We had a wonderful morning this morning in Crew Ali. We sat together and discussed our attendance and HOWLS, then we each made pledges about how we can improve in these areas. Whilst munching on our crumpets and toast we each discussed the pledges we had made and why we had chosen them. It was great to hear students really considering how to improve and better themselves! We will be checking in on our progress towards these pledges each week.
Also, a massive appreciation to Billy, Marshall, Tom, Leoni, Zak and Ruben who all had excellent attendance last term! Our whole crew target for this term is for us to attend school everyday and have an overall attendance score of 98% or higher!
We (Mrs Elliott and Mrs Gargen) are loving leading Crew Ali and have really enjoyed our time getting to know each student. We have alot planned for this term, from crew experts, inter-crew challenges, fundraising activities and much more. We excited to continue to bond as crew and share these experiences together. Watch this space as we blog our journey through these next two terms!
Year 10 and Year 11 Common Mission Music students will be going to CAST Theatre on Wednesday 27th April to watch ‘Footloose’ the musical as part of their Arts Award qualification.
We will be walking from school at 1:30pm to watch the afternoon performance which will finish at 4:45pm approx.
Suitable clothing for waking to CAST Theatre will be needed depending on the weather (a coat if it looks like rain etc.) and students attending will be required to organise transport home from the theatre after the show. This will be communicated with parents and carers before Wednesday.
Any further question please feel free to email Mr Robins at [email protected]
We hope you have had a wonderful Easter break, and wanted to highlight some important steps for our awesome year 11 students as we push through their final weeks before their GCSE exams!
This is our final term for Y11 to prepare for their final examinations. All Government guidance states that exams WILL take place this year. Therefore, it is crucial that students are ramping up the amount of revision being completed to maximise the impact this is having. Staff continue to work hard and offer extra academic sessions as seen on our enrichment timetable to ensure students are best prepared for their GCSE’s – students also have a wealth of materials readily available to focus their revision around. We ask that you support us by reminding them of the need to be working hard outside of school hours, too – any support or guidance you can offer at this time really will make a difference!
To further boost our Y11’s academic success, D6 also resumes this Saturday, 23rd April, from 9am – 12:30pm. We have only 7 more weeks of D6 after this: Saturday April 30th, Saturday May 6th, Saturday May 13th, Saturday May 20th, Saturday May 27th, Saturday June 3rd and Saturday June 10th! D6 is open to both Y10 and Y11.
It is also important to note that our Y11’s last day in school will be July 1st, 2022.
Please also see here the final exam timetable for our 2022 GCSE Exams:
**PLEASE NOTE: The final 2 exams on 24th and 27th June fall on Staff Days… Y11 will be in for exams though!**
Another fantastic Y11 community meeting this morning, full of praises and appreciations for our hard-working Y11s, as you can see from our slides above!
Super shout-outs
As well as the usual praises, Miss Cocliff and Mrs Parker had some extra special shout-outs and awards for our Praise Champions (with an extra special mention for Summer, too!):
XPE’s Praise Champs:
XP’s Praise Champs:
Aran
Imogen
Frida
Alfie
Noah
Kyra
We also celebrated the following students for regularly attending our D6 sessions:
Thomas, Thomas, Lara, Corey , Chris , Heather, Courtney, Rye, Ashley and Coen.
Well done guys! The effort and commitment in attending these Saturday revision session will really pay off.
Goodbye to Little Miss Poncia!
Students also used this community meeting to offer their appreciations to our wonderful Emily Poncia, who is leaving us on Friday for her next exciting adventure. Miss Poncia has gone above and beyond with her dedication, help and support for all our Y11 students and she will be sincerely missed by us all. She may only have been with us for a short time, but her impact has been HUGE. We wish you all the luck in the world 🙂
What a fantastic two days students across XP and XP East have had!
On Tuesday, Citizenship students, who have been studying the role of the police, and their year group were involved in 3 seminars from Doncaster Police and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue. These included Road Safety, Gun and Knives and Exploitation.
After a fantastic Tuesday, things only got more exciting here at XPE today… Students listened to a talk regarding Dog Handling and were introduced to not one, but two real life police dogs! Isn’t Hudson wonderful? If that wasn’t enough, students were given time to ask all their pressing questions in a Q&A session. Students also experienced all the equipment police officers are trained to use, including riot gear and operating police cars. A fantastic two days had by all students and staff! #WeAreCrew
As you will know, year 9 have undertaken their passage presentations over the past couple of weeks and as crew leader I have been absolutely blown away. The outstanding craftsmanship and quality has shone through each and every one of Crew Rowling’s presentations.
This has been a turbulent journey and I’m sure that crew will agree that there have been plenty of ups and downs while preparing for their passage presentations. The preparations have taken, what seems like a lifetime but I am very proud of the determination and resilience that each student has shown. The professionalism that each student showed was incredible and it was very clear that passage meant a lot to them.
There were a few nerves leading up to their presentations for some but the amazing friendships and support from crew really shone through with daily debriefs about the passage presentations from the night before and some even stayed behind to give moral support to other crew members. This was something that did not go unnoticed by other staff and experts that joined us.
Here’s just a few snaps I managed to get along the way…
I am incredibly proud of each and every single member of Crew Rowling and we had a 100% pass rate which was incredible!!
Huge well done once again, I can’t wait to watch you all take on the next chapter at XP East.
Students in C26/Year 9 will be visiting the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds.
We are venturing out on 2 separate days as part of their current expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’.
XP East – Tuesday 15th March 2022
XP Wednesday – 16th March 2022
The primary purpose of the visit is to explore the galleries which will help students get to grips with the science behind disease, and the state of public health when Victoria was on the throne. This opportunity to travel back through time and meet key figures in the fight against disease will support the learning on how its history can help us inform the very current issues we face today.
Oh wait there is more… Alongside this amazing experience, we are also booked on a workshop that looks at the following – Does history always move in a straight line? Is innovation always straightforward? This engaging talk uses events and changes throughout medical history to consider the past, present and future of medicine.
We will be departing at around 9:00 AM and returning at approximately 15:00 PM.
Students will need to bring a packed lunch unless they access free school meals, in which case school will provide one for them.
Students will need to dress appropriately and in line with the school dress code. As we will be walking around the museum, comfortable footwear is required.
Usual school rules will apply in terms of mobile phones and these should not be used by students on the bus. Students may wish to take devices such as iPads to take any photographs or to make notes.
If your child needs to take any medication, please inform their Crew Leader so that any necessary arrangements can be made.
All medication should be labelled with their name, and passed to a member of staff.
If you have any questions about the day, feel free to contact me at ewatson@xpschool.
Bit of History!
The museum building has a long and chequered history.
It first opened in 1861 as the purpose-built Leeds Union Workhouse, a harsh and unwelcoming home for poor and homeless people with nowhere else to go. Over the years, new buildings were gradually added to the workhouse complex, including a separate infirmary.
Just a quick notice to let all Y10 students and parents/carers know that History revision sessions will be resuming after the holidays, starting this Monday.
We will be offering two nights of History revision:
Monday 3.30 – 4.30pm in A06 (XP EAST) with Mrs Elliott & Miss Hickson
Tuesday 3.30 – 4.30pm in X11 (XP) with Mrs Elliott
This is an excellent opportunity for students to embed their learning, to gain support, to practice exam technique and to push themselves further. It really is important that students are revising outside of lessons and this is perfect space to be able to do this successfully.
Students are welcome to come to both sessions or just one. In these sessions we will be recapping GCSE content and applying this to exam questions as well as giving students time to self study areas which they feel they need further development.
Y10 have made a fantastic start to their History GCSE and are working really hard in sessions. We now need to continue this hard work outside of the classroom, there is an expectation that students should now begin revising in their own time to embed the content already covered and prepare themselves for their GCSE exams.
If you have any questions regarding extended study, please don’t hesitate to email Mrs Elliott ([email protected])
It seems like a lifetime ago when we first started to prepare for the Year 10 History mock exams and finally now the whole process is complete and I am really proud of how the students conducted themselves through the process. It all started after October half term with weekly revision being set and the start of after school revision classes – it was great to see so many students taking responsibility for their learning and putting in the effort to prepare for their exams. In our lessons we spent time going through exam technique and what to expect from each style of question and it was clear to see that this advice had been absorbed and acted upon. After the mocks had been marked, students spent their time FIXing the assessments, responding to feedback to improve their answers to the questions and I am confident that they will do themselves proud if they continue. It also highlighted the importance of revision, with some students who maybe didn’t put enough work in being disappointed by their result, I hope this acts as a lesson to learn from and not make these same mistakes as we continue through their GCSE content – as we keep saying, if you don’t know the content you can’t write an answer!
A massive well done to all students who achieved their target grade and a special mention to students who did exceptionally well: Lewis, Zach H, Harvey, Rosie, Mollie and Ava – we are so proud of you and all your hard work has paid off! Keep going and you’ll smash your final exams in year 11.
A reminder as well to keep revising using both the Nazi and Vikings textbooks and to attend the after school revision sessions on Monday and Tuesday with myself and Mrs Elliott.
We are using time in lessons to prepare for the mocks by making sure students not only have the subject knowledge, but also the skills to apply this knowledge to exam questions.
In today’s history session Y11 worked on building these key exam skills by working together to create model answers to questions from past papers, before testing out their exam skills by working independently on another question.