There has been a change in the arrangements for Wednesday’s football fixture. Conisbrough are unable to field a Y7 team so we will only be taking a Y8 team. Y7 should attend training on Thursday as usual.
The Y8 team will be the same as last week;
| Milo T |
| Bobby S |
| Sam C |
| Kian D |
| Christian M |
| Finn O |
| Nathan W |
| Denzil M |
| Alfie C |
| Aden J |
| Callum B |
| Vinny B |
| Louis B |
Please tick you name on the board to confirm availability. We should return between 5:30 and 6.
The digital pledges that C24 created during the Stand Up! expedition have been printed, curated and installed! We now have a first instance of beautiful work up on our walls.
Even the CEO of Doncaster Council, Jo Miller, has been tweeting about it.
Jo Miller’s pledge was: In everything I do, I want to ask ‘What do young people think about it? Have you engaged with them? Have you asked them what they think?’
Year 7 student Bob not only assisted with installing the curation, he also offered his insight on where the pledges could go. After discussing one pledge in particular, he said it should go in the centre as it was “like putting a candle in a corner of a darkened room”. Excellent work Bob, I think we have a future artist and curator!
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
— Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Leanne Stamp, the architect who designed our school, to XP East. It was not the first time Leanne had visited the school, but she expressed her joy at finally seeing the school full of students, staff and furniture and being used just as she had envisaged!
Both 8Pioneer and 8Explorer demonstrated excellent focus during each of her two hour sessions, in which she detailed her role as an architect and explained where it fitted into a wider team; she also shared with our students the design principles behind developing a building from concept to actual use, before setting up a group activity for them to apply these principles to the design of XP East.
This week we have followed up Leanne’s visit by consolidating our notes, using marketplace activities to share our learning from the group work sessions. 8Pioneer students have each chosen an area of the design principles which interests them and 8Explorer will identify their own areas of interest next week. Each student will use this area of interest as the focus for a piece of extended writing on how XP East was sustainably designed and how we could develop it in the future.
Many thanks to all of our students for their questions, keen interest and for demonstrating the Character Traits during Leanne’s visit, particularly those of Respect and Craftsmanship and Quality. I really enjoyed the day and I know it was a turning point in the expedition for many of our students, as it really brought the importance of sustainability to the fore.
7 Pioneer have had a fabulous week in HUMAN, continuing our expedition ‘Over the Top!’.
They began the week writing a WW1 inspired poem as a class. Each group had the responsibility to create a stanza of the poem. The effort and hard work put into this by the pupils was fantastic!
Here’s 7 Pioneer engrossed in the planning process – the pupils were given the challenge of including language devices such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia and alliteration – they definitely succeeded with this.
For example, “Fear sweeps through me like a tidal wave” and “Squelch, stomp, we tremble through the bloodthirsty field”
On Thursday we left school to go on fieldwork at Hyde Park Cemetery in Doncaster.
We were fascinated by the lives of soldiers who had taken part in the First World War and are buried in Doncaster.
Our expert, Andria, a member of Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery, which protects the cemetery, guided us around to the graves of the brave men. She informed us of the lives of the men and how they met their tragic end.
We heard about the conditions in the trenches and found that some men were killed in action, whereas some were killed in accidents which occurred in their training or died of diseases such as TB whilst in the trenches.
It really put it into perspective how lucky we are to not have experienced the horrors of the Great War.
Well done to all students who represented XP in last week’s Rugby and Football fixtures… you can find a few action shots by clicking here…
Next week we have boys C24 and C25 boys football fixtures on Wednesday 10th October – both away at Consisbrough De Warenne. I will put the names of the students involved on the PE notice board so they can tick their name and confirm availability as they did in the week just gone.
As part of our expedition, ‘Over the Top!’, 7 Explorer visited Hyde Park Cemetery to find out about some of the men from Doncaster who gave their lives for their country during World War One.
We were fascinated as Andria, a member of the Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery who protect and promote the cemetery, led us around and told us the stories of these brave men.
It quickly became clear to us that, even though the Great War ended in 1918, the effects of it were felt for years after by these men and their families. Even though some survived the war, their health deteriorated and many died of illnesses, such as TB, at a young age. They left behind wives and children.
Leoni, James and Florence ended our visit by appreciating Andria for giving her time and knowledge so freely.
Leoni said, “I’d also like to appreciate you for being such a lovely lady.”
Wonderful!
After a number of practical sessions and conducting a circus of experiments in STEAM, C25 have started the write up of the particle model using rubrics to peer assess their work. All students have worked hard during the session however outstanding feedback was given by Ruben, Sami and Ruby. They really helped other students to include key scientific words in their write ups to move towards excellence!
Next week we will be investigating how gas was used as a weapon in the trenches of WW1!
Year 7 have been learning basic rhythms and how to play these on instruments in X-block music.
They are learning how to play ‘That’s not my name’ by The Ting Tings.
Each child will learn the rhythm and notes on the guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drums to create a whole class performance of the song.
Here’s the link to the music resource page. Pupils are welcome to book a music practice room on Fridays if they want to practice this song using the school instruments.
Maybe we’ll see XP East pupils in the UK Top 40 in the future!
Here’s Laicey, Lexi, Zak, Kristian and Florence in action!
Today, 8 Pioneer have been developing their annotating skills! This is a really useful skill to apply to texts. In this instance, we’ve used it to take note of language choices and literary devices in a creative piece of writing. We will use our notes (annotations) to analyse how the author has made deliberate language choices to create a specific effect or to symbolise something.
The students will be applying what they’ve learnt to their own piece of descriptive writing later this week.
Special mentions to Theone and Megan for their exceptional efforts!
Big thanks to Leanne Stamp, the architect who designed our school, for coming in and speaking to us about what it takes to design a sustainable building, including choice of materials, transportation, ecology and the health and wellbeing of the building users.
Leanne talked us through the design of XP. East, and explained why certain design choices were made, for instance the roof lights in the corridors were put in to allow more natural light in. She even old us that she insisted on having bat boxes installed on the side of the building!
We will be using what we’ve learnt today to further explore what it takes to build “a place of our own”.
