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!
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!
Good luck to all our students representing us at the Doncaster School's Indoor Athletics today at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield!! @EISSheffield#XPEpic.twitter.com/BFAjCDX20e
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.
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
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
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!
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.’
