XP East

Y10/C27 Community Meeting

24th January 2024Angella Parker

We were able to share some fantastic praises in this morning’s Y10 Community Meeting.

Special mention to Ben S for earning 20 praise points so far this term – really impressive!

Do you want to support the future of our learners? Can you help us?

22nd January 2024Web Blogger

It is coming to the time of the academic year where our Year 9 students begin to think more deeply about whether or not they are GCSE ready in relation to their future aspirations.

Each of our Year 9’s has worked alongside their Crew Leader to write their Passage Presentation, reflecting on their time at XP Schools and how they have developed as a person and demonstrated character growth. As part of their presentation they have looked back on Expeditions and experience to illustrate themselves as a writer, mathematician, scientist and other more bespoke subjects of interest, with the aim of demonstrating their readiness for GCSE’s.

Their next task is to share this with a panel of specialists who will assess them against the rubric, offer support and critique and give them the enthusiasm to continue towards their chosen career path. Which is where you come in!

We would like as many expert panelists as possible, with the hope that each student can have a panelist already working in the field they aspire to reach.

Your role in the panel will be to listen to the students presentation and provide kind, specific and helpful feedback and experience to support them into Key Stage 4.

If you think this is something you could help with, please sign up here.

If you have any further questions please contact:

Emma Watson – Phase Leader XP East

Chris Morrison – Phase Leader XP School

Natalie Johnson – Key Stage 3 Leader

Click the picture to find out more…

Thank you in advance! We hope to be contacting you soon!

Sharing our Stories: 22/01/2024

22nd January 2024Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

XP Festival of Learning

On Friday, staff across our Trust gathered to launch the first phase of our exciting new Teaching and Learning model, with a focus on our culture of Crew, underpinning principles, deliberate & intentional teaching/learning behaviours at its heart…

Staff from our secondaries and primaries grappled with this exciting new model and took part in a wide range of workshops to develop teaching and learning at XP.

Carcroft School: How Could We Help Our Planet Survive?

In Autumn 2023, Years 5 and 6 completed an expedition looking at the impact we are having on the planet and what we could do to make a difference now and for future generations. They held their presentation of learning last week!

Their final product for this expedition was a picture frame made from sustainably-sourced materials. Students then chose their favourite piece of writing from across the expedition to publish in the frame alongside (or behind) a simple piece of artwork reflecting elements of our learning. Beautiful work!

Top of the Blogs

Delicious Recycling @ Norton Infants

Crew Oldridge’s Experiments @ Green Top

Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead

XP Outdoors – Mindfulness Walk @ XP

Future Architects? @ Plover

Life Skills in LOOL @ XP East

Crew Challenge @ Carcroft School

Problem Solving – Square Numbers @ Norton Juniors

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

XP Outdoors: Mindfulness Walk

20th January 2024Angella Parker

We didn’t let sub-zero temperatures put us off on Wednesday! We wrapped up warm in our big coats and had a lovely walk in the winter sunshine.

This was a bit different to our normal walk though; we stopped off at a couple of places, closed our eyes, took some deep calming breaths, and really tuned into the sounds around us. Students noticed the change in what we could hear from just outside the school gates (cars, noises from surrounding warehouses and the stadium) to what we could hear at our next check-in point by the lake (ducks, birds, dogs, the breeze in the trees and even their own breathing!)

We also spoke about why taking some time to focus in on ourselves is important and how what we did on our walk could help back in the classroom. Students commented that taking a moment to take some deep breaths could be used to help them to manage distractions, help them to stay focussed on a tricky task and help regulate emotions. Another great example of how what we do outside helps us when we’re back inside the classroom!

C26 Teacher-Student Led Conferences

18th January 2024Mr M Voltaire

Dear Parents and Families of students in Year 11,

Next Thursday 25th of January, we invite parents to join us for our first run through of our Teacher-Student Led conferences. These conferences will provide parents with an opportunity to meet with subject-specific teachers, allow students to discuss and reflect on their progress in different subjects and look at areas for development in the weeks leading up to the GCSE exams in the spring.

Students have been given a booking form to share with you which will allow you to book a time between 16.30 and 19.30. Slots last for 5 minutes and will be booked on a first come first served basis so please ask your child to see their booking form and suggest a time to meet teaching staff.

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Y11/C26 Community Meeting

17th January 2024Angella Parker

17.01.24-C26-COMMUNITY-MEETING Download

We had a lovely Community Meeting this morning with Y11, celebrating the awesome work that’s going on across all sessions. We also spoke about the importance of balancing our mental health and wellbeing alongside our studies during this final run up to mocks and exams.

Great to hear so many positive appreciations for Y11 – keep it up!

Mrs Parker and Miss Cocliff

E26 – Life Skills in LooL!

17th January 2024Web Blogger

Last week, Jayden and Robert had a session of cooking – arguably, the most important life skill!

We thoroughly enjoyed the calm session – although Robert whizzed ahead, and by the time Jayden and I had even thought about our sausage rolls…. Robert’s were out of the oven!

Smashing work, lads – I’m super proud of how independently you completed this task!

Miss Cocliff x

E26 site study visit to the Doncaster Plant Works

16th January 2024Sarah Hannam

As part of component 2 for their history exam (History Around Us) students have been studying The Doncaster Plant Works. Yesterday, students in E26 got to visit the site, now known as ‘Wabtec’.
We got to see the workshop where the famous ‘Flying Scotsman’ was built as well as the ‘Mallard’, which still holds the world record for the fastest steam locomotive.
We discussed how the site has changed over time and why; the sites turning points in history; it’s significance both locally; nationally and internationally; as well as looking for historical evidence.

Sharing our Stories: 12/01/2024

12th January 2024Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

Another brick in the wall: Beautiful Work from XP Gateshead

In Autumn 2023, students in Year 9 studied a joint HUMAN and STEAM expedition called ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ where students had to answer the guiding question: ‘How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?’

For the final product, students used plaster to create sculptures in the brutalist aesthetic. The Presentation of Learning (PoL) was an unveiling of an installation to the community and dedicated to the people of Gateshead, who have suffered due to the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis; both examples of failings of societal structures. Experts, including architects from SOS-UK and Ryder Architecture, whom the students had worked alongside throughout the learning expedition, came along to speak at the PoL at the Farrell Centre, Newcastle University.

The work will be on display there for the foreseeable future!

We Are Artists at Plover

Mel from the XP Trust Comms Crew visited Plover as an Expert Artist – showing Year 5 how to draw trains and teach them about perspective and the vanishing point. The children enjoyed seeing her amazing drawings and made a great start on having a go at their own drawings.

Carcroft’s Fabulous Foyer!

Whilst making an impromptu visit to Carcroft Primary in December, we noticed this! We simply had to get the phone out and take some photos of the wonderful displays on show in the Carcroft foyer area. The array of work exhibited was interesting, engaging and of high quality; and was curated impeccably by the staff – beautiful work!