Unfortunately, as I am sure you understand and appreciate, there have been some delays to our journey.
We have just left Scotch Corner Services, according to the estimate we will return to school at 6pm.
As mentioned in the blog update, we would appreciate it if you could park in Car Park 3 as normal, then meet your child with their bags where the coaches departed from at the opposite side of school. This ensures we can keep the students safe and there is enough room for the coaches to manoeuvre.
Your child will be released from their Crew Leader once they have seen you.
Day 2 began with a room inspection from the Outward Bound Team and we have to admit C31 set the bar high for future year groups! Though there may have been some difficulties initially making beds, scores of 9 and 9.5 filled the board! Craftmanship and Quality is often one of the more challenging of our Character Traits to master but these guys are smashing it!
As the day went on we were engaged in a variety of activities (mostly water based, which we have loved!) and slept in a number of different areas across the Lake District, including camping under the stars listening for the owls!
Though there are many stories to share, we know your children are enthusiastic to do this upon their return. Each and every one of them have stepped outside of their comfort zone, shown Courage, Respect and Compassion beyond description. We are unbelievably proud of them!
The plan tomorrow is to leave the centre at 1pm. We will be stopping at Scotch Corner for the drivers and our lunch and then making our way back to school. We will be parked at the front of school (where we left from).
You should park in Car Park 3 and walk to meet us there (this will avoid fines!). Your child will be released by their Crew Leader when they have seen you.
The journey is expected to take around 4 hours, therefore we will see you at school at 5pm all being well! We will continue to update tomorrow to be more precise.
Firstly, our sincerest apologies you’ve not heard from us sooner! Given we’ve been focusing on our character traits this week, we’ll use integrity and admit… we’ve just been way too busy having fun!
There have been so many learning opportunities so far upon our adventure, the first was how to put bed sheets on a bed! Since then we have:
– Met out Outward Bound instructors
– Jogged and dipped in the lake (a longstanding Outward Bound tradition)
– Jumped off the jetty
– Swam in open water
– Engaged in a variety of team building exercises
Day 1 was pretty exhausting, being back ‘at school’ was a shock to the system for us all; settling down for a bedtime story last night set us all up for a good night’s sleep!
Today we are all off site and will be for the entire evening! This means there will be no phone calls home tonight.
We look forward to sharing our adventures with you upon our return!
The School Age Immunisation Team will be administering FLU vaccinations at our school on the 19th of September 2024.
To ensure your child receives the appropriate care, we kindly ask that you check your email inbox for an important message regarding the vaccination. The email contains a link to detailed information and the consent form.
Please take a moment to review the information and complete the consent form by selecting either YES or NO as soon as possible. Your prompt response is crucial in helping RDASH prepare for the vaccination day.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email [email protected].
Highlights include over 80% of our students achieved 9-4 in English Language and English Literature, with 22% of our students achieving the EBACC at 9-5. We continue to see the impact of our expeditionary learning curriculum on combined higher outcomes with 22% of our students achieving a 9-6 in English language, English literature, Maths, Combined Science and History across the disciplines. We also celebrate some very strong results in some of the chosen subjects with particular praise to those students who achieved strong grades in BTEC Sport, GCSE Geography, Psychology and Japanese.
We must remember that E26 was significantly affected by numerous year group closures during the pandemic, and it is within this context that their achievements should be particularly celebrated.
However, as we continuously say at XP East, academic achievement is only one measure of success.
Through our cross-subject expeditionary curriculum, students have enjoyed an engaging, creative and rich learning experience. This has allowed our students to engage with the world and create beautiful work that really matters and that has made a difference.
Through our learning expeditions our students not only gain the knowledge to pass exams, not just the cultural capital of knowing the world around them, but also the powerful knowledge to positively change the world they will adopt when they leave school – those of you who attended the Climate Conference can testify to this!
The wait is almost over: GCSE results will be available for collection from XP School on Thursday 22nd August between the hours of 9.00am-11.30am.
Please read the following information about the collection process:
Entry and Exit will be by the usual student entrance at car park 3.
Each Crew will have a designated area within the heart of XP school (all students of XP and XPE will collect their results at XP School).
Crew leaders will have the results for their crew.
Students will have the opportunity to wait on the stairs whilst waiting for a space with their crew leader.
Students can open their results envelope with their crew leader or leave school to open them.
If students want to speak to Crew Leaders after they have received their results they will need to wait on the stairs until a space is available.
Students will need to complete a destinations form with Mrs Burns before leaving school. Mrs Burns will also be available to discuss next steps, if required.
If students are not able to come to collect their results they must email Miss Cocliff if XP ([email protected]) or Mrs Parker if XPE ([email protected]) from their school email account and request their results be sent to them. Results will be emailed to their school account.
If students have any concerns about their exam results they must email Miss Cocliff or Mrs Parker in the first instance outlining their concerns.
Official GCSE certificates arrive in School late October and students will be invited to a presentation evening in November to receive their certificates.
We are really looking forward to seeing you all on the 22nd, and can’t wait to see the results of your hard work, through the most challenging of times. Please remember that – as important as your exam results are – they are just a small part of your XP/XPE journey. We are all super proud of the young people you’ve grown up to be, regardless of what’s in the envelope.
Check out one of our students’ latest beautiful Expedition products, featuring powerful folk songs created by Year 7 at XP Gateshead, inspired by the rich mining heritage of North-East England. From performing mining-related songs to studying historical events and visiting Beamish Museum, our students have captured the essence of the miners’ stories.
Well done to my amazing crew this year. It has been a pleasure to be part of crew this year. We have had an amazing year and it was ace to finish it on a high winning sports day and getting the most praise in year 7. Well done and I look forward to year 8.
GCSE Geography students will be undertaking their required GCSE geography fieldwork on Tuesday 10th September 2024. Students need to arrive at school at 7:45 for a prompt departure and will return to school, traffic depending, by 3:30.
We will be collecting data on the downstream changes of a river at Edale in the Peak District, this will be assessed in the Paper 3 exam at the end of year 11.
Students will need the required kit list – if there are any issues with this then please get in touch. Students will need to be prepared for weather changes and being outdoors all day.
Please complete this consent/medical form to help us to support your child on this fieldwork. The deadline for this is 2nd September 2024.
If you have any questions about the fieldwork, please email me at [email protected]
We have recently received next year’s prices from our current catering providers, Doncaster Council Schools Catering Service.
Due to rising food and labour costs, they have significantly increased the price to all of our schools across the Trust.
Even with the schools heavily subsidising this, we may still need to increase the cost per meal for parents to £3.00. We are greatly disappointed to ask this of our parents, but this is a decision we have had to make due to reasons out of our control.
We will continue to work with Schools Catering over the summer holidays to try and bring these costs down, whilst ensuring a high quality meal will be provided to each of our students. We will keep parents informed with any updates on this.
We are exploring other providers, and if necessary, we will look to change providers if a more cost effective offer is available elsewhere.
We will do everything we can to keep the price of school meals affordable to our parents, but we wanted to provide early warning that our prices are likely to increase from September 2024.
