Today, Crew Spencer welcomed a new member to our Crew. We took part in a mindfulness activity that beautifully demonstrated the impact of our words. Using a toothpick, they attempted to put toothpaste back into the tube, showing how once words are spoken, they can’t be taken back, no matter how much we try to make things right. Just like toothpaste, our words can leave a mark, reminding us to always choose them with kindness and care.
Miss Dickinson
We’d like all parent/carers opinions on school dinners, including those who’s children have packed lunches. XP Trust would like as many children as we can having delicious healthy meals so your and your child’s opinions are important to us. Children will be asked about their dinners at school but it would be good to have parent/carer opinions too.
Please complete the below form:
Check out this actively awesome video courtesy of Yorkshire Sport Foundation. The children and staff at Plover were superstars in explaining their positive experiences regarding the OSF funding they secured last year, to provide after school and community clubs! Plover have been lucky enough to secure some OSF funding this year too, so watch this space for Community Clubs starting in October! #LovePlover
We don’t just ensure our work is made public – it needs to live inside our school communities, too! More beautiful work has been curated at Plover School, celebrating their ‘Pride of Plover’ award winners and recent Expedition products!
One of our great friends and mentors, Ron Berger, once said to us that ‘staff culture can never outpace student culture.’ With this firmly at the forefront of our minds we set out last week on our bi-annual outdoor staff induction process with a group of educators from across our Trust.
We headed out into the wilderness to answer the guiding question, ‘What does it mean to be Crew?’ through a number of shared experiences and activities our Crew formed very quickly. We explored the purpose of Crew deeply and considered how we could make Crew even stronger on our return to our respective schools so that we continue to create the culture in which our students grow their character and make our community and the world a better place for everyone.
Below is an immediate reflection from one of our XP educators:
‘This experience has helped me to understand the building of community. The support that other members of our Crew showed this week has been immense. There have been some activities that have been challenging but everybody has been supportive whilst giving positive challenge so that everybody has been able to push themselves in a safe environment where everybody trusts each other and it’s lifted me and made me feel that I can achieve anything I put my mind to with the support of other people.’ – Louise
It was an honour and privilege to support and challenge our adults to reflect on the imperative we all have at XP to become and create great learners and even better human beings!
We are Crew!
Andy Sprakes and Kate ap Harri
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
Year 5 Teacher/Leader at Carcroft School
F2 Teacher/Leader at Carcroft School
Thank you to everyone who attended our GCSE Information Evening on Wednesday. We hope you found it useful.
The presentation from the evening is published above so that you have all the information, key dates and teacher contacts to hand.
Mrs Parker
This week at Plover, students in EYFS completed a sponsored Bear walk as part of their new Expedition! They raised £1148 to support their local community – and dressed up as bears to perform bear related exercises and have fun during the process! Beautiful work!
Last week, Comms installed some new wonderful displays of student work at XP Gateshead. These wall displays are culminations of recent Expeditions and Activism from the last year.
Last Monday, our staff worked closely with Steplab to start implementing their ICT platform for coaching across XP Trust. Staff spent the day looking at effective coaching and learning and how Steplab can help create a positive culture around it.
Over the coming week’s we’ll be sharing more stories of Crew from our recent Outward Bound Expedition – here’s another from Crew JPO/JNO!
Find out more here to apply now and #JoinOurCrew
We talk a lot about getting to the top of our metaphorical mountain at XP East, but last weekend Crew Rashford’s Manveer actually made it to the top of Mount Snowdon!
Manveer was part of a wider group raising funds to expand Sant Baba Bhagwan Singh Ji Public Sen. Sec. School in India. The group have collectively raised over £20,000 and we are so impressed with Manveer’s fundraising efforts, as well as taking on the physical challenge of climbing Mount Snowdon.
You can find out more about why this fundraising is so important and donate here: Sant Baba Bhagwan Singh Ji Public Sen. Sec. School Fundraiser
A massive well done also to Crew Marx’s Arina who joined Manveer for part of the ascent. We are super proud of you both!
Mrs Parker
After a wonderful, relaxed and resetting first week back for crew, we have absolutely smashed the first week in lessons out the park!
We had lots of catching up to do in the first week back, we came up with plans of how we are going to manage our time and make sure we are looking after our wellbeing during such a stressful year! It was fantastic to regroup and prepare for the year ahead!
First week back was clearly a huge success because we have racked up a total of 97 praises in week one alone! They have come back raring to go and eager to get stuck in to even more GCSE content! Big shoutout to Kiahna, Charlotte and Riley for double figure praises already!
SO proud of their return! Keep the momentum going!
Miss Ibbo!
For the first week of school, our new Y7s ventured away with many students and teachers that they didn’t know. Although I myself have worked within XP school for over 8 years, I had never had the privilege of having a crew from Year 7 and had never experienced this side of the outward bound experience. So, even for a teacher who is experienced in working with students both in and out of school in a similar situation, it can be eye opening and nerve racking. I remember when I was myself in Year 8, I went away with school and I was terrified, I cannot imagine what it was like for Crew “Chandi” (given through the outward bound trust).
When we arrived in Ullswater and discussed some of the activities we would take part in, myself and our instructors (Dan and Stewart) were met with “I’m not doing that” however it showed even in the first activity “Jog and Dip”, that those barriers, those negative mindsets were falling. I think crew “Chandi” were quite lucky in the sense that there were at least half of its students that didn’t have a problem with outdoor pursuits. However, one of the biggest reasons for the outward bound experience is to push students out of their “comfort zone” to build resilience and therefore open them up to learning new and difficult things in ways that challenge and increase independence of thought.
So the challenges all come for different reasons for different students, be it home sickness, the outdoor activities or speaking up in the presentation at the end of a long, tiring week. Crew Chandi performed all of this in an exemplary manner. Each one of our crew faced their own challenges and not a single student stepped back, only stepped forward.
Three members of our crew were put forward to money off further experiences with the outward bound trust- Sandra, Molly and Lucas showed all of their character traits consistently. Sandra was like my right hand, with the most compassion I’ve ever seen in a Year 7 and on our Gorge Walk, she proved vital when I fell over in the water- Thank you Sandra. Ewan, Sandra and Penelope showed awesome orienteering skills. Ronnie, Lucas and Spencer proved their craftsmanship and Quality whilst helping other crew members to erect their tents. Kaiden showed a lot of courage by standing up for what he believed in. Ewans craftsmanship and quality excelled in preparation for the presentation. The biggest change in mindfulness that I’ve seen came from Spencer, who found that when he went to get a drink, the glasses on the worktop had run out, so instead of just getting himself a glass, he decided to replace all the glasses to help his entire year group.
It was a very tiring week, and I’m certain your children will agree with that. The stories I’ve related are only some of the things I could relate to you. However, if crew “Chandi” carry on in the way they have started they won’t only help each other to get to the top of the mountain- they will move the mountain.
Thank you for an amazing start to the year.
