Donde quiera que vayas

E28’s Pioneer had an outstanding session in Spanish on Today, they started off by going through ‘things they could do’ at the weekend and how to say this in Spanish along with where they would do these. Such as, Voy al cine. Voy a ver una película’ (‘I am going to the cinema. I am going to watch a film’). 

Students then made their way outside of the classroom to conduct their surveys of what their peers were doing over the weekend, in Spanish of course!

During this task the students were impeccable in the way that they conducted themselves.

From their surveys they were then asked to write a paragraph of what they had found out about their peers’ weekend plans. This encouraged students to use the guidance provided to push to ‘excellence’ on the rubric given to allow them to assess where they are at.

Throughout  the session, Pioneer’s HOWLs and character traits were fantastic, they showed courage, integrity, compassion, showed craftsmanship and quality, worked hard, got smart and were all kind to others.

Well done!

Señor Pearson and Señora Barnes

Fight the Power!

The year 8 students across XP School and XP East are working towards part of their final product for the ”Fight the Power’ expedition. C26 have been learning about the power of protest, and the impact activists have had on the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. The goal is to commemorate this work, both in a plaque that will live proudly in Doncaster train station, and through works of art that we will be curating celebrating local activism across Donny, should we raise the funds.

Check out our crowdfunder here!

With only 19 days left to reach their crowdfunder goal, students will be pushing to make the final £800 over the coming weeks with their fundraising efforts. We have arranged raffle prizes, because our busking plans were unfortunately no longer feasible due to lockdown restrictions, but we’re not letting it stop us!

Students have recently had an expert visit from Olivia from Black Lives Matter Doncaster, who shared with the groups about the protests earlier this year. Her insights into structural racism and her experiences of micro-aggressions helped open up a dialogue in our school on difficult but deeply important topics.

I would like to thank her for the work she continues to do and we look forward to working with her in future.

Students also have a hangout / expert visit arranged this Friday morning, where they will be learning about the impact of the local Suffragette movement, and the impact Doncastrian suffragettes had on women’s rights across the UK.

We were shocked earlier in the expedition to learn that of the 500+ statues in the UK, only 80 were of historical women. We wanted to do something to address this imbalance, so we feel that commemorating the work of Doncastrian women’s rights activists is a great place to start.

Students will be coming round over the coming weeks to sell raffle tickets, prizes include

  1. A chocolate hamper (worth over £30)

  2. A McDonalds meal of your choice (+ McFlurry), delivered to you during dinner time

  3. A pass to skip the dinner queue for an entire week

We appreciate all donations, and ask that if you can continue to share this if you are unable to donate to hopefully spread the word!

In Year 9 and beyond, and as in previous years, our E25 students will either continue to study Spanish to GCSE standard, and be entered for external examination at the end of their Year 11, or pursue a combination of supervised self-guided Spanish study and taught GCSE Citizenship, identified as “Spanish+” on their timetable. Either course will mean three hours of study per week and lead to a GCSE qualification. This follows our current curriculum model, and begins the process of personalisation of our provision for students that is then continued with choice and common mission entitlements.

We have now concluded a careful appraisal of your child’s achievements and attainment in Spanish so far, and are in a position to make a strong recommendation that they either join the GCSE Spanish group, or the Spanish+ group. You will shortly receive confirmation as to which of the two groups your child will be placed in, and Crew Leaders will be able to answer most questions that you might have.

In the event that you wish to discuss the recommendations further, or have any questions that Crew Leaders cannot answer, then please contact Mrs Sprakes in the first instance.

Year 8 students have been experimenting with oil pastels this term in their art sessions to create some beautiful sunset inspired blends. Can’t wait to see the finished pieces.

E25 (Year 8) STEAM Presentation of Learning

The Year 8 STEAM presentation of learnings will be held on:

  • Pioneer: Wednesday 18th December, 5-6PM at XP East

  • Explorer: Thursday 19th December 5-6PM at XP East

The students look forward to sharing the work they’ve been studying in the STEAM expedition, where they have been working towards the guiding question “What is the state of the nation’s health and what should we do about it?”

We welcome you to invite family and friends to the event, sign in will begin at 4:45PM on both nights. We also ask that students remain in school from 3:15PM until the event, if there’s an issue with this don’t hesitate to drop me an email: [email protected]

Building Circuits

The crew have conducted their own revision session on current resistance and voltage today. Corey and Raven led the revision session where students were asked to construct series and parallel circuits and compare the difference between current drops. 

Raven noticed that when a component in a parallel circuit is removed, other bulbs and components still allow for electrons to flow, Raven also noted that this is why houses use parallel circuits and not series!

Almost Complete!

This week Crew Mandela have been completing their final products for expedition High Voltage. This has needed a number of high level skills from the crew including soldering, drilling, scoring and shaping the wood. 

Outstanding crew support has come from Raven who has helped the entire crew to finish their designs and complete the base of the boxes. See the image below for a sneak preview of the final games.

Final Product Progress: High Voltage

8/E24 Have been working hard this week building their final products. We have used a number of new tools and equipment in our brand new building. As a crew we need to have all work completed by Thursday 16th of May. If any students have any game work unfinished we will be running a product lab in extended study for everyone to get caught up.