From August we are encouraging as many of our students to walk, bike or be dropped off in a car to get to and from school due to the current risks. However, we know that this is not always possible so some of our students will still need to use public transport.

For those who will need to use public transport, we advise parents and students to familiarise themselves with the government advice on using public transport and the use of face coverings.

We will be providing the details of this survey to the public transport providers so they can plan for the demand. We will be advising them of any changes to our start and end times also.

All students from all year groups including our new year 7’s should fill this in.

Deadline is Wednesday 9th July 2020 for all responses.

I’m sure parents will be aware of the recent announcement by the Government about all students returning to school for the new academic school year.

Yesterday, new guidance was released which provides specific details on some of the procedural aspects concerning the return. This is a 41 page document which needs careful consideration by our Leadership Team, and will take some time to fully digest – there is lots of hard work ahead of us.

I intend to be able to provide details of the measures that we will be taking in a published plan which will be available for the final week of this term. I can reassure parents that our decision making process will always consider what is best for our students, within the local context of Doncaster – not the national one.

It’s been a long time coming, but we are hoping that there is some light at the end of the tunnel as we have really missed our students. Please stick with us for the next week or so in order to ensure that we get this right.

Best wishes, Jamie Portman (Principal of XP and XP East)

Good afternoon. We are really looking forward to welcoming our new students to school via google hangouts tomorrow on Friday 3rd July.

We know that some families have been having problems accessing the Google Classrooms which have been set up by the Local Authority. This is understandable given that we have never set up this type of provision across the whole of Doncaster before, and we would like to thank the Local Authority for the huge amount of work they have put into the transition events across all schools in the borough.

We have come up with a solution using our own Google apps. Students in each group should be able to use the same link to join our hangouts throughout the day tomorrow.

The first session will start at 10.00am on Friday 3rd July

The second session will start at 1.15pm on Friday 3rd July

To find which group your child is in, please look for your child’s initials alongside their Primary school.  Children from the same Primary school have been put in different groups where possible to enable them to meet other new students.

E27 XP East group 1 – Use this link to join the Google Hangouts throughout the day.

E27 XP East group 2 – Use this link to join the Google Hangouts throughout the day.

E27 XP East group 3 – Use this link to join the Google Hangouts throughout the day.

If you have any queries about your son or daughter’s group, please email gvayro@xpschool.org .

Hi everyone,

please find below the student overview for week beginning Monday 29th June.

Hi everyone,

please find below the student overview for week beginning Monday 22nd June.

Please note that Friday 26th June and Monday 29th June are Staff Days. During this period, our staff will be working on preparations for the new Y7 Transition process, next expedition planning and a wide range of other operational and development aspects of our work.

Hi everyone,

please find below the student overview for this week.

Building on the updates from 12th May and 28th May, I would like to further update parents of Y10 and Y12 students regarding extending our in-school provision. 

You may remember that the Government had requested secondary schools to offer ‘some face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of Year 10 and Year 12 students’  from 1st June. However, after liaising with XP Trust school leaders and the Local Authority, we decided not to reopen and review this in mid June.

I can confirm that we are ready to open up on Monday 15th June pending advice on the local situation from Public Health Doncaster. The most up to date local information is not yet available, but this will be communicated to all Headteachers of Doncaster’s schools late on Wednesday. As a result, we will be in a position to confirm whether we will go ahead with reopening for Y10 and Y12 by Friday morning at the latest. However, I would like to reiterate that any decision will be taken in light of the specific region of Doncaster, not the national picture as a whole.

I know that this update does not give parents the precise information that they need, but we feel that it is important to keep everyone informed about developments.

If we do open, the provision will focus on those Y10 and Y12 students who are most at risk of falling behind. Attendance will not be compulsory, and we totally respect any decision that parents make. The provision would revolve around a light touch approach to helping students to assess what they have done, what they might be struggling with and what they could do in the weeks ahead. 

Whilst we would not be in a position to offer traditional lessons, we would be able to provide support for those students who have struggled to stay on top of their workload, or feel overwhelmed with what they need to do to catch up. Attendance would be no more than one or two days a week, and our online educational provision involving the use of Google Classroom, videos, teacher tutorials, Hegarty Maths, and Crew video hangouts will continue throughout. 

Again, if we do reopen on Monday 15th June I will provide parents with details of the extensive changes that we have made to the physical environment and working protocols. These are already in place due to our in-school provision for children of key workers, and all staff are familiar with them.

Crew Leaders and XP16 staff continue to be the points of contact for any questions, and they will be in touch with the parents of any students who have been identified as needing support the most.

If you have not already done so, could parents please complete this parental survey, as it will further help our preparations.

Best wishes, Jamie Portman (Principal of XP and XP East)

Please find below the student overview for week beginning Monday 8th June.

In light of recent events, we would like to send our heartfelt sadness and profound solidarity and support to our friends, colleagues and the wider community in the USA. The murder of George Floyd, alongside countless other black Americans, has once again highlighted to the world that racism is deeply rooted in all our institutions and communities. In light of this murder and other unnecessary acts of grievous and unconscionable violence, we are resolved to do more, as educators, to fight prejudice in all its forms, question our role in this and be determined to bring about positive change to eradicate racism and prejudice in all its forms.

Our curriculum is deeply rooted in developing community and building social equity and we have never shied away from facing and challenging what is unacceptable in our global, national and local community. We believe that the knowledge we acquire becomes powerful only when it is used to bring about positive social change so that we become better people and our world becomes a better place. As such, as a Trust, we feel it our responsibility to do more; not just to speak out against prejudice and injustice but be determined to do more to actively change the way we work, how we work, what we learn and how we affect positive change.

Our students already learn about racial inequality by studying the role of the British in the formulation of the slave trade and their part in the triangular trading of humans in the 18th century. We link this to the inhumane treatment of black communities in the USA in the 19th and 20th Centuries and their suffering at the hands of perverse attitudes and laws during this time. We study and celebrate the Civil Rights movement in the USA and the significant role it played, and continues to play, in fighting for equality and justice. Also, in Crew sessions across our Trust, there is a strong focus on equity justice and we constantly promote respect and tolerance.  

However, we feel  that we could do much more to highlight and change the systemic and institutional racism that exists in our own country by focusing more on how and why black people have been historically and more recently let down by our institutions and systems in the UK.  

Therefore, today we pledge to review our curriculum at all phases, as well as our own understanding of racism, to integrate more consciously opportunities to educate our students about racial injustice. We will use experts to support us to challenge and confront racism and through this learning act to bring about more equity in our communities.  

We stand with our friends who are fighting this injustice in the USA, in the UK and the wider world.

We stand with our friends and we pledge to act and do more to reflect on the history and actions of our own communities and institutions in the UK and how we can actively make them more socially equitable and more just for all.

As per our announcement to review the reopening of our schools for Y10 and Y12 students in mid-June, we would like to gain your opinions on providing ‘some face to face’ provision. 

Although we are still exploring options for what this provision would look like (and the frequency in which some students could come back into school) I would be grateful if all parents of Y10 (XP) and Y12 (XP16 at XP East) would please complete this survey. 

We will continue to keep everyone updated on any potential plans.