It is our intention to host two Year 6 Parent Information evenings on Monday 27 and Thursday 30 September due to high demand. Obviously, this may be subject to change so please keep checking our website for further updates and details. Andy Sprakes
We’re launching our joint C26 (Y9) and C25 (Y10) optional visit to Madrid 2022!
Following our students’ highly successful stay in Barcelona in May 2019, we are delighted to confirm our intention to run a joint C25/C26 (year 10 and year 9) optional fieldwork visit to Madrid from Friday 24th June 2022 – Monday 27th June 2022. Staying ensuite, on a half board basis in a hotel in Spain’s vibrant capital city, our students’ itinerary will include:
- coach transfers with return air travel to Madrid Barajas Airport
- group seating allocation on board the aircraft
- tour of Bernabeu Football Stadium
- excursions to Reina Sofia, Thyssen Museum and the Plaza Mayor
- Visit to the Palacio Real
- An evening meal in Hard Rock cafe
- The services of a travel tour representative throughout our stay
- Basic travel insurance endorsed by the DfE
This optional fieldwork visit is open to all students in our current year 9 AND year 10 in XP and XP East, both the GCSE Spanish groups and the Spanish+ groups, and as the final price is dependent upon the number of participants we have quoted £599.00 based on 35 students taking part. However, this price could increase or decrease depending upon final numbers.
As well as providing an excellent opportunity for our students to practise their Spanish speaking skills, it will also incorporate study of Spain’s artistic heritage, and this will form the basis of a subsequent Presentation of Learning. An initial non-refundable deposit of £50.00 required by Tuesday 21st September may be paid via the Parentpay portal, and letters confirming the details may be obtained from Mr Pearson, Mrs Sprakes or C25 and C26 Crew Leaders.
Year 10 Immersion Fieldwork to the Royal Armouries
Students in Year 10 took part in a wonderful visit to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds yesterday. The purpose of Immersion is exactly that; to immerse students into the subject content that they will be exploring throughout this expedition. Going on fieldwork is just one of the ways we build curiosity and give students a visceral experience to get them to begin making connections between different subjects and the real world.
In this visit we were given a guided tour of the WW2 ‘Firefight’ exhibition and a handling session based on the theme of choice where students were able to hold and explore different weapons and artefacts from both WW1 and WW2.
Our students conduct and attitude to learning was exemplary and they really did our school proud. Well done, Year 10. Let’s see what comes next…
Crew Parkinson: How can we, as a crew, prepare ourselves for our next climb?
Written by Aaron, Ava, Lacey, Kris, Rosie, Dylan, Florence, Marcus, Harvey and Bob.
It was a welcoming and fun start of the new school year. We settled back into the Crew talking to everyone as we had our Crew breakfast. This helped us to settle back in and get used to being in Crew again. Then we did Mandala drawings to put up on the Crew wall for everyone to see, we drew images and patterns to represent our identity. Near the end, we did Minute to Win It games with the year group… our crew came last in them, but spirits we still high.
On Tuesday we played Sportshall games with the year group. During this we did multiple games to strengthen our team work and healthy competition between the Crews. Crew Parkinson and Crew Anoa’i managed to win one round with some amazing dives by the alliance piloted by Marcus.
We then had a Careers session to make a charity and research the careers and job roles needed to start the charity. We did this activity to understand the different roles and qualifications needed in different career paths, for example we needed advertisers, fundraisers, medical professionals and accountants. We talked about how one of the ‘climbs’ of this year will be starting our GCSEs and the future ahead and began thinking about the qualifications we might need for our careers.
The whole year group were given prompts in order to write a letter to our future selves. We did this as part of a ‘solo’. By writing these answers we would be reflecting on our current and past selves to see what we could improve and set ourselves future goals – we’ll see what the future holds!
On our walk on Friday, we showed lots of character traits, which included: helping Miss Johnson up the steps when she couldn’t get up them, we regrouped on the steep hills, and we overcame the challenge of the two steep and tall hills. This demonstrates that we don’t just give up at the slightest challenge but persevere and support each other, we all hit the ground running, and if we get Crew right, we get everything right!
An update regarding Covid19 – 07.09.21
Dear Parents
Through the testing process this week, as I stated yesterday, we have identified an increasing number of positive Covid cases in school. As a result, we are increasing the testing processes so that we can identify and isolate cases, where possible. Mr Sprakes spoke to Public Health Doncaster today, and shared the latest data regarding positive Covid tests in both staff and students, who were supportive of the measures we have put in place up to date. If cases continue to rise then we have been advised to seek further advice.
We also ask parents to continue to test your child every Wednesday and Sunday via the Lateral Flow tests that our schools have provided students with.
Obviously, the situation is very challenging and changing constantly. As a result, we may have to adapt our systems by putting in place further strategies, after consultation with Public Health, in our schools to try and further reduce the spread of infections.
As such, I would encourage parents to check the website on a daily basis for any updates. If you subscribe to our website you will receive automatic updates to your email account. We have found in the past this is the most effective and timely way of communicating with parents.
Crew will still take place for students isolating through Google Hangout so that they can check in with their crew and crew leader if they are well enough to do so. Also, work has been set through Google classrooms so if your son/daughter has to isolate then, if they are asymptomatic and/or well enough, they can access class sessions so that they can keep up with expedition work. If there are any issues with this provision please do not hesitate to contact your son’s/daughter’s crew leader in the first instance and we will endeavour to solve any problems.
Expeditions have started really well and students are engaging, at the moment in fieldwork activities and working with experts. If cases continue to rise we may need to review this.
With the lifting of the restrictions across England, and people mixing freely it is very difficult for us to manage the situation in school. I would like to thank you for your understanding and the overwhelming support we receive in trying to make sure our young people have an amazing learning experience whilst keeping safe.
We have a further meeting with Public Health Doncaster to review our protocols before the end of this week and I will update you when this has taken place.
Best wishes
Jamie Portman
Y8/E27: A bird’s eye view of the Outward Bound centre in Ullswater
I think all parents will agree… the location of the Outward Bound centre in Ullswater is breathtaking!
You can follow us via our Twitter feed, and this blog post that brings all of the updates together.
See you on Thursday.
Update: Positive Covid19 cases in our schools
In order to update our community, we have a total of 22 cases of Covid19 in our schools.
Our testing provision has identified 14 cases in school today, with the remaining cases being identified via home testing Lateral Flow kits and PCR tests. 10 of these positive cases are within Y8/X27 at XP school.
I have been in contact with Public Health Doncaster today, and they have identified this as an outbreak. Myself and Andy Sprakes will be meeting their representatives as soon as possible in order to implement any necessary measures from our Covid Outbreak Management Plan.
As a precaution, we will implement the following as of tomorrow:
- Y8/X27 students will be tested in school daily for the next 10 days (as mentioned this is because 10/22 students are Y8/X27 students)
- All students will have a 2nd round of testing in school tomorrow
- Moving forward, all students will be tested in school twice per week for the next 10 days
- All rooms will continue to ensure that they are well ventilated: windows and doors must be kept open wherever possible.
- Personal hygiene control measures will remain a priority
I will update our community on any further measures once we have met with Public Health Doncaster.
Please do not hesitate to contact school should you have any questions.
Best wishes, Jamie Portman.
E27 Outward Bound 2021
How does it feel to be kind?
We kicked off with a bang in E27 and in Crew Marx! It was great to see everyone back safe and well and getting stuck into crew activities!
We focused in crew Marx over the first week on resetting our HOWLS and how we intend to make the most of our time in year 8. We already have a really strong sense of crew and help each other as well as holding each other to account! We have noticed though, that there always seems to be a boy/girl divide, so we decided to do some work around our HOWLS in pairs of boys and girls (I have told the boys the girls don’t bite but they don’t trust me). Here is Tammy and Kiahnna working with Ben, as well as Brooke and Leo who smashed their jigsaw in record time and guessed it represented kindness!
We had a HUGE push on kindness throughout this week! It is so important at XP East that not only do you Work Hard and Get Smart in your sessions but you are being kind at all times! From helping each other when needed to complimenting each other and boosting people up! We decided our micro adventure would focus on kindness and for this we created handmade gifts to give out to the public at Lakeside village! This went down a storm and the students felt so good to be making random people also feel good! just goes to show NO ACT OF KINDNESS, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, IS WASTED!
I was so proud of everyone in crew Marx for stepping out of their comfort zones and talking to shoppers in Lakeside but I would just like to mention something inparticular:
Charlotte – She was so brave and worked really hard to show the courage to talk to strangers and after she had done it her words were “Miss, I always hide behind my mum whenever we go shopping and she talks to people, XP is making me so confident, somebody took my gifts and I feel so good!”
What an achievement!
See you all bright an early for the adventure to really begin!
Miss Ibbotson
Y8/E27 at Lakeside during their 1st week for their Final Product
After spending Tuesday and Wednesday with Y8s from XP at Aberdovey last week, Thursday saw me supporting the XP East Y8s at Lakeside shopping centre.
The guiding question for their first week back was ‘How does the power of kindness impact on your life and the lives of others?’ Part of their work revolved around creating artwork, rock paintings, and other arts and crafts in preparation for talking to members of the public and donating them as gifts.
As you can see in the video below, students had to show tremendous courage by talking to people who they had never met before, explain the purpose of what they were doing and donate the gifts. Many students spoke about how nerve wracking it was for them to do this, but as you can see – they pulled it off.
Well done all concerned!