Over 20 Y11 students joined us this morning for the first Saturday revision session of the exam season!
It was really encouraging to see so many giving up their Saturday morning lie-in to come and form revision groups. Today I spotted students practicing for their Spanish reading exam, working on tricky maths questions together, recapping People’s Health, and catching up on some art work. I particularly enjoyed listening to Harvey’s full summary of Romeo and Juliet!
I’m sure that this level of focus and commitment to learning will certainly contribute to some fantastic GCSE results 🙂
We’ll be back next Saturday morning for more of the same.
The Staff Day in January saw the launch of our proposed teaching and learning model as part of our Festival of Learning. The event took place at XP Doncaster and was attended by staff from across all schools in the Trust. All staff had the opportunity to explore the model in more depth as well as attending other workshops on different parts of the model.
This is part of the Trust’s commitment to ensure that we expose more students to more impactful teaching more of the time.
Beautiful Curation: A Christmas Carol
There is now an awesome display at XP to celebrate the Christmas Carol Study Guide – the beautiful work of last year’s Year 11s. Be sure to go and admire their hard work on display!
Please find attached the mock exam timetable for the exams which will begin next week. This round of exams will be the last before the final GCSE examinations and will provide teachers and students with valuable feedback to ensure that we are as prepared as possible.
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!
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.
More on this next week…
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!
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!
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.
