C26 & C27 parents and students are invited to an evening on Wednesday 8th November 4.30 – 6pm. It is an expectation that all year 11 students will attend and a representative from home, for year 10 this is an excellent opportunity to gather information about what Post 16 opportunities are available in the local area.
Post 16 intention of attendance – please complete with how may will be attending including your student, so we can get an idea for numbers
Students have embraced their new expeditions this week – revealing their guiding questions and unpicking their learning journey for the next 12 weeks. We are excited to see the final products and presentations of learning later this term.
New Friends of XP and XPE
We’re looking for parents to join our New FXP group and support with fundraising, events and activities which will benefit our whole school community. For further information or to express your interest please complete the form below.
Our enrichment timetable has been launched, including lots of activities at lunchtime and after school for students in all year groups to engage with.
If your child attends after school enrichment, please ensure you sign up to the blog where we communicate fixture times, return from fixture updates and any cancellations to parents.
C30 parents
All C30 students should have brought home their parent pay log-ins and also parents should have received an update about iPads last week. If you haven;t received either of these please let the school office know. [email protected] and [email protected]
You should have received the weekly WOOP for C26 at the end of last week – if you didn’t please email Miss Cocliff (for XP) or Mrs Parker (for XPE) and they will reshare.
We would like to invite all Y11 (C26) parents to our Y11 GCSE Information Evening at XP East on Tuesday, 12th September from 5:00-6:15pm.
The evening will focus on providing information about exam layout/content, exam dates, revision/work required for each exam and component. This was a really useful evening last year to ensure parents knew how to best support our wonderful Y11s throughout their GCSEs. Subject leads and teachers will also be around if you have any questions.
As always if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.
Y11 Parents/Carers – we will share our weekly planner with you all so that you are aware of any important dates/events and can keep up to date with the latest Learning Lab schedule (targeted revision session).
Y11 have had such a strong start to the year – they are focussed, engaged, on-board with our revision plans and we have had so much positive feedback from their subject teachers!
Please find attached photographs of lost property from Outward Bound. Please note the brown walking boots have the name Sam written in them and we also have a square black lunch bag too. If you recognise any of the property please ask your son/daughter to go to XP School reception to collect.
Last week our new Year 7s were the 9th cohort of students from XP to head off to the Aberdovey Outward Bound centre to answer the guiding question ‘What does it mean to be Crew?’. These are their reflections after just three days of their secondary school journey…
Orchestra in residence at XP
XP is now the official new home of the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association.
Fifty years ago John Ellis MBE created the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association (DYJA).
Over the next half century, with three bands and a fourth ensemble made up of alumni, the organisation was to become internationally renowned.
The Doncaster Youth Jazz Orchestra has played at some of the awesome venues in the world, from the Royal Albert Hall to Buckingham Palace, the United Nations in New York to Ronnie Scott’s in London. Always delighting audiences and showcasing the young people of Doncaster’s talent and virtuosity.
Now, after many years at Beckett Road, DYJA are moving into our XP school, which will become their base. Their office, rehearsal and teaching rooms and music library – as well as full band rehearsal space will be here with us at Middle Bank.
Andy, our Chief Academic officer commented:
“We are absolutely delighted, across the XP Trust, that the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association is now based at our founding school, XP.
To support and be associated with an organisation that has travelled the world, sharing its music and the amazing talent of Doncaster’s young musicians, is very exciting and part of our ongoing commitment to the local community.
As we look forward to celebrating 10 years of XP in 2024, this feels like another landmark moment in our story – and we hope this is so for DYJA too as they continue their decades-long journey.”
Charlotte Arrowsmith, Chair of the Board of Trustees added:
“This feels like a new and exciting chapter for us at DYJA as we enter our 51st year. We’re delighted to have moved into XP School – and we’re looking forward to working and creating here, in such an inspiring place.”
#C30Austerfield
Plover’s Colour Run
Acts of Service: C28’s Sine FM Adverts for Moorends Foodbank
Now that we have welcomed students in the class of ’26 back as Year 11, it is time to start thinking about how we prepare them for their final GCSE examinations later this academic year. Starting next week we’ll be running additional academic support sessions known as ‘Learning Labs’ which will take place after school.
Learning Lab is an additional study session which will provide students with targeted instruction from teachers in order to ensure that students are as prepared as possible for their final exams. Learning Labs will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 15.30-16.30. Your child’s Crew Leader will, today, share with you a letter which details the after school sessions that your child must attend. This Term, Learning Labs will focus on Core Subjects: English, Maths and Science. We will be rotating provision each half term, with next term focusing on History, Art, Ethics, Geography, Spanish and PE. If there is a blank space on one of the days on the letter, this means that your child is not required to stay on that evening.
We’re looking forward to getting going this year and thank you again for your support!
Y7 had their first XP Outdoors session this week and what a cracking start the term it was!
We used the session to continue to build on the crew fundamentals introduced during the first week back. We did this by introducing Y7 to Number Minefield – a crew building activity which relies on communication and collaboration, with the aim to complete the task in the quickest time and not incur any penalty points.
Of course there were some frustrations along the way, Crews didn’t always work together (especially during the first attempt of the activity), but it was great to see how all the students reflected on how they could improve before their next try and they did all see an improvement in times! We also appreciated how some of the natural leaders in crew stepped back and allowed others to express their thoughts and ideas.
Looking ahead, we have some fantastic sessions planned for the rest of this term. We have included the weekly session details below (we are on Week 3 next week so will be out walking):
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
28/08/23
06/09/23
13/09/23
20/09/23
27/09/23
4/10/23
11/10/23
FWB Outward Bound
Getting to know you session with crew building activities
LocalWalk
Fire Pit Gardening
Fire Pit Gardening
Orienteering Route planning and map reading
Local Walk using map reading skills
It is important that students come appropriately dressed for these sessions. In the winter months the outdoor area can be wet, cold and sludgy and in the summer months hot so please make sure the following items are provided.
Autumn/Winter kit:
Long sleeved jumper
Long trousers – waterproof if possible
Warm hat and gloves
Waterproof coat
Spring/Summer kit:
Sunscreen
Sun hat
Water bottle
Waterproof coat
We are really looking forward to the year ahead with Y7. The XP Outdoors curriculum is absolutely essential to helping our students to continue to focus on the importance of Crew, to help them learn outside of the classroom, to help them learn new skills, to build resilience and help them become the best versions of themselves.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact our XP Outdoors lead, Miss Watson: [email protected] or your child’s Crew Leader.
Thank you from the XP Outdoors Team: Mrs Watson, Mrs Parker and Miss Dickinson
We would like to invite all Y11 parents to our Y11 GCSE Information Evening at XP East on Tuesday, 12th September from 5:00-6:15pm.
This evening will focus on providing information about exam layout/content, exam dates, revision/work required for each exam and component. This was a really useful evening last year to ensure parents knew how to best support our wonderful Y11s throughout their GCSEs. Subject leads and teachers will also be around if you have any questions.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents about our system for using Car Park 3 to pick up and drop off students.
Please could parents observe the speed limits so that students aren’t put at risk and can we be patient with one another as the car park does get congested, particularly at the end of the day.
If parents could use the proposed routes as suggested on the picture below then we should be able to ensure a steady flow through the car park.
In addition, please could we ask that you switch your engine off whilst you wait, in the interests of keeping the environment as healthy as possible for our students and the wider community.
Check out the video below from Sports Day 2023. I think you will agree… we have a great day that included a range of traditional and non traditional sporting activities which allowed all of our students to take part. Thank you to the PE team for organising such a fantastic event!