed!
The Year 9/10 team played first, delivering a match filled with outstanding netball from both schools. Our attack was absolutely on fire, and while the game was fiercely contested, XP/XP East ultimately secured a hard-fought victory.
It was also a milestone week for our new Year 7 squad, who played their very first game together. The students did a brilliant job, testing out new positions and experimenting with different formations on the court. We can’t wait to see how they continue to develop!
Sharing our Stories: 16/10/2026
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
Wise Wednesday @ Norton Infants
Authors, illustrators and now educators! @ Norton Juniors
C33 engage with Bayeux Tapestry live @ XP East
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
XP East Lost Property
Please check out the current lost property haul at XP East.
If you can see an item that belongs to your child, it will be left out till the end of the day. Please inform your child’s crew leader if you need to claim items.
All items will be donated to charity if it is not claimed.
Thanks
C33 engage with Bayeux Tapestry live
This morning, C33 students had the opportunity to engage with a British Museum broadcast exploring the Bayeux Tapestry.
As part of our expedition, students had already explored why the tapestry was created. The broadcast deepened their understanding by examining different scenes, the purpose behind its creation and the importance of historical sources in helping us understand the past.
This was a valuable opportunity for students to build on their existing knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of how historians use sources to investigate and interpret history.
We Build the Bridge, You Take the Steps: Empowerment in Leadership and Learning
Over the past few days, we’ve been engaged in some deeply important work with leaders across our school. It has been an opportunity to step back, refine our vision, and realign on a fundamental principle that drives everything we do—from executive leadership down to every single classroom:
Empowerment is not execution.
In supporting our leaders, we have anchored our approach around four non-negotiable commitments:
- We model and provide frameworks, but we do not do your work for you.
- We lower barriers and build competence, but we do not do the work for you.
- We are your advocate and open doors, but we do not do the work for you.
- We support and challenge you to remove obstacles, but we do not do the work for you.
This isn’t about stepping back or withholding support. On the contrary—it takes far more intention to build capacity in others than it does to simply step in and do the job ourselves. True leadership isn’t about creating dependency; it’s about fostering agency, capability, and confidence.
The Parallel in the Classroom
What strikes me most about this core leadership practice is how precisely they reflect our core philosophy. The exact same culture we build with our leaders is the culture we cultivate with our students every single day.
When we look at how we set our students up for long-term success, the mirror image is undeniable:
- In Lessons: We model high-quality thinking and provide structured frameworks (scaffolds, sentence stems, worked examples) so students can see what excellence looks like. But when it comes to the independent practice, we hand the responsibility back to them. They must attempt the cognitive heavy lifting whilst we remove any barriers.
- In Extended Study: We offer extended study opportunities and open doors to enrichment that broaden horizons and spark ambition. We create the access, and the students commit the effort.
- In Removing Barriers: We lower barriers, ensuring every student has the tools, technology, and environment they need to thrive. We listen, adapt, and challenge them to overcome obstacles, but the resilience must be theirs to build.
Student Agency
If we solve every problem for our leaders or for our students, we remove the struggle required to grow. Real competence — the kind that lasts long after a meeting finishes or an assessment is completed —comes from grappling with challenges within a secure, high-support environment.
We will advocate for you. We will clear the path. We will show you what success looks like and walk alongside you as you tackle hard things. But the journey, the effort, and ultimately the pride of achievement must belong to you.
Whether in the leadership team or in the classroom, our mission remains the same: high support, high challenge, total ownership.
Lost Property – XP East
Please see the attached photos for items currently in lost property at XP East.
If your child has lost an item, please encourage them to visit reception alongside a member of staff to locate and retrieve it. All remaining lost property will also be displayed at the end of term for students to view and collect.
Important: Any items left unclaimed by Friday 16th October will be donated to charity.
If you need any support, please review the photos and reach out to your child’s Crew Leader.
Thank you
English Visit to XPD
Today I had the pleasure of visiting XP and XP East to complete English walk throughs and review our students’ books.
Across year 7, with both Mrs Poncia and Miss Johnson, I was able to see some beautiful narratives being carefully crafted. Students were incorporating a range of tier 2 vocabulary and were redrafting key paragraphs based on specific feedback from their teacher. It was fantastic to see the students so engaged and working so meticulously.
In year 8, Mr Wilmot’s Explorer class showed superb recall of key details from their anchor text. They were all working diligently and offering wonderful contributions and ideas. Their books were also very good and showed some high levels of productivity.
In year 9, Miss Wilkinson and her Pioneer class were considering how the character of Jack had changed from the beginning of Lord of the Flies to chapter 8. They could clearly recall key events and were curious when asking clarifying questions about key vocabulary. They then used this vocabulary to support their choices about the character. Additionally, the maps they have created of the island are fantastic!
Finally in year 10, both Ms Cross and Miss Buckley’s Skipper and Explorer classes were grappling with annotating a key poem from their GCSE anthologies. In Skipper students offered some stunning inferences carefully considering the context and motivations of the poets. Whereas in Explorer students summarised key contextual information on the background of Wilfred Owen and practiced their subject terminology skills.
All in all it was a pleasure to be in all these classrooms. In every room the atmosphere was positive and enthusiastic and students were engaged.
Well done Team English from Mrs Desborough (Trust Leader of English)
