We’re back!

By Jamie Portman29th August 2017

Today was the first day back from the Summer holidays, and it was great to see the team back together again. We visited Malham in North Yorkshire to reccy the area in preparation for our first official day as XP East.

XP and XP East Y7 Crews

Although this is instead of our original planned residential to Wales (this will still go ahead in Spring), we’re absolutely confident that the day will be a memorable one designed for students to begin to consider their first guiding question of ‘What is Crew?’ On Friday XP East students will also visit ‘Kingswood Inspiring Learning‘ adventure park, which will also help them to answer their guiding question. A special thank you needs to be given to Mr Said for organising the event at such short notice!

First impressions may create a false sense of security about what these 2 days represent. Make no mistake about it, students will be out of their familiar zones and will be confronted with challenges that will need the support of others in order to get through them. Yes, they will be enjoyable, but Crew is about establishing genuine and sincere relationships in order to achieve what had previously thought was not possible. Crew goes beyond ‘team work’ and instead creates a genuine culture of community which will underpin XP East, just as it does at XP School.

The 2 days will also be academically challenging from the perspective of gathering knowledge of the local geographical landscapes, and further exploring the character traits of the XP Trust (building on the Y6 induction day). Mark my words, this is important stuff for what lies ahead for the rest of the year.

Our own staff Crew at XP East is bringing together a variety of skill sets, experiences and personal qualities which will provide the foundations of what I know will be something very special. For me, our findings from the reccy at Malham today didn’t just reveal details about the visit, it also reinforced our own excitement for the beginnings of our new school, and amplified our Crew’s ambition for what something Margaret Mead once said:

Further links:

Y6 Induction Day 2017

‘What does running around in the woods have to do with growing a school?’

Arrangements for first week back for Y7: Class of 2024 (C24 Year 7)

By Jamie Portman25th August 2017

On Thursday 31st August XP East students will be doing a walk in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This walk will involve getting wet, so students need to bring/wear:

 

– trousers suitable for walking (not cotton or jeans as these are likely to get wet)

– some comfortable/practical closed toed footwear (walking boots are best if available, but sturdy trainers are fine as these are likely to get wet)

– a bag (ideally a backpack big enough to hold the following)

– pack-up lunch

– a water bottle

– sunscreen and hat

– a small towel

– bin liner for wet clothes

– spare dry trousers

– spare dry top

– spare dry socks and footwear (these can be open toed as they will only be for the coach ride home)

We will be leaving school by coach at 8.30 am so please bring your son or daughter to the entrance at Car Park 3 between 8.00 and 8.15am. We expect to be back at school at around 17.30pm but will update the school website and Facebook page during the course of the day if there are any changes. Students will need to bring a pack-up lunch for this day.

 

FRIDAY 1st SEPTEMBER

Then On Friday 1st September, XP East students will spend the day at the Kingswood Centre in Dearne Valley. Each crew will be doing activities which help to answer the guiding question for the week which is ‘What is Crew?’. Students will need to bring/wear:

– a water bottle

– sunscreen and hat

– some comfortable/practical closed toed footwear

– a bobble if they have long hair

– a warm top/waterproof.

If there are any other specialist pieces of equipment needed, the centre will provide these. We will be leaving school by coach at 8.30am so please bring your son or daughter to the entrance at Car Park 3 between 8.00 and 8.15am. We expect to be back at school at around 16.45pm – 17.00pm but will update the school website and Facebook page during the course of the day if there are any changes. Lunch will be provided by the centre.

 

If you have any questions about these days, please contact [email protected]

Y6 Induction Day

By Jamie Portman4th July 2017

We had a fantastic day during the recent Y6 induction event at XP school. I was personally very excited to meet everyone as our soon to be Year 7s will be the first ever students of XP East!

The students took part in several activities that revolved around our character traits of courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality, compassion and integrity, getting to know our temporary school at XP via a treasure hunt, and artwork. Products from throughout the day were exhibited in the main area of the school.

Check out some of the photos from the day below, and watch the video that I created for students to watch again when they’re in Y11 in 2022!

JP


Shot with iPhone 7. Edited using the iOS Quik app. Shot by Crew.

Staff Presentation Evening: Showcase of our staff induction

By Jamie Portman2nd July 2017

Thank you to all parents and carers who attended our presentation of learning evening on the first 2 weeks of our staff induction. This acted as an opportunity to introduce ourselves to students and parents of both XP and XP East, and to showcase our professional learning over recent weeks.

The evening was also used to highlight the importance of such presentation events to both students and parents, as a central aspect of our curriculum includes the notion of ‘authentic audience’. This is where students celebrate and showcase their learning to real life audiences which may involve publicly reading extracts of their written work and exhibiting products of their learning. Parents and carers will be invited to several presentation evenings throughout the school year, as students will communicate their learning via the formality of exhibitions and other events.

We believe that an authentic wider audience encourages students to reflect upon the quality of their work, and to help our schools to forge strong links with the community. Moreover, presentation evenings also act as an opportunity for parents and carers to become involved and informed about their child’s development and progress.

In addition to our first week of induction (click here for the video) the new staff teams embarked on a 2 week expedition Slice which focused on the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. Throughout this period, Dr Anna Switzer acted as our ‘teacher’ and we were her students. Learning targets were given to us via a guiding question, and our ‘product’ was to present our findings to parents on the presentation evening via the creation of so called ‘Found Poems’.

Acting with our ‘student hats’ on allowed us to participate within the learning expedition process from the perspective of students, and this led to a much deeper understanding of the protocols involved.

We are really looking forward to our first Y7 presentation of learning in our first school year at XP East. You can find the slides from our presentation below:


Created using Google Slides. Learn how to embed here. Every student at XP East has access to them.

‘What does running around in the woods have to do with growing a school?’

By Jamie Portman25th June 2017

Imagine this: you spend your first day of your new job being whisked away to Derbyshire and told that you would be spending the next 3 nights sharing a tent with new members of staff who in some cases had never even met before. Well that was the case for 12 teachers and learning coaches from XP, and XP East.

You can read more about our induction here from the recent presentation evening, but this was our first week on the job and do you know what? It affected all of us both professionally and personally. We are Crew!

Watch our video below for a summary of our first ever expedition.


Shot with iPhone 7. Edited using iMovie. Made by Crew.