Announcing Our New Publication: ‘Celebrating Ten Years of Expeditions at XP’
A new publication, ‘Celebrating Ten Years of Learning Expeditions at XP’, written by our co-founder, Andy Sprakes, is now available. The book highlights an extensive and broad selection of the beautiful work created by our young people and staff from across our Trust. It is a profound and often moving reminder of the purpose, agency, and consequence of our work; illuminating the transformative power and far-reaching impact of Learning Expeditions.
In the next few weeks, the book will be made available to the general public and will retail at £20. However, to mark the publication of this much-anticipated book, it is being made available exclusively to staff across our Trust for a not-for-profit cost price of £5. In the spirit of Crew the proceeds will be donated to charity.
When staff fill in the google form and order the book at this price, they will be able to choose to donate to one of two local charities and one national charity that have supported and worked alongside us in the past.
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to the exceptional staff across our Trust whose unwavering dedication, creativity, and passion made this publication, and the transformative work within it, possible.
Pupils from Plover School have sparked the beginning of an exciting year of community action by visiting the RSPCA Doncaster and Rotherham Branch with a donation of toys for the rescue dogs. The visit marks the start of an ongoing partnership, with similar volunteering workshops planned throughout the year.
During their time at the centre, students engaged in a comprehensive tour and spent time playing with the rescue dogs. They also learned about animal care and grooming in the RSPCA’s newly opened grooming centre, This new site welcomes bookings from the public, providing essential financial support to sustain the charity’s mission.
The visit was purposefully designed as part of Plover School’s First Week Back Crew activities. At XP Trust, the First Week Back is used every year to introduce or reaffirm the importance of ‘Crew’, utilising shared experiences to create and enforce the strong bonds that are the foundation of the school’s culture. These carefully planned activities allow students to reconnect with the purpose of Crew by engaging in selfless acts of kindness in the community and actively building community through various projects.
Abbie Taylor, Assistant Head and Crew lead at Plover School who organised the visit, shared the impact of the experience:
“Starting our academic year by engaging directly with our community sets the tone for everything we do. First Week Back is all about building our culture of Crew and demonstrating compassion through selfless acts of service. Bringing our students here to support the RSPCA allows them to connect with the world beyond the classroom.”
Catherine Watkins, the newly appointed Education Lead for the RSPCA, added:
“Stepping into this exciting new role allows me to work closely with schools across Doncaster and Rotherham. Having the Plover students here to learn about animal welfare, experience our new grooming centre, and bring joy to our rescue dogs has been wonderful. We are thrilled to continue this partnership and run more workshops and volunteering sessions together over the coming year.”
We wrapped up the 2026 academic year with another hugely successful Sports Day!Check out our NEW video celebrating all the action and highlighting the winners across Crew vs. Crew, Phase vs. Phase, and School vs. School.
A massive well done to XP East for taking home the victory once again! Outstanding effort from everyone involved—let’s bring that same energy next year, XP! 🏆
This week I had the pleasure of joining the Year 7 Crews at XP Gateshead. It has only been two weeks since they completed their journey to the Outward Bound Centre at Ullswater to answer the Guiding Question, ‘What does it Mean to Be Crew?’ and I wanted to see how they had settled in back at school. During their time in the outdoors, students met their Crew and Crew Leader for the first time, showing courage to form new relationships and resilience in mastering shared challenges. Being away from home is not easy, and some of the physical activities were equally tough, but through these shared experiences, students began to see, feel, and hear the culture of Crew.
In the final presentations at Ullswater, students showed incredible growth. In the space of only four days, they formed bonds that would be unbreakable, and they saw things in themselves and in each other that they would not have imagined when they boarded the coach on their first day of school.
“In the space of only four days, students formed bonds that would be unbreakable, and they saw things in themselves and in each other that they would not have imagined when they boarded the coach on their first day of school.”
So it was with bated breath that I set out to see if this commitment was manifest in both Crew and Learning Expedition sessions. I can assure you that I was not disappointed. The first Crew I was welcomed into was Crew Diamond. The check-ins by students effectively modeled appreciation, and through expert Crew Leadership, students were explicitly encouraged to look out for opportunities to appreciate one another. A sense of calm and purpose pervaded the session.
After this, I dropped into Crew Bennett. This Crew session also featured a check-in followed by reading, a recap, and dedicated thinking time. Feedback from the Crew was exceptionally positive, as routines and norms were not only being established but also actively highlighted, praised, and discussed. The habits developed at Ullswater were beautifully brought to life in a school setting.
Next stop was Crew Crowder, who had checked in and were deeply engaged in reading, with many enthusiastically volunteering to read aloud and responding actively to the text. Turn-taking was demonstrated in this session, a crucial skill that builds and reinforces our character trait of respect. The Crew Leader subtly, and with great compassion, nurtured and gave value to student contributions.
There was a warm and welcoming atmosphere in Crew Cadenas, with every student closely following the text of their Crew read. The Crew Leader reinforced listening norms and facilitated shoulder-partner discussions around key questions, allowing the students to explore the text and share their ideas to deepen their understanding. High levels of student participation were evident throughout, with the Crew Leader encouraging non-verbal signals like “I agree” while continuing to embed strong routines.
Look below at the Crew walls that were already anchoring the importance of our Crew culture and providing students with explicit and applicable examples of what this looks like, feels like and sounds like.
It was beautiful to see that students had grasped the importance of transferring these shared experiences when they began their first week back in school. There was a strong and palpable sense of trusting relationships being built in the Crew sessions, which bodes well for the deepening of culture and high expectations with these new recruits to XP. Our important dimension of character growth, furnishing our young people with the skills, habits, and dispositions they will need to be agents for positive social change and compassionate citizens, was in clear evidence during my initial visits to the Y7 Crews at XP Gateshead.
“Our important dimension of character growth, furnishing our young people with the skills, habits, and dispositions they will need to be agents for positive social change and compassionate citizens, was in clear evidence during my initial visits to the Y7 Crews at XP Gateshead.”
Not only was this an uplifting experience in the moment, it fills me with hope for the future.
Our first edition of XP Unpacked celebrated the transformative power of our distinct educational model at XP Trust, connecting together stories of student and staff growth through Crew and Learning Expeditions with profound reflections from our professional learning journey at Jeff Tech High in San Diego. Through feature insights from our friend and advocate Ron Berger, student narratives on the life-changing impact of public Presentations of Learning, and reflections on the necessity of “doing the project first,” the articles collectively highlighted our culture of craftsmanship, purpose, and student agency. By showcasing everything from local community projects in Doncaster to international partnerships across the world, the publication reinforces the our commitment to creating a “Rebel Alliance” of educators who prioritise character, creativity, and the belief that all students are capable of producing beautiful, meaningful work.
The cover was an abstract from the Upper Key Stage Two Learning Expedition from Summer 2025 entitled, ‘Earth Shattering Events’ – a stunning example of beautiful work which can be still be found as a resource on the Magna Science Museum website showing how outward facing and purposeful our products can be and the positive impact they have on our community.
The cover highlighted beautiful work by students from Carcroft Primary
The first issue included articles from staff and students from across the Trust as well as contributions from key international partners like Ron Berger, Jeff Robin from the USA and Val Westwell and Mandi Dimitriadis from the Education Department of the South Australian Government. A digital copy of the magazine can be accessed from our website and hard copies are available to purchase from our online XP Shop. The magazine went around the world to Europe, Australia, Asia and the USA. It was a significant publication that showcased the positive impact XP is having to on our local and international community.
By showcasing everything from local community projects in Doncaster to international partnerships across the world, the publication reinforces the our commitment to creating a “Rebel Alliance” of educators who prioritise character, creativity, and the belief that all students are capable of producing beautiful, meaningful work.
The article submitted by Ron Berger for the first edition of XP Unpacked
I am now requesting submission of articles for our next edition of the magazine and encourage all staff and partners to elevate our significant and important work for both a local and also an international audience. The main focus of issue two will be on Learning Expeditions to celebrate our ‘Year of the Expedition’ but if you have another story you want to share, don’t hesitate to do so!
I’ve linked the guidance and deadlines for submission here.
And remember, this opportunity is open to all staff across our Trust: Admin staff, Comms, Teachers, Learning Coaches, and Leaders.
At XP, our first week back looks a little bit different. Across our Trust, students and staff have been working hard to build and reestablish the most important part of our culture – Crew.
