XP East

Fieldwork Wednesday 16th June!

By Web Blogger8th June 2021

Finally, we are allowed to go on fieldwork! We have managed to squeeze one in before the end of term!!

We are currently doing the expedition “Call the cops”, looking at crime and punishment through time. We will be looking at the introductions of police and prisons, having already looked at crime and how it was dealt with before this!

In order to support our work for the introductions and developments of our system, we have arranged fieldwork to Shrewsbury Prison. The prison was closed in 2013 and is used for educational purposes now, so rest assured students will not be walking around a working prison with inmates.

The students will take part in being booked in as prisoners, shown around, then participate in an escape room activity! It is an amazing experience and will be extremely beneficial to the expedition!

We will be leaving school at 7:30am on Wednesday 16th June in order to arrive at Shrewsbury for 10:30. We are leaving the prison at 14:00 with the hope of arriving back at school between 16:30 – 17:00. This will be a long day for the students, but I am sure they will love it! Please make sure students wear comfortable clothes and take a jacket as it can become cold in the prison and sensible shoes. Students will also need a packed lunch and sufficient water for the day. Please don’t pack any products containing nuts in packed lunches as we are a nut-free school!

Any questions please feel free to email me on [email protected] or your child’s crew leader!

Thank you!

Year 6 Outward Bound Form for meetings

By XP East7th June 2021

For Year 6 parents attending meetings over the next two weeks, when you arrive you will be asked to complete the following Outward Bound form using the link.

You will need to sign in with your email address or a social media account, and a verification number will be sent to that account, which you will need to use to access to start the form.

When you have entered the form you will need to click on the add participant and then complete the details.

Any problems please see reception.

Dom’s now a Second Dan!

By D Pearson6th June 2021

We’re thrilled to hear that Dom has recently reached black belt Second Dan standard in martial arts, despite the significant limitations on training due to Covid. This is an AWESOME achievement, of which Dominic and his family and martial arts club should be justly proud!

I have never met anyone other than Dom who has reached black belt Second Dan, and this proves just what can be achieved when you work hard enough to reach your goals! Well done, Dominic!!

E27 Are Finally Going On Fieldwork!

By H Hickson2nd June 2021

I am really pleased to write that we are going to be taking E27 on their first fieldwork at XP East on Monday (7th June) and Tuesday (8th June) to Sandall Beat Wood as part of our expedition “No one is too small to make a difference” which has an environmental focus. Due to Covid, we haven’t been able to do this sooner so I am really excited they are finally getting the opportunity.

Explorer will be going on Monday and Pioneer will be going on Tuesday. We will be leaving school at 9.30am by minibus and be back in school for 1.15 pm.

Students are advised to wear appropriate clothing for the weather that day as we will be outside for the entire time – suncream will be a definite if the weather is like it has been during the holiday! Hopefully we won’t get any rain but if it is forecast make sure students bring waterproofs. Sensible shoes such as trainers will need to be worn as we will be walking and on our feet for most of the time.

Students will need to bring a packed lunch and make sure they have plenty to drink if it is warm (unless on Free School Meals where one will be provided).

Normal school equipment (pens/pencils/device etc) should still be brought to school as the students will have their normal school lessons in the afternoon, iPads etc will be left in the classroom when on fieldwork which will be locked.

I Love Camping - Timeline Photos | Outdoor quotes, Life path, Path quotes

And the winner is……Save the Children!

By D Pearson21st May 2021

Our C25 / Year 9 GCSE Spanish students have been working hard to promote a charity fundraising initiative in aid of Save The Children, as part of our current work on Fair Trade, social equity and child poverty in Latin America. This involved students producing and displaying posters in both schools, and visiting Crew rooms to invite their peers to guess the number of Fair Trade chocolates in a jar. At £1.00 a go, the winner with the closest guess to the actual number of chocolates would get to keep them and the jar.

This morning we can reveal that Mrs Cunningham and Crew Rosa won the chocolates in XP School, and Mrs Newrick correctly guessed that there were 99 chocolates in XP East’s jar. As a result of our students’ activism, they helped towards fulfilling the volunteering element of their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award, but more importantly (and with the odd extra donation) they raised a total of £122.55 for Save The Children.

A huge appreciation goes to C25 students and Crew Leaders for helping to raise a three figure sum for charity.

Getting smart in E26 Explorer Spanish

By D Pearson18th May 2021

Recent work covered by E26 Explorer Spanish students is centred on describing clothes using colours and other adjectives. Having played picture bingo to consolidate the correct position and spelling of colours, our students then completed a clothing wardrobe graphic to show learning, before applying it to celebrities to describe what they usually and sometimes wear. It was really pleasing to see students getting smart by using several sources of reference material to work independently. Special appreciation goes to Imogen for being our impromptu bingo caller!

Anatomy of an examination room

By D Pearson18th May 2021

As I sit here reflecting on the past week, Crew Young are in the middle of their last mock exam sitting a science paper based on hydrocarbons and electromagnetism. It’s been a very challenging week for Crew, and at times they’ve had to dig deep and support each other; whether it be through the vagaries of a GCSE Spanish speaking exam, the intricacies of communicable and non-communicable diseases, or the concept of living under Nazi rule, they’ve coped with everything in their stride and with consistently secure HOWLs.

Here they are inputting their penultimate self-assessed HOWLs grades, prepared to be cold-called and to share work that substantiates the grades that they are entering. A busy last week as we “wind up”, rather than “wind down” towards the end of their term. Well done Crew Young – you make me very proud of you all!

E25/X25 Fieldwork Wednesday 9th June

By Web Blogger17th May 2021

We are finally allowed to go on fieldwork!

This expedition we have been studying Nazi Germany and have read our anchor text, Number The Stars, about the Nazi occupation of Denmark and how Danish Jews were smuggled to safety from Denmark to Sweden. However, many European Jews were victims of the Holocaust. For our fireldwork, we are attending the National Holocaust Centre in Newark. As well as speaking to experts and looking at the exhibitions, we will also hopefully be priveleged enough to receive a talk by a Holocaust survivor.

Students will need to arrive at school at the normal time and attend Crew to be registered. We advise students to dress appropriately should there be unpleasant weather, when travelling to and from the coaches. Students will also need a packed lunch and sufficient water for the day. Please don’t pack any products containing nuts in packed lunches as we are a nut-free school! The journey to and from Newark is only expected to take around 40-60 minutes, so snacks and drinks without lids are not permitted on the coaches.

We aim to arrive back at school at around 3.15pm, however due to the unpredictability of traffic, we may be slightly later than 3.15pm.

The National Holocaust Centre and Museum - Visit Nottinghamshire

Crew Finch mock-ing about

By A Parker13th May 2021

Mock exams are in full flow and Crew Finch have been working so very hard! We’ve been trying to keep our Crew time quite relaxed this week but it has, of course, been dominated with exam talk – be it comparing answers or discussing how easy or hard the previous days exams were.

We’re always up for finding ways to make revision a bit more fun, so today we played History Hangman. The usual rules applied but with an added twist: whoever chose the word had to end their turn by explaining how that word or phrase linked in with either of our two History exam topics: The People’s Health or Living under Nazi Rule.

Top Marks to Kenzie for ‘hanging’ the rest of Crew with his choice, John Snow. Kenzie then went on to remind us that Snow was responsible for identifying the water source responsible for a major Cholera outbreak in Broad Street in 1854, by plotting cases on a map of the area. The water pump was removed and cholera infections immediately dropped.

Crew have been absolutely amazing throughout this first week of mock exams. This is their first experience of sitting in an exam room and having to work under exam conditions. Having to stay still and quiet for up to 1 hour 45 minutes at a time is probably more difficult for them to manage than the exam content itself! As ever, they are making me proud 🙂

Above all, Compassion!

By Web Blogger11th May 2021

As most of you are aware unfortunately one of our Crew members’ bike was stolen a few weeks back and in our mindful Monday session as a Crew it was decided that a fundraising page was a way of helping the community, very close to home by raising money for a new bike. We were blown away by the generosity of so many people and quickly reached the target.

With bikes being a sort after item at the minute, sourcing one, in stock locally could have proved a challenge, but an amazing local company Cycle Supreme stepped in to help us out.

So with everyone’s hard work and kindness, Crew were able to surprise Logan with a new bike last friday in front of his family. We also raised enough money to purchase a diamond standard lock, to hopefully prevent such an awful event happening again.

In true Crew spirit, we tackled the issue of how best to use the new bike lock. This took a few attempts and many different ideas but they pulled together and Logan’s new bike was safely locked up.