Thank you to everyone who attended our GCSE Information Evening on Wednesday. We hope you found it useful.
The presentation from the evening is published above so that you have all the information, key dates and teacher contacts to hand.
Mrs Parker
Sharing our Stories: 13/09/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Race for Bears at Plover!
This week at Plover, students in EYFS completed a sponsored Bear walk as part of their new Expedition! They raised £1148 to support their local community – and dressed up as bears to perform bear related exercises and have fun during the process! Beautiful work!
Beautiful Curation at XP Gateshead
Last week, Comms installed some new wonderful displays of student work at XP Gateshead. These wall displays are culminations of recent Expeditions and Activism from the last year.
Steplab Coaching @ XP Trust
Last Monday, our staff worked closely with Steplab to start implementing their ICT platform for coaching across XP Trust. Staff spent the day looking at effective coaching and learning and how Steplab can help create a positive culture around it.
Crew JPO/JNO’s Ullswater Story
Over the coming week’s we’ll be sharing more stories of Crew from our recent Outward Bound Expedition – here’s another from Crew JPO/JNO!
Student Showcase for Year 6 at XP Doncaster
We’re got vacancies across XP Trust!
Find out more here to apply now and #JoinOurCrew
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Manveer gets to the top of her mountain!
We talk a lot about getting to the top of our metaphorical mountain at XP East, but last weekend Crew Rashford’s Manveer actually made it to the top of Mount Snowdon!
Manveer was part of a wider group raising funds to expand Sant Baba Bhagwan Singh Ji Public Sen. Sec. School in India. The group have collectively raised over £20,000 and we are so impressed with Manveer’s fundraising efforts, as well as taking on the physical challenge of climbing Mount Snowdon.
You can find out more about why this fundraising is so important and donate here: Sant Baba Bhagwan Singh Ji Public Sen. Sec. School Fundraiser
A massive well done also to Crew Marx’s Arina who joined Manveer for part of the ascent. We are super proud of you both!
Mrs Parker
Parent Update 9.09.24
Crew Marx kickstarting year 11!
After a wonderful, relaxed and resetting first week back for crew, we have absolutely smashed the first week in lessons out the park!
We had lots of catching up to do in the first week back, we came up with plans of how we are going to manage our time and make sure we are looking after our wellbeing during such a stressful year! It was fantastic to regroup and prepare for the year ahead!
First week back was clearly a huge success because we have racked up a total of 97 praises in week one alone! They have come back raring to go and eager to get stuck in to even more GCSE content! Big shoutout to Kiahna, Charlotte and Riley for double figure praises already!
SO proud of their return! Keep the momentum going!
Miss Ibbo!
Crew 7EJN/AGO: Our first week in Year 7
For the first week of school, our new Y7s ventured away with many students and teachers that they didn’t know. Although I myself have worked within XP school for over 8 years, I had never had the privilege of having a crew from Year 7 and had never experienced this side of the outward bound experience. So, even for a teacher who is experienced in working with students both in and out of school in a similar situation, it can be eye opening and nerve racking. I remember when I was myself in Year 8, I went away with school and I was terrified, I cannot imagine what it was like for Crew “Chandi” (given through the outward bound trust).
When we arrived in Ullswater and discussed some of the activities we would take part in, myself and our instructors (Dan and Stewart) were met with “I’m not doing that” however it showed even in the first activity “Jog and Dip”, that those barriers, those negative mindsets were falling. I think crew “Chandi” were quite lucky in the sense that there were at least half of its students that didn’t have a problem with outdoor pursuits. However, one of the biggest reasons for the outward bound experience is to push students out of their “comfort zone” to build resilience and therefore open them up to learning new and difficult things in ways that challenge and increase independence of thought.
So the challenges all come for different reasons for different students, be it home sickness, the outdoor activities or speaking up in the presentation at the end of a long, tiring week. Crew Chandi performed all of this in an exemplary manner. Each one of our crew faced their own challenges and not a single student stepped back, only stepped forward.
Three members of our crew were put forward to money off further experiences with the outward bound trust- Sandra, Molly and Lucas showed all of their character traits consistently. Sandra was like my right hand, with the most compassion I’ve ever seen in a Year 7 and on our Gorge Walk, she proved vital when I fell over in the water- Thank you Sandra. Ewan, Sandra and Penelope showed awesome orienteering skills. Ronnie, Lucas and Spencer proved their craftsmanship and Quality whilst helping other crew members to erect their tents. Kaiden showed a lot of courage by standing up for what he believed in. Ewans craftsmanship and quality excelled in preparation for the presentation. The biggest change in mindfulness that I’ve seen came from Spencer, who found that when he went to get a drink, the glasses on the worktop had run out, so instead of just getting himself a glass, he decided to replace all the glasses to help his entire year group.
It was a very tiring week, and I’m certain your children will agree with that. The stories I’ve related are only some of the things I could relate to you. However, if crew “Chandi” carry on in the way they have started they won’t only help each other to get to the top of the mountain- they will move the mountain.
Thank you for an amazing start to the year.
Crew 7NJO/JPO: Ullswater 2024 video premier!!
Here it is… the premier of our Crew’s video of 4 days in Ullswater.
There’s more to come, including footage from jumping off the cliff’s in the official XP Doncaster video so stay tuned!
This was the best expedition I’ve ever been involved in, and it was a privilege to be part of it.
Mr Portman
Sharing our Stories: 06/09/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Highlights from our first week back!
At XP Trust we always use our first week back to establish and reaffirm our culture of Crew. This year has been another resounding success as young people across our schools have considered deeply the purpose of Crew through a range of opportunities and experiences and how Crew develops character and service so that they can help themselves, others and the wider community to be compassionate and successful.
At Carcroft we saw students engaging fully in a community meeting reflecting on their habits of work and learning and expressing what working hard, getting smart and being kind looks like every day at school. Students at Norton Infants Y5 visited local Care Homes delivering glasses cases they had made as well as treats! At Plover students were working alongside the RSPCA to capture and tell the stories of abandoned pets and, alongside drawing beautiful pictures of the animals, helping to find them homes as well as creating stunning murals in a street art style to promote the importance and legacy of Crew.
Students at Green Top took part in a fundraising Colour Run which was quite frankly spectacular whilst also creating kindness key rings that they gifted to members of the community! At XPG, Year 8 showed their qualities as leaders of their own learning by planning, organising and leading Year 7 activities including creating resources and fieldwork opportunities for their peers. Finally at XPD, students carried out acts of random kindness at the Lake side and welcomed past students who came back to school to talk about how Crew and their time at XP shaped the beautiful people they are today.
It was striking to hear a member of staff at Carcroft say, ‘I’ve been teaching for over twenty years and this is the best start back I’ve ever experienced.’ – I think that says it all!
In addition, our new Year 7’s from XP Doncaster and XP Gateshead spent their first days of secondary school building Crew together in the Lake District with Outward Bound. This is something we have been proud to do with our students for ten years now and it was inspiring to see students cultivating resilience, compassion and teamwork – especially through some very adverse weather! We are looking forward to seeing Crews grow together over the coming years…
Andy Sprakes at BridgeFest
Our Chief Academic Officer, Andy Sprakes was the keynote speaker at Spaghetti Bridge’s ‘BridgeFest’ earlier this week. He shared beautiful work and stories from our students at XP as part of their inspiring itinerary celebrating the last year. We are proud to be a part of their story and a key influence on the work that they do.
XP Alumnus Alfie is Oxford bound!
Alfie Lockey was part of the X22 cohort at XP and left two years ago to study for his A Levels at New College. His results of 3 A*s and and A, helped secure him a place at one of the oldest and renowned universities in the world – Christ Church College, Oxford. Alfie will be studying biology; a lifelong love and something that during his time at XP was actively encouraged and supported.
He created an allotment at school, had an opportunity to take part in an online conference organised by the Edge Foundation, which addressed climate change. That day Alfie spoke alongside the co-creator of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Sir Tim Smit KBE. An office at XP also became the perfect place for Alfie to experiment with growing a variety of plants for several years; bringing a touch of hot house greenery to XP!
CAO of the XP Trust, Andy Sprakes commented:
“Alfie is one of our many alumni who are already making a positive difference to the world. We’re always thrilled to hear about how our students are progressing and where they are now – they will always be part of our Crew.”
XP Doncaster’s High Flying Birds
In Summer 2024, XP and XP East’s Year 8 students embarked on Learning Expedition called ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’, where they aimed to answer the guiding question: ‘Is migration worth the risk?’.
In Art, they looked at the work of artists who used imagery of birds to represent migration. Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy and used that to design flying machines. The students took his ideas and constructed their own three dimensional bird designs. They then made large scale sculptures of the birds that you can see on display, here. Before culminating in the display, the sculptures were paraded at this summer’s inaugural XP Festival of Arts & Culture.
We’re got vacancies across XP Trust!
Find out more here to apply now and #JoinOurCrew
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Crew Da Vinci
During the first week back in Crew Da Vinci we spoke a lot about how important this final year is going to be and how we will rely on crew more. We wrote letters to our year 11 self to open at results day. We made connections with XP primary schools and spoke about our experience with secondary school.
We worked as a crew to do an escape room within school – this involved us to work together as a team! NCS came in and spoke to us about life after XP and what it could look like.
Crew Da Vinci have came in with a positive attitude this week and let’s hope this has set the scene for the rest of the year.
C27/Y11 Weekly Planner & GCSE Revision Evening
Y11 have had an absolutely fabulous start to their final year and have not even been fazed by being thrown straight into preparing for and presenting their English speaking exams!
Academic Crew and Learning Labs will be running this week – full details in the Weekly Planner above.
We would also like to take this opportunity to invite all Y11 parents and students to our GCSE Revision Evening on Wednesday 11th September, 5pm-6pm. Again, details are in the planner.
As ever, if you have any questions please contact your student’s Crew Leader in the first instance or Y11 Phase Lead for your school: Angella Parker for XP East ([email protected]) and Mel Cocliff for XP ([email protected]).