Good morning. All lost property will be laid out in the Drama space at XP for students to collect items belonging to them. Anything that is unclaimed will be sent to charity after school closes tomorrow. Please encourage your child to have a quick look. Many thanks and have a great summer holiday. XP Office Team
When XP School in Doncaster opened as a Free School in September 2014 the story of its journey was only known to a handful of people. Now five years on, the ‘How We XP’ book launched this Summer, shares the journey to Outstanding and internationally acclaimed school and growing Multi-Academy XP Schools Trust.
Written by the CEO and Executive Principal for the XP Schools – Gwyn ap Harri and Andy Sprakes – the book’s narrative charts their journey and focuses on the design principles which make the school different and dynamic.
‘How We XP’ – a 200 page paperback – is, as described by the authors, a true story, a manual, a guide, a document to share and an invitation to try something different – to be the change.
The school signage carries the words ‘Above all Compassion’ – ‘How We XP’ is all about that. It’s an inspirational piece of work too, which has been described as ‘half story, half instruction manual, half call to arms. That equals one and a half – it’s that good’.
Preparing students for the real world is one of the most important things a school can do. This book answers many questions often asked at XP – including, how are you different, do you still follow a curriculum with expeditions at the heart of what you do and quite simply – how does XP work?
It’s all here in ‘How We XP’.
You can purchase your book from the school office or order online by clicking here.
Big Picture Learning, based in Bentley, Doncaster, are recruiting for a Provision Coordinator.
They will be interviewing potential applicants w/c 13th August – if you want to be considered you must ensure your application is with them by 9am, Monday 10th August 2019.
Salary is main scale TPS or L1-6 dependent on skills
To apply please send a brief letter and CV to [email protected].
To find out more about Big Picture Learning and this role click here.
School starts on Tuesday 27th August where we will be embarking on a week of crew.
Throughout the week students are required to be at school at normal time (8:30am) but finish times will be slightly different depending on the schedule for the day. Students will require a pen, pencil and ruler this week and a kit list has been sent out for Wednesday and Thursday.
The week’s schedule will be as follows:
Tuesday – In school with a normal finish time of 3:15. There is no extended study in school this week.
Wednesday – Out of school on crew activities so students will need a backpack with a packed lunch, a bottle of water, hiking boots and waterproofs. Please check the kit list for further details of the required clothing. Please can students come to school in trainers, not their walking boots. We are expected to be back at school for around 5pm.
Thursday – Out of school on crew activities so students will need a backpack with a packed lunch, a bottle of water, hiking boots and waterproofs. Please check the kit list for further details of the required clothing. Please can students come to school in trainers with their walking boots in their bag. We are expected to be back at school for around 5pm.
Friday – Students will be in school all day. Their week will be completed with a Presentation of Learning commencing at 2:15pm which parents are invited to attend and support students as they answer their Guiding Question.
Please refer to these important docs and ensure you and your child are familiar with them.
Just a reminder…… On Friday school will close at 1.30pm and there is no provision for students to stay in school. Can you please ensure arrangements are made with your child for collection etc. Many thanks.
As part of our NCS social action, we have been tasked with supporting a charity and hosting a series of fundraising events. Our groups will be coming into school this Friday to raise money and awareness for the Teenage Cancer Trust. We will be in school from 8AM – 1PM. We are asking that students and staff wear something red for a donation of £1.
We will also be hosting a bake sale and glitter / face painting stall.
All funds raised go towards our charity and improving the lives of youths suffering with cancer. We appreciate your help to support this worthy cause. Thank you in advance on behalf our NCS groups, we will see you all on Friday.
Posted on behalf of Helmsley NCS Groups 6 and 7.
What a fabulous result towards the end of the academic year!
It is with immense pride and to my professional satisfaction that I post the results of the third Data Drop assessment of Y8/E24 HOWLs. In all three areas – work hard, get smart and be kind – Crew Young lead the way, topping the leaderboard in their Habits of Work and Learning.
This is down to sheer hard work and to the collective effort of each and every member of our Crew. But it is only part of the story, and it encouraged me to reflect on the individual successes – academic and otherwise – that contributed to our cumulative grades during this academic year:
Adam – overcoming significant personal difficulties and now making concerted attempts to close the gap between his MEG and current grades.
Louie – featuring on round two of our student pledge successes board, Louie led a highly -organised Crew session demonstrating admirable sports leadership qualities.
Lewis – showed quiet determination to honour his pledge to volunteer more of an oral contribution in Spanish, justifying his position on round one of the student pledge successes board. Lewis is also justly proud of his excellent 100% attendance record for the year.
Eleanor – exceeding her MEG in Data Drop 3 for maths, science, English and history, Eleanor has consistently demonstrated a secure grasp of the concept of HOWLs. She also routinely volunteers her time to help out at FXP events, all selflessly for the benefit of other students.
Maclaren – Making it onto round two of our student pledge successes board, Maclaren has worked hard to widen his social circle, and he is also developing confidence through the mountain biking club.
Ella – Showed integrity in her latest SLC, and an awareness of her strengths and areas for development. Ella led a very powerful Crew session on mindfulness and had one of her poems published from amongst 8000 entries in a national competition.
Alesha – Alesha has an excellent 100% attendance for the whole year. Latest Data Drop assessments show she continues to exceed her MEGs in four areas and her HOWLs are consistently above 4.0. Another outstanding year for this highly industrious student.
Isabel – A recent addition to round three of the student pledge success board, Isabel has now accelerated her progress and attainment and is currently exceeding her MEG in English, maths and science.
George – George hosted his SLC yesterday and made his mother extremely proud of him, especially when she discovered that he had absolutely smashed his MEG in STEM…..exceeding it by a huge 0.9 grade. What a way to end the year George!
Keisha – I’ve lost count of the multiple spontaneous peer appreciations for compassion that Keisha has received in Community Meetings this week! Academically, Keisha has made it to the pledge board on account of her exceeding her MEG in HUMS, maths and history. She’s also a member of the Eco-Crew.
Aaron – Another member of the Eco-Crew, Aaron has offered countless positive contributions in session, and this year he has improved his fitness by regularly joining the mountain biking club.
Nathan – Nathan has often been prepared to set up and take down sports equipment, and he has frequently “bought into” the extra-curricular sporting provision on offer after school. He plays football for his club at the weekends.
Dominic – Out of school Dominic has secured his black belt in Mixed Martial Arts and delivered a very interactive Student-Led Conference recently. He doubled his HOWLs grades from term 1 to term 2 and he is now beginning to widen his social circle.
Our recent HOWLs are the best grades we’ve had so far…..but like any “personal best” they are there to be beaten, and they’re still not as high as they could be, just yet.
I expect even more of my “Youngsters” next year, and I’m confident they will rise to the challenge. Great work, Crew Young. Enough said.
Here are some highlights of our Wimbledon outing last week. For your information Simona Halep who we saw for our second match is in the semi-final of the competition now. C’mon Simona!!
The end of last week saw Crew Ali out in the sunshine doing Clean Up Crew, a weekly fixture which Crews sign up to do across XP and XP East. One of our core values is Stewardship and the principle that we ‘leave no trace‘. It’s really important to us that we all roll our sleeves up and get involved, and it’s amazing how much litter we found blowing in from outside the school grounds. This is something Eco Crew have identified as one of their areas to work on as we prepare to apply for our Bronze Award and Eco Reps Keisha, Aaron, Sami and Alice are leading on this.
Click here to visit the Eco Crew website and find out more.
In their E24 / Y8 Pioneer Spanish session on Friday our students focused on reviewing Spanish numbers 1-1000 using two websites that generate random numbers that are tested and rewarded with an online sports-related activity. Our students are expected to be able to spontaneously recall numbers at GCSE level, and we may need to consolidate the larger numbers in subsequent sessions since language learners often make spelling and grammar errors with this material.
We were pleased to welcome Mrs Cross into the session and we both agreed that E24 Pioneer’s levels of productivity were excellent. Pioneer are really flying along at present in Spanish, with secure HOWLs and three students whose MEGs have been revised upwards. Great work Pioneer!
