Y8/E26 Bubble Closure: Online Learning Timetable

By K Poncia4th December 2020

Following the closure of our Y8/E26 bubble, we will now move to an online educational provision as shown below – this has proved to be highly effective in supporting students in other year bubble closures as engagement rates have regularly been above 95%.

 

Here is our protocol for online learning:

  • all Crew sessions and lessons will take place LIVE via Google Hangout and the timetable is highlighted below.
  • students will receive input from teachers and have time to complete activities on Google Classroom.
  • students are registered in Crew (8.30am), at the beginning of the morning session (9.15am) and afternoon session (1.15pm).
  • all students are expected to join each session.  If a student is absent, Crew Leaders will contact home to ascertain the reason why. If a student is unable to join a session, for example, they are unwell, we ask parents to please contact the office.
  • Crew Leaders and Expedition teachers will send Google Hangout invitations to their classes.
  • invites for live sessions will be sent through email.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact your child’s crew leader.

Thank you.

PS: It was amazing to have 86% (44) students join the hangout this morning with our expert Victoria, who spoke to us about the Suffragette movement in Doncaster.  What a turn out at short notice!

 

E26 Pioneer Fieldwork Cancellation!

By Marc Robins4th December 2020

Unfortunately due to the closure of the Y8 (E26) bubble we are having to cancel the planned fieldwork on Tuesday 8th December. We were planning to busk at Lakeside Village Shopping Centre to raise funds for our final product but this won’t be possible now.

I am pleased to say that one class did manage to get to Lakeside (pictured above) earlier in the year and there are other fundraising events happening to ensure our final product happens.

To see our current total and for more information you can follow this link to view our crowdfunding page.

I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to Lakeside Village Shopping Centre for all their support with our expedition.

Good luck with the online learning E26 and stay safe.

Positive Covid19: Member of Staff (Y8 XP East students to self isolate)

By Jamie Portman4th December 2020

****** UPDATE (8:45am)*******

The Y8 timetable for online learning will be available ASAP. Crew Leaders will be sending an email to parents to let them know that there will be a Google Hangout with an expert (Suffragette Art expert) to support their expedition. Invites have already been sent to students via Google Classroom – even the closure of a year bubble doesn’t stop our awesome work!!

 

Dear Parents / carers of Y8 students at XP East,

We have been advised by Public Health England that there has been a confirmed case of COVID-19 for a member of staff.

We have followed the national guidance and have identified that your child has potentially been in close contact with the affected member of staff and they are a member of the Y8 XP East year bubble. In line with the national guidance your child should now stay at home until Wednesday 16th December.

We are asking you to do this to reduce the further spread of COVID 19 to others in the community.

If your child is well and does not have any Covid-19 related symptoms at the end of the 14 day period of self-isolation they can return to usual activities on Wednesday 16th December.

Other members of your household can continue normal activities provided your child does not develop symptoms within this period.

We will now move to an online educational provision and details of this will be available on our school website shortly.

As this is so early in the day we have a contingency plan to manage any Y8 students should they come to school this morning. The year group will be isolated in an area of the school away from other year groups.

All other year groups at XP East will remain open.

After speaking with the member of staff this morning, they are doing well and we wish them a speedy recovery.

Best wishes everyone.

A huge thank you

By Julie Wadsley3rd December 2020

Thank you to our families and staff who donated so generously with selection boxes, mince pies and biscuits. They will be a welcome addition to the Christmas food hampers which are being distributed across over 9,000 Doncaster families this Christmas period.

Friday 18th December 2020 1.30pm finish

By Julie Wadsley3rd December 2020

This is just a reminder that on the last day of this term, Friday 18th December 2020, the school will be closing for all students at 1:30pm after Crew. This is for staff to prepare for the new term. There will not be any provision for students to stay after this time so all students must leave at 1:30pm.

Christmas Jumper Day Friday 11th December 2020

By Emily Jones2nd December 2020

This year, as a school, we are once again taking part in the Christmas Jumper Day in support of Save The Children.  Millions of people across the UK and Ireland will be taking part in this day to celebrate being silly and getting into the festive spirit! On Friday 11th December, we would like you to come to school in your most Christmassy attire! It might be a lovely Christmas jumper, or maybe just a bit of tinsel, but we’d love it if you could make a £1 donation to Save The Children.

We’ve looked at the amazing work Save the Children do, in Crew. But just in case you’ve forgotten, here’s a reminder:

  • Here in the UK, they provide families with books and toys, who might otherwise be struggling. The pandemic this year will mean that eve more families may be facing this grim reality.
  • In parts of the globe where Covid-19 rips through communities because sanitation and health care is severely lacking, Save the Children can provide face masks for health workers and hand sanitiser to help slow the spread.
  • Save the Children can provide five children with antibiotics, that help fight malnutrition, using just £10.

Staff have kicked off the fundraising for Save the Children, with a socially-distanced Christmas market, on their Staff Day on Monday 30th November. They raised £338 pounds to help this fantastic cause!

So please come to school on Friday 11th December wearing something Christmassy and give a donation of £1- this small gesture could make a big difference to children most in need, around the world.

XP16 Art & Design Course

2nd December 2020XP East

XP16 is currently offering the following courses:

Art & Design
Music Technology
Creative Media

Each pathway can be studied to Level 3 National Extended Diploma, which is equivalent to three A Levels.

Here is some further information about our Art & Design course.

If you would like more information about studying at XP16 please use this link to our XP16 information site or email Kate ap Harri [email protected]

 

XP16 Mock Exams

By XP East1st December 2020

XP16 Mock Exams December 2020

Below is the process for the XP16 mock exams.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Any specific questions about individual exams I will forward to the subject teacher or you can email them directly.

 

Mock Exams take place Week beginning 7th & 14th December
Mock Exam marking completed Completed by Friday 8th January
Exam review with students Completed by Friday  15th January
Mock Data Analysis:

(Crew leader & parental contact)

 Completed by Friday 15th January: 
Grade cards to parents

SLC’s

 Week beginning: 18th January  

 

POST 16 Exam Timetable – December 2020

Please note this may be subject to change due to current staffing issues with Covid.

 

Day Exam Time Invigilator
Monday 7th December Spanish AS Paper 2 Listening, Reading & Translation

Mathematics Paper 1

 10.30 – 12.30

13.00 – 14.30

 VCO

TBL
Tuesday 8th December English Paper 1

Telling Stories

 9.15 – 11.30 TBL
Wednesday 9th December Sociology Paper 1

Physics Paper 1

 9.15 – 11.15

13.00 – 

 TBL

TBL
Thursday 10th December History Paper 1

Biology Paper 1

 9.15 – 11.45

13.00 – 

 KAP

KAP
Friday 11th December English Paper 2 

Exploring Conflict

 9.15 – 11.45 KAP
Monday 14th December Sociology Paper 2 (half a paper 2) Culture and Identity

History Paper 2

 9.15 – 10.15

13.00 – 15:30

 TBL

TBL
Tuesday 15th December Spanish AS

Paper 3 Response to Film

Politics Paper 

 10.30 – 12.10

13.00 – 15:00

 TBL/VCO

KAP
Wednesday 16th December Mathematics Paper 2

Physics Paper 2

 9.15 – 10.45

13.00 – 

 TBL

TBL
Thursday 17th December Biology Paper 2 9.15 –  KAP
Friday 18th December

 

Apart from Spanish:

AM Exams to start at 9.15

PM Exams to start at 13.00

 

Best Wishes

Kate

Fight the Power!

By Katie Haughey30th November 2020

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!

Crew Young on the steps to success!

By D Pearson28th November 2020

A series of six at first perhaps seemingly disconnected words: thoughts, words, actions, habits, character and destiny should be read from bottom to top and not, as is convention, from top to bottom.

Just over three years ago Crew Young and their E24 / Y7 year group would join a weekly Community Meeting by sitting amongst their peers on the bottom row of steps in the heart of our school. As they then progressed through the year, and up the steps into Y8, they were encouraged to turn their thoughts into words, by making public apologies, appreciations and stands, and upwards and onto the Y9 step then their words became actions as they honoured their pledges, held each other to account, acted on kind, specific and helpful feedback, and strived not to be passengers in classes.

Due to Covid-19 we’ve not yet been able to meet as a whole school community, but if we were able to do so then Crew Young would now routinely occupy the fourth row of steps – habits – in our Community Meetings.

The focus of recent work in Academic Crew on “Thoughtful Thursdays” has been to support our students’ ownership of their first round of HOWLs “snapshot” data, and their analysis and interpretation of how their Habits of Work and Learning have been assessed by teaching and support staff. We began the process whilst in self-isolation, by completing a “HOWLs predictions” chart. This was then compared with students’ actual HOWLs grades data, and some of their reflections were captured on a Padlet wall.

 

The next steps will be to work collaboratively to collate student and Crew Leader pledges, that will then facilitate the creation of a Crew Narrative for success. As you can see, Crew Young averages out at around 75% OK or higher rating for work hard and get smart, and a really pleasing 81.8% rating for “be kind”. For Crew Young compassion remains above all.

We are now in a position to begin to ask: “what is the data telling us?” around the 27.3% rated concern in work hard and get smart, and to explore the correlation between Habits of Work and Learning and academic success, as we continue to grow in character and ultimately seek to fulfil our destiny. This process has begun……