Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome back – we hope you have all enjoyed your Easter break! We have loved welcoming our students back yesterday for the start of the Summer Term at XP and XP East and can’t wait to see them engage in all the exciting experiences we have planned.
Please be reminded of a few things as we move into the Summer Term.
PUNCTUALITY
School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:30 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.30am for the call to Crew.
DAILY KIT LIST
As always, students need to bring a school bag with:
- School bag
- Water bottle
- A fully charged & appropriate device (a phone is not suitable for learning)
- Locker key
- A reading book from their AR book level (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read 20 mins of their own AR book each day). Ask your child (or child’s crew leader) if you are unsure of your child’s book level.
- Pen, Pencil, Ruler (in a pencil case where possible)
- PE Kit (on specific days)
- Outdoor kit (on specific days)
Our full equipment list with further exemplification can be found on the website for each school (here)
DRESS CODE
As always, we ask students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly. We regularly remind students of our dress code within crew and community meetings. Please support us by reminding your children of this at home as the weather improves.
See link here to details on dress code from our website.
THIS WEEK
NEW TERM – NEW EXPEDITIONS
A new term means new and exciting expeditions for many of our students (C27 have a few weeks left of their Spring term expedition). As always, immersion takes place this week for those starting their new expeditions and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring. We can’t wait to welcome you to the Presentations of Learning at the end of term, including our annual Climate Conference which is currently developing.
C26 Work Experience Launch
Parents of C26 students are invited to school for the C26’s work placement information evening which starts at 5pm on Tuesday 18th April. Please make your way to XPE stairs for this event. The evening will provide you with detailed information on the work experience process, including: 1:1 career advice available in school, expectations, finding a placement, roles and duties as well as the all important health & safety measures of the placement.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
Mr Stables is finalising the summer term enrichment programmes this week and this will be published on the website later this week.
C25 update
Each week Miss Parker and Miss Cocliff will be blogging a ‘WOOP – What’s on our plate’ to update parents of the information shared with crew leaders and students in the run up to the exams. Please also be reminded of the revision sites and information for parents of Y11.
LOOKING AHEAD:
STRIKE ACTION
As you may be aware, the NEU teachers union balloted and agreed two further days of strike action this term on Thursday 27th April and Tuesday 2nd May 2023. As a leadership team, we will do our best to minimise disruption to your child’s education and we will update you in due course.
EXPEDITION NEWSLETTERS
These will land in your email inbox next week including the important dates planned this term and any further relevant updates for your child’s year group in the same format as last term, please look out for the email.
STARTERS AND LEAVERS
Last term we held lots of interviews to replace staff who are moving on to pastures new. We have said goodbye to Mrs Daniels and Miss Boon who have moved onto alternative provisions within the field of education. We wish them well in their future endeavours.
On the 12th May, Mr Tucker leaves us to take up a Headship in a Wakefield school. We thank him for his work at XP Doncaster over the past 12 months. Miss Johnson, our school SENCO, has been successfully appointed as Leader of Key Stage 3 to replace Mr Tucker and a thorough handover has already started. Miss Johnson knows the students in Key Stage 3 well and will be able to use these existing relationships to hit the ground running in her new role.
In addition, we have appointed a Trust Maths Lead, School Maths Lead and four new teachers to our schools who will join us over the coming weeks. As with our students, when new staff start in any of our Trust Schools they are exposed to an immersive experience to learn what it means to be a crew member and to understand how we teach and learn through expeditions in an XP school.
As usual, if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Claira Salter
Principal