New subjects, new start, new students

By J Smith18th September 2020

After a long period of time off, Crew Mandela and E24  have started their choice subject for a common mission! The crew have been well and truly on it this week,  This week, we reviewed extended study that has been set in common mission and the craftsmanship and quality of the work produced in the crew has been amazing to see.

An example of this is one of the best pieces of work I have seen as a crew leader. Holly used some left over wallpaper to produce a revision resource for the second session in triple science. 

We have had a lot of conversations this week during Mindful Monday to discuss how XP is different from other schools. This has been supported by the voices of two new students who have joined crew Mandela. The students have made a brilliant start and it has been refreshing to hear other students thoughts and opinions of why they have chosen XP. 

 

New STEAM Expedition – Here Comes the Sun

By J Smith30th April 2020

On the 4th of May- all year E24 and X24 at XP Trust will be starting their new expedition for STEAM. This will be starting with a week of immersion, adapted for the current lockdown home learning. Including experts, fieldwork and whole school Google Hangout quiz challenge!

All students in year 9 in both schools will receive a Google Hangout invitation hosted by Mr Smith and Mr Said and learning coaches. This will have key information and challenges for the week to come. 

The Hangout will be 1pm Tuesday 5th of May. 

Below is a Teaser Trailer to the new expedition- Here Comes the Sun!

 

Like and Subscribe to Chris M!

By J Smith27th April 2020

Chris Mbano this week has gone above and beyond with his Common Mission work and been extra creative on his Youtube Channel. Chris has been onto old videos on YouTube and re-edited the first day of all students at XPE. Chris said he did this as a little reminder and to cheer people up of what we can expect when we go back to school. 

 

 

If you haven’t already like and subscribe to Chris’s channel here. 

Also this week there was some confusion with the day of the crew google hangout this week. As there was an invite sent for both Tuesday and Thursday this week. Big thanks to Corey A who checked in on both!

As for everyone else, most crew members checked into at least one of the sessions, but just to clarify this week, the crew hangout will be on Tuesday at 11:30 as normal.

Rising to the Challenge!

By K Poncia24th April 2020

I think it’s fair to say that, even though we’re not in school and have the challenge of working at home, our staff and students in E26 (Year7) and E25 (Year 8) are still Working Hard, Getting Smart and Being Kind.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen determination (when the work has been tricky), compassion (when helping our fellow crew members who have been stuck) and the completion of so much beautiful work, ranging from stand-out science assessments, amazing artwork, passionate speeches and marvellous maths!

Here are just a few appreciations for students and their beautiful achievements:

Oliver. S. (E26):

Jayden (E26):

Marcus (E25):

Cerrina (E26):

Raphael (E26):

Marshall (E25):

 

E24 Passage Presentations Starting 27.01.20

By J Smith12th January 2020

Week 4 starting 27.01.20 students will be delivering their passage presentations to a panel of parents, teachers and outside visitors to the school. This is an incredible piece of work that allow students to start their chosen GCSE or common mission subject.

The students have worked extremely hard to put together the presentations and we look forward to your attendance.

Booking slot options will be sent out to parents by crew leaders via Sign Up Genius over a 2 week window. Please see the attached letter to see the presentation content:

Dofe Skills Editing Products

By J Smith7th October 2019

Check out the Duke of Edinburgh final products for Editing skill session:

Extremely proud as crew leader of both Chris M, Corey A and Alfie for their brilliant editing of our fieldwork to Alton Towers.

Check out the video below on both their own YouTube accounts- remember to like and subscribe!

Chirs M:

Corey A, Alfie

Working Hard in E25 and E26!

By K Poncia27th September 2019

It’s been a busy week in both E25 (Year 8) and E26 (Year 7)!

Here are some of the highlights…

On Wednesday, an expert visited E25 and talked about the plight of refugees and the long, arduous journey they face when seeking asylum.  Our expert, Nick, from the Conversation Club in Doncaster, engaged students in a game where they had to overcome many obstacles to arrive safely in a different country.

E25 also spent quality time reading the anchor text ‘Of Mice and Men’ for their expedition, ‘Should I stay or should I go?’  Students were introduced to the characters of George and Lennie, with Mr. Portman lending his amazing vocal talents when reading dialogue between the two!

Meanwhile, in E26 students listened attentively as Ethan, who is enlisitng in the army in March, spoke with great passion about how he became inspired to join the army and what his new job and training will involve.  E26 asked thoughtful questions such as ‘If you are an army medic, do you still need to fire a gun?’ and ‘What sort of food do you eat in the army?’

Thank you, Ethan, for taking the time to share your experiences with us!

Finally, it has been wonderful to hear about the high levels of engagement and productivity of all students this week.  Here are a few entries from our praise logs…

Year 7s (E26):

‘Harvey has written an excellent WW1 job description which shows high levels of engagement and craftsmanship and quality. A pleasure to read, Harvey!’

‘Excellent purple polishing to up-level his WW1 job description. Shawn thought carefully about which other persuasive devices he could add to help add impact to his work. Brill!’

‘Cerrina was ON IT today in Hums – always offering to contribute and made super quotation annotations.’

‘Faith showed great courage when delivering a speech to the crew about what would make her a good ambassador.’

Year 8s (E25):

‘Alice challenged herself to use new vocabulary in her writing in Spanish today.’

‘Dylan answered questions with great maturity and a keen eye for detail in Music.’

‘Ruben was a fantastic ambassador for 8Explorer at the Conversation Club, maturely asking questions to migrants in Doncaster in a way which was polite and respectful.’

‘A beautiful example of how books should be laid out! It is amazingly neat and it absolutely made my day that Ava takes such pride in her work.’

Well done, everyone!  Keep up the amazing work!

 

Expedition ‘Slow Down’ Immersion E24/Y9

By J Smith9th September 2019

Last week E24 started their first STEAM expedition in year 9. We visited the advanced manufacturing research centre in Sheffield where we were able to get a first hand look at the types of careers, technology and equipment being used in engineering today.

The students also recapped concepts of forces by building self propelled lego cars and measuring the speed distance and time.

Watch this video for more information of what year 9 got up to!

 

E24: Visiting Sheffield Hallam University

By K Poncia29th August 2019

Day 3 of E24’s first week back saw students visiting Sheffield Hallam University.  This fieldwork was designed to further develop students’ knowledge and understanding of how to get to higher education, what opportunities are available and what university life is like.

Throughout the day students discovered the different ways to get to further education, whether this is by completing A Level courses, maybe BTECs or through an apprenticeship, some of the many different types of degrees which could be studied (who knew that Surf Science was a degree?) and what else makes up life at college or university – anyone for a game of Quidditch at the Harry Potter Society?

A tour of the university allowed students to see the different facilities that are available.  The size of the lecture theatre made students gasp and the flight simulator, used by students studying aeronautical engineering, had them asking insightful questions.

At the end of our visit, feedback strongly showed that the majority of students would like to go to university and now feel more confident knowing how they can access this amazing opportunity.

Well done, E24!  Now, don’t forget your hiking boots tomorrow!

E24: Smashing it!

By K Poncia28th August 2019

Following on from a great first day back, E24 (Year 9) have had another excellent day!

It has been wonderful today to see such high levels of engagement, focus, co-operation and graft!

The day started with a crew session where crews were given four different challenges to solve.  These included: Radioactive Isotope, The Floor is Lava!, Precious Trophy and Scientific Breakthrough.

Here we are working as crew!

The next part of our day saw us building on our careers sessions from yesterday by finding out what potential employment opportunities might be suited to us.  Using a programme called ‘Start’, we discovered which careers matched our qualities, skills and interests.  We also researched what salaries different jobs would pay and the availability of specific jobs throughout the country.

Ali discovered that being an author could earn her anything from £9,800 a year to over £2million a year!  She’s already started writing her bestseller!

Rhys is interested in becoming a paramedic.  He researched the qualifications he needs to achieve this and found out that there are over 2,000 job opportunities in this field across Yorkshire.  We’d all be in safe hands with Rhys!

Throughout this session, learning and conduct behaviours from ALL students were exemplary!

The final session of today saw students introduced to ‘Passage Presentation’ which is an important piece of work students complete during Year 9 to demonstrate that they are GCSE ready.  More information to follow about this…

So, tomorrow, we are heading to Sheffield Hallam University.  We can’t wait!