E31 – South Yorkshire Police and Lakeside Fieldwork Bring ‘Crash Test Doncaster’ to Life!
It has been an incredibly exciting and action-packed week for our Year 8 mathematicians! As part of our ongoing STEAM expedition, Crash Test Doncaster: How fast is too fast?, students have been stepping out of the classroom to see exactly how the maths they learn on the whiteboard is applied in the real world.
A Visit from the Serious Collisions Investigations Unit
The week kicked off with a gripping presentation from a very special guest: Police Sergeant John Taylor from the Serious Collisions Investigations Unit at South Yorkshire Police.
PS Taylor spoke to the students about the crucial role mathematics plays in real-life police investigations. When a serious collision occurs, investigators rely heavily on maths to piece together exactly what happened. Students were fascinated to learn how equations are used to calculate vehicle speeds from the length of tyre skid marks, and how the scatter location of debris can help map out the exact point of impact.
By walking the students through a real-world case study from a previous incident, PS Taylor brilliantly demonstrated that maths isn’t just about passing exams—it is a vital tool used to keep our communities safe.
Stepping into the Shoes of Investigators
Inspired by PS Taylor’s visit, our students took on the role of data analysts and headed out into the local community to conduct their own primary fieldwork.
Their first task was to carry out a comprehensive traffic and pedestrian count at various locations around the Lakeside area. Students carefully categorised and recorded the flow of different vehicle types (cars, vans, HGVs, and motorbikes) alongside pedestrian footfall.
Calculating Speed on Stadium Way
The most thrilling part of the fieldwork was putting compound measures into practice! Students set up observation points along Stadium Way to investigate local vehicle speeds.
To do this without police radar guns, they had to be resourceful. By using the uniform distance between the street lamp posts as their fixed distance markers, and stopwatches to record the time it took vehicles to travel between them, the students were able to use the classic mathematical formula: Speed = Distance ÷ Time to determine how fast cars were travelling around our local community.
What’s Next?
Now that our Year 8s have gathered all this fantastic raw data, the real mathematical heavy lifting begins! Over the next few lessons, students will be taking their findings into the class rooms. They will be using Google Sheets to digitise their data, organising their counts into grouped frequency tables, and calculating averages to finally answer our expedition’s guiding question: How fast is too fast?
A huge thank you to Police Sergeant John Taylor for giving up his time to inspire our students, and a massive well done to Year 8 for their excellent behaviour and focus during the fieldwork.
Next week in PE W/C 2nd March
Monday– Year 8 Netball tournament away pick up at Hall Cross lower school at 5.00pm
Year 9 boys football pick up at Hall Cross lower school pick up at 4.45pm
Wednesday– Year 7 and 8 football fixture away pick up at XP at 5.15pm
Thursday– Cheerleading practice 3.30-4.30. Badminton fieldwork.
Look forward to seeing you all there.
Sharing our Stories: 27/02/2026
Beautiful work this week
Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!
To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.
Top of the Blogs
Crew Brunel: Finishing Half Term Strong @ XP
Building Bright Ideas for a Better Planet @ Norton Infants
The Last Straw: Making Maths Fair and Square @ Norton Juniors
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
On Tuesday this week, our crew took part in a litter picking session around our school grounds as when we came back after half term, we noticed that there was quite a bit of litter left around the site. We all agreed that we take pride in our school, so we decided to do something about it!
Working together as a team, we collected rubbish from the playground, field areas and pathways. It was surprising to see how much litter had built up over just one week. However, it felt good knowing that we were making a positive difference to our environment.
As a crew, we have now made a commitment to tidy up our school every two weeks by litter picking during crew time. We believe that small actions can make a big difference, and we want our school to be a clean, safe and welcoming place for everyone.
This experience reminded us about the importance of responsibility, teamwork and respect for our environment. We are proud of what we achieved and look forward to continuing this effort throughout the term.
Together, we can keep our school clean! 🌱
Thanks Miss Askin and Crew!
Careers Corner – Spring newsletter –
National Careers Week (2nd–7th March 2026) helps students learn about different careers through workshops and employer activities. The school follows a Careers Roadmap from Year 7 to Year 11, guiding students as they explore options and make decisions about their future.
At XP we develop key transferable skills such as listening, teamwork, problem‑solving, and creativity.
Please support your student in Years 9–11 complete an aspirations survey, and Year 11 students also must complete a Next Steps survey to support post‑16 planning.
Work Experience for C29 (Year 10) will run from 11th–15th May 2026, offering benefits like real‑world experience, confidence building, and CV development. It requires full attendance and support from parents/carers.
Year 10 will also be attending taster days at local colleges to help them begin to make choices about where they will study after XP.
No football practice this week
Unfortunately football practice will not be on this week. It will start on Wednesday 4th March with Mr Currie and Mr Booth.
PE Enrichment Feb-March
Welcome back everyone. Please see the enrichment timetable for this half term. All starting this week.
Come along and try some new activities.
Ski trip 2027
After the huge success of the Ski trip 2026 we have decided to run a Ski trip in 2027 to Pila, Italy.
This is open to students in C29, C30 and C31. If your child is interested in going skiing please complete the google form.
All information is on the google form.
Any questions please email [email protected] or [email protected]
Sharing our Stories: 13/02/2026
Beautiful work this week
Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!
To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.
Top of the Blogs
G30 Beautiful Work @ XP Gateshead
Chinese New Year Festival @ Norton Infants
An Unforgettable Ski Trip to Pila with Our School Students @ XP East
Magnificent Mathematical Treasure Hunt @ Norton Juniors
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
