Here it is… the premier of our Crew’s video of 4 days in Ullswater.

There’s more to come, including footage from jumping off the cliff’s in the official XP Doncaster video so stay tuned!

This was the best expedition I’ve ever been involved in, and it was a privilege to be part of it.

Mr Portman

Beautiful Work This Week

Welcome to our first selection of beautiful work from the brand new 2024/2025 academic year!

Highlights from our first week back!

At XP Trust we always use our first week back to establish and reaffirm our culture of Crew. This year has been another resounding success as young people across our schools have considered deeply the purpose of Crew through a range of opportunities and experiences and how Crew develops character and service so that they can help themselves, others and the wider community to be compassionate and successful. 

At Carcroft we saw students engaging fully in a community meeting reflecting on their habits of work and learning and expressing what working hard, getting smart and being kind looks like every day at school. Students at Norton Infants Y5 visited local Care Homes delivering glasses cases they had made as well as treats! At Plover students were working alongside the RSPCA to capture and tell the stories of abandoned pets and, alongside drawing beautiful pictures of the animals, helping to find them homes as well as creating stunning murals in a street art style to promote the importance and legacy of Crew.

Students at Green Top took part in a fundraising Colour Run which was quite frankly spectacular whilst also creating kindness key rings that they gifted to members of the community! At XPG, Year 8 showed their qualities as leaders of their own learning by planning, organising and leading Year 7 activities including creating resources and fieldwork opportunities for their peers. Finally at XPD, students carried out acts of random kindness at the Lake side and welcomed past students who came back to school to talk about how Crew and their time at XP shaped the beautiful people they are today.

It was striking to hear a member of staff at Carcroft say, ‘I’ve been teaching for over twenty years and this is the best start back I’ve ever experienced.’ – I think that says it all!

In addition, our new Year 7’s from XP Doncaster and XP Gateshead spent their first days of secondary school building Crew together in the Lake District with Outward Bound. This is something we have been proud to do with our students for ten years now and it was inspiring to see students cultivating resilience, compassion and teamwork – especially through some very adverse weather! We are looking forward to seeing Crews grow together over the coming years…

Andy Sprakes at BridgeFest

Our Chief Academic Officer, Andy Sprakes was the keynote speaker at Spaghetti Bridge’s ‘BridgeFest’ earlier this week. He shared beautiful work and stories from our students at XP as part of their inspiring itinerary celebrating the last year. We are proud to be a part of their story and a key influence on the work that they do.

XP Alumnus Alfie is Oxford bound!

Alfie Lockey was part of the X22 cohort at XP and left two years ago to study for his A Levels at New College. His results of 3 A*s and and A, helped secure him a place at one of the oldest and renowned universities in the world – Christ Church College, Oxford. Alfie will be studying biology; a lifelong love and something that during his time at XP was actively encouraged and supported.

He created an allotment at school, had an opportunity to take part in an online conference organised by the Edge Foundation, which addressed climate change. That day Alfie spoke alongside the co-creator of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Sir Tim Smit KBE. An office at XP also became the perfect place for Alfie to experiment with growing a variety of plants for several years; bringing a touch of hot house greenery to XP!

CAO of the XP Trust, Andy Sprakes commented:

“Alfie is one of our many alumni who are already making a positive difference to the world. We’re always thrilled to hear about how our students are progressing and where they are now – they will always be part of our Crew.”

XP Doncaster’s High Flying Birds

In Summer 2024, XP and XP East’s Year 8 students embarked on Learning Expedition called ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’, where they aimed to answer the guiding question: ‘Is migration worth the risk?’.

In Art, they looked at the work of artists who used imagery of birds to represent migration. Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy and used that to design flying machines. The students took his ideas and constructed their own three dimensional bird designs. They then made large scale sculptures of the birds that you can see on display, here. Before culminating in the display, the sculptures were paraded at this summer’s inaugural XP Festival of Arts & Culture.

We’re got vacancies across XP Trust!

Find out more here to apply now and #JoinOurCrew

Top of the Blogs

Settling in @ Norton Infants

First Week Back @ Green Top

Wonderful Wilderspin @ Plover

Music Composition in MI @ Carcroft School

We’re all in this together! @ XP School

Crew Da Vinci E28 @ XP East

Acts of Kindness @ Norton Juniors

Weekly Update for Parents @ XP Gateshead

Share your stories with us!

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!

During the first week back in Crew Da Vinci we spoke a lot about how important this final year is going to be and how we will rely on crew more. We wrote letters to our year 11 self to open at results day. We made connections with XP primary schools and spoke about our experience with secondary school.

We worked as a crew to do an escape room within school – this involved us to work together as a team! NCS came in and spoke to us about life after XP and what it could look like.

Crew Da Vinci have came in with a positive attitude this week and let’s hope this has set the scene for the rest of the year.

Find out more and apply to #JoinOurCrew here:

Year 5 Teacher and Leader

F2 Teacher and Leader

To round off a fantastic day… the traffic has been kind to us!

Our new arrival time back at XP East will be around 3:30pm (give or take 5 minutes!)

We have had a phenomenal day at Murton Park immersing ourselves fully into the life of a Viking!

Students have thoroughly enjoyed the variety of activities- we’re on a top secret mission not to let XP know about them before their visit on Friday!

We have just begun our return journey to XP East and are anticipated to be back in line with the expected time of 4pm.

I am sure you have all had excited students return home from school today, eager to set up their devices! They were all sent with a number of instructions, in support of the questions I have been emailed I am sharing information below:

Screen protector

The screen protector must be installed to keep the Applecare warranty on the iPad valid, please do this first to ensure the most successful installation. 

You can follow the written guide below or use our instructional video here. Please note the password for this year is not enrolment as stated in the video, it is summer2024 

Don’t unbox the iPad until you are ready to install the screen protector. 

Make sure you have lots of space and a clean dust free flat surface before you start. 

1. Remove the screen protector from its case and the iPad from the box.
2. Take care not to touch the iPad screen before installing the screen protector. 
3. If any dust particles fall on the screen you can remove them with the stickers in the toolkit.
4. Very carefully remove the protective film from the screen protector, take care as the screen protector is made of glass. 
5. Using the paper tab on the protector, remove the plastic protective film protection.
6. Align the cutout  for the home button and applying a small amount of pressure to the middle of the protector touch it down to the middle of the screen. 
7. If there are any air bubbles under the protector you can push these to the side using the polishing cloth. 

Installing the iPad in the logitech keyboard case 

This is really nice and easy, open the case from the box, align the camera on the rear to the top right of the case and clip it in.

First time login

1. Select English as your language
2. United Kingdom as your region (this is really important)
3. Select “Set up Manually” from the bottom of the page
4. Select your Wi-Fi
5. Enter the password and tap “join” and then “next”
6. Wait while the iPad activates (this may take a few minutes)
7. A screen with the title “Apps & Data” will appear – select “Don’t Transfer Apps & Data”
8. A new screen will appear with the title “Remote Management” – click “Next”
9. A page with a login box will appear
10. Add your username. This is the start of your school email address. Eg. if your email address is [email protected] OR [email protected] (this is dependent on the school your child attends.

Then then username would be firstname.surname31 

(We apologise if the surname is not the preferred surname – these were set up using the information provided from your application to the school during Year 6. These usernames will only need to be used once.)

1. The default password this year is “summer2024”
2. The next page will ask you to click to “Enroll this device” tap the blue button
3. The next screen will ask you to “Enable Location Services” please make sure this option is selected. 
4. Your enrolment is now complete and default applications will now start to download. 

After school your child’s iPad behaves exactly like any other iPad. During the day we manage the iPads so that only certain apps are available.

In order to download apps at home that you have agreed your child can have, you will need an Apple ID. If you do not have one, you can find instructions on how to set one up here.

If you have separate Apple ID’s – for example if your child already has an apple device – you can link Apple ID’s in a family sharing group. More info on that can be found here.

Screen time and other parental controls are also available. You can find guides to these here.

For additional protection we recommend that you filter what your children can access at home using your own Wifi. Most hubs for your Wifi at home will have settings that will also restrict content. Log in to your broadband provider account and search for parental controls.

Please note: If you chose not to purchase a school iPad and bought your own, in order to be used in school we must add it to the JAMF system. This will ensure the same safety features are enabled and the iPad will be restricted during school hours. Please email the serial number to your child’s Crew Leader to ensure we are able to do this in a timely manner, in support of your child’s learning.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to email your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance.

We’ve just wrapped up our first week back at school, and what an incredible start it has been! Seeing how much my crew have grown since they first joined us in Year 7 has filled me with immense pride.

Our week was packed with activities that brought us closer together as a crew. One of the highlights was painting portraits of each other—a fun and creative exercise that had us all laughing at our artistic interpretations! These moments of laughter and connection set a positive tone for the year ahead.

Our character trait for the week was compassion, and we put it into practice during a walk around Lakeside. Armed with cards and handmade origami flowers, the students brightened the day for many members of the public. It was a simple act, but the smiles it brought to people’s faces were priceless.

These activities are just the beginning as we prepare for the exciting journey of Year 9. The experiences and lessons learned will undoubtedly help our students as they step up to Key Stage 4.

I’m excited to support them every step of the way, and I look forward to all the growth and achievements this year will bring!

Miss Buckley, Crew Dufton

#Year9 #SchoolLife #Community

As Crew Winsdor came back into school last week, we were ready and raring to go! We collected in donations from our crew and cohort for our planned visit to a local care home! We decorated boxes and filled them with goodies such as biscuits, soap, magazines and hand cream. We walked with these boxes to the care homes and shared a lovely hour with the residents. At firsts the kids were a little apprehensive, but soon flourished into full conversations with the residents. It was a real pleasure to watch. On Friday we were blessed with an absolutely stunning day weather wise for our walk to Flamborough. We even got to see some seals! What a wonderful first week back!