Crew Rashford – First Week Back

Crew Rashford have enjoyed a fabulous first week back which has focussed on us reconnecting as crew, performing acts of service and giving back to the community.  As we prepare for the next stage of our journey into Y10 and the start of our GCSE studies, these activities have helped us realise how important it is for us to support each other through.  

Here’s an overview of what we’ve done this week:

Crew building (overview by Jorja)

On Tuesday we had crew building day. To start our day off we did some crew activities with other crews. After this we went for a walk around the lake and we did litter picking as an act of stewardship. In the afternoon we played crew dodgeball. All of these activities brought us closer together.

Ivy Court Care Home (by Tammy, Emma, Manveer, Sofiya)

On Wednesday, we all made cornflake/rice crispy treats within crew. After lunch, we went to the Ivy Court Care Home in Balby where we met the residents that live there. We were all quite anxious to talk to the people however when we first got into the building all our nerves went away. One woman that affected most of us was called Sheila. She was very affectionate and showed a lot of compassion and was telling us about how much she enjoyed her childhood and told us repeatedly to live our lives to the fullest and enjoy ourselves while we’re young. After this, we gave our treats to the residents and they were all so full of joy. We were singing with them and dancing with them and it made us look at life from a different perspective and it just goes to show that we don’t appreciate it enough. We were all quite upset when we had to leave but we’ll be back to see them all at Christmas.

Millers Dale (overview by Callum, Holly, Jayden, Keegan, Sam, Zak)

On Thursday we went to Millers Dale where we took part in a variety of games and situations we had to figure out.We did orienteering (even though we went the wrong way), teamwork games and ab-sailing. In ab-sailing a lot of people were very scared but as a crew we came together to help each other overcome their fears and when most people set off after they got over the first bit of fear they were able to Get to the bottom very easily. People showed courage  when doing it.

We then went on to attempt an activity that involved multiple gutter pieces and a ball, the objective was to align the pieces  to make  a bridge for the ball as it rolled into the gutter pieces. This game used a lot of teamwork and communication between each other. we had to take pieces from the back and align them in the front so the ball could keep moving, we made it quite far when unfortunately we ended up dropping the ball on the floor and we failed. We tried using teamwork to make sure that we got further and further each time. We also did a number game where we had to not get into the zone and not touch the wrong numbers where  we had to have good communication skills with each other and make sure we weren’t going into the zone when somebody else was and tell eachother where the next number is and after our turn we had a discussion at the end to say how we can do better and use teamwork to help each other.

The week has ended in us presenting our pledges to the rest of Y10 and sharing how we are going to help each other get to the top of our Y10 mountain. 

We know it’s going to be challenging and we have already shared some of our worries around this, but we will get through it as a Crew 🙂 

Crew Da Vinci- E27 YEAR 10 First Week Back!

What a Week we have had! Please have a look at what we have been up too this week but more importantly being together as “CREW”. Da Vinci have answered a guiding question of “How can we get everyone to the top of the mountain?” This is what Crew Da Vinci came up with;

To climb the mountain we need to look out for each other, encouraging each other and taking on the challenges together. There will be bumps in the road ahead but we know that we can face it together. 

  • By Listening
  • By Being kind 
  • By Being respectful 
  • By Acknowledging our differences 
  • By Team players

Back onto the timetable next week! Lets buckle up and get through this year!

Miss Cade

Parents Update 1.9.23

What an absolutely jam-packed first week back we’ve had.
Students have worked in crews to answer their guiding question which has enabled them to reflect on our character traits.
 

Currently our C30 students are returning from Aberdovey and Austerfield, tired out but with lots of stories to share from their crew adventures. C29 completed some fabulous work at Sandall Beat Woods yesterday and even saw one of trust Primary Schools there too!  C28 enjoyed their fieldwork in Flamborough, exploring the cliff top and navigating the coastal path. Many of our C27 students faced huge challenges as part of the abseil from the bridge at Miller’s Dale yesterday and our C26 students completed fieldwork at Langsett Lake. The students have prepared and presented their learning to the other crews in their year group, sharing their stories and experiences. 

Coming up this week

NEW TERM – NEW EXPEDITIONS

A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our students. As always, immersion takes place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring. We can’t wait to welcome you to the Presentations of Learning at the end of term where they will share this learning. 

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES

Our subject teams are this week working on a timetable for enrichment activities, extended study opportunities and learning labs. All of these will be communicated on the blog in the coming week. 

PE

Pe kit is required on the following days

MonTuesWedThursFri
X28
E29
X29
E28
X29
E29
X28
X30
E27
E30
X26
X27
X30
E30
E26

The PE kit expectations can be found in dress code on the school website https://xptrust.org/dress-code/ 

C30 parents

Please look out for our parentpay registration letters these will be sent home next week. 

LOOKING AHEAD:

EXPEDITION NEWSLETTERS

These will land in your email inbox in the next couple of weeks including the important dates planned this term and any further relevant updates for your child’s year group in the same format as last term, please look out for the email.

IPad scheme

The IPad scheme will be added to parent pay this week and any students who have joined the scheme this term will be sent information about where and when to collect these IPads once they are on the scheme.

A reminder ALL STUDENTs should have access to an IPad to access our online learning platforms this is part of daily equipment check. For more information please select the icon here on the school website 

Locker Keys

Lockers will be assigned to new students on the staff days in September, a payment for the locker will be available on parentpay for new students.  

As usual, if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance. If you unsure of their contact information please call or email the school office. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Claira Salter 

Principal

Sandal Beat Fieldwork

E29 went on fieldwork to Sandal Beat Wood yesterday – not only to rebuild Crew but to also get involved with some local activism.

Students took part in activities such as ‘Rhodie bashing’, helping to get rid of overgrown and invasive vegetation. Orienteering, den building and some reflection work based around personal aspirations and goals personally and academically this school year.

We are certainly tired today from all the walking we did and we are sure our students will be feeling just the same. Mrs Fowler’s fitbit calculated we walked over 23,000 steps! But after all the fun we had, it was totally worth it – minus the bites!

Check out just what we got up to…..

C30 Aberdovey Wales Update

We have set off on our journey back to Doncaster following a fantastic week of Crew Building at Outward Bound! 

Our current estimated time of arrival back at XP is 6pm. We will continue to post updates as our journey progresses. 

We look forward to seeing you soon!

‘Non-Stop’ – Welcome back

 After a well-rested summer holiday, Crew Rowling arrived back at school to relearn the meaning of crew. During this first week, Crew completed many tasks, challenges and activities which brought our crew closer together. 

On the first day back, to build back up the bonds of crew, we went on a hike in Langsett and the Peak District. While this walk may have been difficult to some, with crew by their side, we were able to complete this hike in record time. Some (well, maybe just Harvey) had fun!

The following day, time was spent together in our new Crew room, doing activities to build up our sense of crew. During this time, we played a (improved) version of Mafia, created and led by Lily. We also tackled the ‘30 Ways to XP’, where Crew created postcards full of inspirational quotes and advice and Ben and Oliver even cleaned the Crew room 🙂 We also thought about revision techniques and looked at important dates for year 11.

On Thursday, Crew tackled games of rounders and other fun games organised by Mrs Nixon. Crew’s determination saw them fiercely winning rounders, as well as Extreme rock paper scissors! After Crew fought through ‘the floor is lava’, Shawn and Layton’s epic chopstick skills meant we smashed the next game, where we had to get as many pieces of dry pasta into a cup. After fighting through a few more activities, Crew felt more competitive then ever! 

We look forward to looking back at our week as a whole tomorrow and sharing our thoughts and experiences with the rest of C26. 

Crew Rowling

Shake it off!

Some highlights from the second day of E29 Crew Week.

We spent yesterday resetting crew, drilling down into our character traits and re-establishing our norms. We were tasked this morning with learning a dance routine, with the added challenge of adding some of our own choreographed moves!

We continued to see the benefits of crew as we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone, showing compassion by encouraging our peers and demonstrating craftsmanship and quality by taking the time to perfect our footwork and ensure our timings were on point!

Capturing the sheer joy on their faces confirms exactly the reasons why we take this time to build and strengthen our relationships – we are crew.

E29 Crew Leaders.

The Floor is Lava for E28!

Welcome back to E28. Students spent the morning resetting Crew by playing a round of The Floor is Lava! Students had to work in Crews to move their whole crew across the sports hall without touching the floor or the obstacles on it, all the while keeping a tennis ball in a bit of drain pipe. Students developed their teamwork and communication skills, all while having a great time!

The E28 Team

A new school year begins at XP and XP East

Welcome back!

It has been a gorgeous morning welcoming our C30 cohort and watching almost all of them set off on their adventure to Wales. We have a jam packed first week back planned with lots of crew building activities, fieldwork, acts of service and a PoL planned. Further details of specific year group information can be found on the blog by searching for their cohort in the search bar. 

A few reminders as we come back to school 

Regular Kit and dress code

Students will need a regular kit on PE days and regular dress code for school. These can be found on the school website. (Linked above)

A reminder that for day to day kit we expect students a school bag with the following:

  • A water bottle
  • A fully charged iPad 
  • Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
  • A reading book of their choice

All of these items should be in a typical school bag or rucksack please. 

C30 & new starters ParentPay system

Please ensure you sign up for ParentPay to pay for device orders, school lunches, music lessons and any other chargeable activities. We are a cashless school and therefore all payments are made through ParentPay. 

If you do have any issues or do not receive an email or letter with the sign up details by the end of this week please contact your child’s crew leader. 

Moving forwards all fieldwork and offsite visits where a coach is needed will have a voluntary contribution added to parent pay, this is to help towards the ever increasing coach costs whilst allowing us to continue to offer the fieldwork and immersive experiences we currently offer. 

Keep up to date

A reminder that our 2 main forms of communication around upcoming events and any reminders are via the school website and email. Please ensure you keep us informed if your email address changes. You can do this by emailing the office

XP OfficeXP East Office
[email protected] [email protected]
Subscribe to our website!

You can subscribe to our websites by adding your details on the front page. The subscription box is found on the right hand side towards the bottom of the page and looks like the image above. All C30 parents will be subscribed unless they request to be opted out.

New Expeditions

Our expedition newsletters will be out in a couple of weeks with updated information about the expedition, fieldwork plans, expedition teacher contacts and how to access extended study. Next week we begin our expeditions with immersion activities, visits and experts in school. We are looking forwards to the new expeditions and reminding our students that at XP our work is three dimensional – academic success, developing character, and allowing all students to respectfully express who they are through their beautiful work:

Academic success + character growth + beautiful work = The best version of you!

Please keep your eye on the blog for highlights of our first week back.

Mrs Claira Salter

Principal