Sharing our Stories: 24/03/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

Visitors from Scotland and Wales!

We welcomed visitors from Aberdeen, including teachers parents and students from Northfield Academy this week. They visited over two days and enjoyed a tour of Doncaster on Friday morning to see our students’ beautiful work in the community.

Lest We Forget – Beautiful books from our Trust Primaries

These beautiful products from LKS2 across the Trust arrived hot off the press this week – stay tuned for individual school celebrations!

Expert Actors come to visit XPG and XPD!

This week, C28 and G28 were visited by professional actors to help them prepare for their productions of Macbeth next week!

Beautiful Work curated at XP!

Top of the Blogs

Sketching Martin Luther King @ Carcroft School

Parents and carers’ update @ XP Gateshead

Nets, nets and more nets! @ Norton Juniors

Students ‘Getting Smart’ with the Police @ XP

Festival of Sport at XP! @ Plover

Our Little Chicks! @ Norton Infants

Celebrating our awesome Year 10! @ XP East

Crew Knowles: our new student teacher… @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 17/03/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

“Our students can walk into any interview with confidence and talk about themselves.” – how XP is preparing students for the modern world…

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-employers-feel-strain-missing-skilled-workers-2023-03-14/

Countryside Leader Award

Some of our XP Doncaster DofE staff went on a Countryside Leader Award (CLA) training day this week! 

Beautiful Work curated at XP Doncaster and XP Gateshead

Top of the Blogs

Y1 Reading Cafe @ Carcroft School

Beautiful work from Scarlett @ XP Gateshead

Science Week Challenge @ Norton Juniors

X26 Spanish GCSE Work Hard @ XP

Danum Read Aloud @ Plover

Red Nose Day 2023 @ Norton Infants

Year 10 Superstars @ XP East

KS1 Community Crew @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 03/03/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

Beautiful Work on the horizon – ‘Lest We Forget’

In September 2022, Year 3 and Year 4 began their Learning Expedition focusing on World War Two. The guiding question was, ‘Lest We Forget: How does war change lives?’

The expedition has culminated in the creation of a series of books to celebrate the stories of local community members who were alive during the Second World War. We were able to hear stories of both soldiers who were caught up in the fighting as well as those who were just children at the time, offering a wide-range of experiences for the children to reflect upon. The books are made up of biographies, poems and artwork and will be going to print very soon!

An Inspector Calls – World Book Day at XP

To celebrate World Book Day 2023 and all things related to literature, the English and HUMS team decided to dress as characters from JB Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’. The students were left in the dark as to what staff had planned. This was a fantastic opportunity for Years 10 and 11 to put their own investigative skills to the test and deepen their understanding of this key GCSE text. As this is the anchor text for the current Year 10 expedition they quickly rose to the challenge identifying every character apart from the illusive Inspector Goole. This has really sparked imaginations across the schools meaning Years 7-9 are keen to know more about the Birling family.

XP and XPE Athletics Superstars!

XP University – Whose responsibility is poverty in our city and how can our community be part of the solution?

As part of an Expedition slice, staff from across the XP Trust put together boxes of food to be donated to Plover Pantry – the Plover community foodbank.

Staff designed recipes influenced by Jack Monroe’s ‘Tin Can Cook’ including affordable meals for families of four to make together for three days. We then made recipes cards to put in the boxes for each meal and made them available from Plover Pantry.

Top of the Blogs

Checking in on our plants @ Carcroft School

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

Year 4 Dodgeball Drama @ Norton Juniors

Year 11 GCSE Spanish Revision! @ XP

Who are we? @ Plover

Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum! @ Norton Infants

Thackray Museum Fieldwork @ XP East

World Book Day! @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 24/02/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

Beautiful Legacy – ‘Early Years Engineers’

Vacancies

We currently have a vacancy for a Trust Business Manager! Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and #JoinOurCrew

Top of the Blogs

Pancake Day @ Carcroft School

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

How much room for volume? @ Norton Juniors

The Power of Communication @ XP

Family learning @ Plover

Class Five Café @ Norton Infants

E29 Fieldwork to Staffordshire Regiment Musuem @ XP East

Year 2 Sunflowers @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 10/02/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

A Visit to India!

Our CAO Andy Sprakes and CEO Gwyn ap Harri have been working with a school in Amritsar, India to help them develop and implement Crew and Expeditions. Their visit to the Miri Piri Academy came as a result of their team visiting XP earlier this year.

As part of their visit, they completed an Expedition slice with the school – the product of which is to be published in the coming weeks! Watch this space…

Celebrating our students’ international success!

Andy Sprakes, our Chief Academic Officer, was proud to present two of our Year 11 students Guraaj Kaur and Declan Richards with framed artwork representing their participation in, and contribution to, an international education conference that took place last year at XP Doncaster.

Both students spoke with eloquence and authority about Learning Expeditions, in particular the outstanding ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ which involved students creating a film about the plight of refugees in Doncaster, what we as a community can do to help and which was premiered at Cast Theatre in Doncaster.

Guraaj and Dec are superb ambassadors for our Trust. Both great students and wonderful human beings!

Vacancies

We currently have vacancies across our Trust! Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and #JoinOurCrew

Top of the Blogs

Planting Daffodil Bulbs @ Carcroft

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

Children’s Mental Health Week @ Norton Juniors

Crew Blessed at the halfway point @ XP

Fun Phonics! @ Plover

Feeling Sleepy @ Norton Infants

Guess who’s back… @ XP East

Class 13 Equivalent Fractions @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 03/02/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

Beautiful Curation at Green Top

Vacancies

We currently have vacancies across our Trust! Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and #JoinOurCrew

Top of the Blogs

Storytelling with EYFS @ Carcroft

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

6CC Globetrotters learn to master fractions, decimals and percentages @ Norton Juniors

Crew Pasteur @ XP

Shared reading in phonics @ Plover

More Expert Visitors @ Norton Infants

E26 Working Harder and Getting Smarter in English @ XP East

Class 13 Equivalent Fractions @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 27/01/2023

Beautiful Work This Week

Welcoming Delegates!

We welcome delegates and visitors from all over the world across the XP Trust. This week 30 delegates from all over the UK joined us for the day, to find out more about what we do and how and why we do it. On these days, people from other schools or organisations that work in education join us and become Crew for a day. 

A typical delegate experience includes a visit to Crew, an Ambassador tour and interactive Q & A sessions on everything from expeditions and Crew, to how we publish our books and deliver beautiful work in our communities. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share what we do and enhance our own experience across all our schools. 

Thanks to all the staff and students who help to deliver and take part in these inspiring days. 

Vacancies

We currently have vacancies across our Trust! Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and #JoinOurCrew

Top of the Blogs

Martin Luther King – how did he change our future? @ Carcroft

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

PE in action! @ Norton Juniors

I wish I could draw like this @ XP

AR Stars @ Plover

Partner reading @ Norton Infants

Chinese New Year @ XP East

Class 9 XP Outdoors @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 20/01/2023


Beautiful Work This Week

C29: From The Ground Up

In the Autumn term 2022, students in Year 7 studied a combined Humanities and STEAM expedition called ‘From the Ground up’.

Students had to answer the guiding question: What does Doncaster owe to mining? 

You are about to see our learning journey unfold, through a series of reports, experiments and drama performances. Join us as we dig deep into the stories of the millions of people for whom this industry formed a part of their past and present – and how it continues to shape our future.

XP Core Practices

The Working Draft Edition of our Core Principles at XP Trust was published this week in both a printed and digital version. All staff will use these documents, refine, add and edit so that we can publish an outward facing version in our 10th Anniversary Year in 2024!

XP University: Working with Comms

This week, Comms Crew launched their ‘Working with Comms’ course at XPU! Their guiding question for the course is ‘How can we work more effectively to share our stories?’ – so watch this space for yet more stories from across XP Trust!

Top of the Blogs

Fun in Crew MI @ Carcroft

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

Gymnastics and balancing @ Norton Juniors

Crew Caldwell – a proud Crew Leader tests their integrity @ XP

Feature Finding @ Plover

Stan and Mabel @ Norton Infants

Year 11 Star Students in English @ XP East

Conductors and Insulators @ Green Top

Sharing our Stories: 13/01/23

Beautiful Work This Week

C27 Immersion

C29 Presentation of Learning: From The Ground Up

This Monday, C29 Students presented their Art work before the Premier of their film which answered the Guiding Question ‘What does Doncaster owe to Mining?’. After the film, the incredible Carlton Main Frickley Colliery band performed for us! What an incredible evening!

How should we talk about climate change in schools?

This week XP Trust was featured in an article written by Dr Richard Poutney, our Trust Chair – all about how schools are taking action and making climate change a crucial part of the curriculum. You can read the full article here.

Reasons to be cheerful: featuring CAO Andy Sprakes!

‘Hello! New year, new term and this week Ed and Geoff are going back to school. Too little has changed about our education system since the Victorian times, and for too many young people it can seem an outdated and rigid system – geared simply towards passing exams – which is letting them down. We speak to three experts who tell us that it doesn’t have to be this way: Dr James Mannion, clinical psychologist Dr Naomi Fisher and to Andy Sprakes, the co-founder of Doncaster’s most oversubscribed school, about how they’re already doing things differently and why it’s beneficial for everyone involved.’

Top of the Blogs

Active Maths @ Carcroft

Parents’ Update @ XP Gateshead

Fractionopoly @ Norton Juniors

Moore Masterclass v Whitworth @ XP

Circuit Roleplay @ Plover

Expert Visitor: Dr Teanby-Clark @ Norton Infants

Stewards of our Community @ XP East

Class 9 doing great ball skills! @ Green Top