Sharing our Stories: 19/07/2024

Beautiful Work This Week

Welcome to our final selection of beautiful work from the 2023/2024 academic year!

XP Festival of Arts and Culture – Highlights

In our 10th anniversary year at XP, last week we celebrated with our first ever Arts Festival. Across our Trust, all of our 8 schools brought some of their creativity, community and beautiful work to share at the XP Doncaster campus. Students from our Primary Schools sang their fundraising original song ‘Dear World’, always an emotional and uplifting moment. From Samba to saxophone, spoken word to sensational dance routines – the XP Arts Festival, over nine hours of parades and participation, celebrated our schools, students and partners.

The dynamic Doncaster Youth Jazz Association’ who are now based at XP, delivered a brilliant set – complementing at one stage our parade of birds. Add ice cream and an audience not deterred by the occasional rainfall and you have the perfect day. We would like to appreciate everyone who contributed to this festival – whether artists on stage, backstage or as part of the dedicated crew who helped to make it happen.

See you next year!

All of the photos and videos above were captured by our Student Digital Leaders – beautiful work!

XPCC24

This week, we hosted our annual climate conference at XP. Students delivered a powerful keynote speech and then set up stalls, talking about different solutions and the research they have done on efforts we can all make to protect our planet.

How can a healthy lifestyle impact my body and mind?

During this learning Expedition, students in UKS2 explored how a healthy lifestyle impacts both body and mind through three case studies: history, science (biology), and design technology (DT). In history, they learned to use evidence to deduce information about the past, focusing on the achievements and societal structures of ancient civilisations. In science, they studied human development and the circulatory system, emphasising the importance of diet, exercise, and lifestyle on bodily functions. In DT, students applied principles of a healthy and varied diet, learned to measure ingredients accurately, and demonstrated various cooking techniques while creating and refining recipes.

Every school produced different final products that encapsulated their learning. Plover school’s Expedition culminated in the creation of colour tiles to decorate the school’s exterior, each carrying messages of mental well-being. These tiles serve as a lasting legacy of the students’ work, promoted during a colour run event involving parents and activities aimed at mental health awareness, with funds raised going to a mental health charity. Norton Junior School focused on producing healthy recipes, where students practised calculating ingredient ratios and perfecting cooking techniques – they then celebrated their work with parents with an event at Campsall Park, where participants ran 5k and enjoyed a healthy picnic together!

Diverse Doncaster: where do I belong?

Year 1 and 2 pupils from Norton Infants embarked on a cross-curricular expedition to answer the question, “Where do we belong?” through art, geography, and history. They explored ideas through drawing, painting, and sculpture, learned to use geographical vocabulary and mapping skills, and investigated historical events and significant local figures. The expedition included expert visits, including talks from local leaders, to deepen their understanding of Doncaster’s uniqueness and diversity. Students also visited local landmarks, created related artwork, and produced an interactive travel guide. This project culminated in a family-oriented orienteering activity, showcasing the students’ findings and creative works.

NIS-KS1-Diverse-Doncaster_Interactive-Map-1 Download

Children engaged in a presentation of learning. Alongside their families, they visited our Diverse Doncaster art gallery and were able to see their art work of significant landmarks from across Doncaster. The artwork was accompanied by writing explaining important facts and information they have discovered throughout the expedition. Children were also invited to take part in our Doncaster orienteering challenge. Each family was given a list of clues about significant places in Doncaster – the children had to demonstrate their knowledge by working out what the location was, find the image of it in our school grounds and use the orienteering peg to mark their answer.

From Bean to Bar – what is the cost of a bar of chocolate?

In the summer term of 2024, Year 3 and 4 students at Carcroft embarked on a learning expedition titled “From Bean to Bar,” exploring the question, “What is the real cost of a bar of chocolate?” The curriculum spanned history, science, and design technology, integrating studies of the Mayan civilization and fair trade practices. Students applied their learning by baking brownies, creating Mayan-inspired packaging, and developing an understanding of states of matter. For the presentation of learning, students sold their baking in boxes and invited parents to try different healthy dishes inspired by Mayan cuisine!

Beautiful Presentations of Learning at XP Gateshead

There have been a series of wonderful celebrations of beautiful work at XP Gateshead this week! G29 celebrated their learning from the Expedition ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ – students truly excelled in all areas, from catering for 150 people, creating wooden birds decorated in their own Islamic art, folding over 150 paper cranes, creating menus, seating plans, not to mention the artwork inspired by the poem that they then performed beautifully. You can read more about it here.

G30 celebrated their work from across their first work at XPG – you can read the full blog and see more photos here. They also launched their CD of folk songs from their ‘From The Ground Up’ Expedition – which is available to stream online from next week! Stay tuned for more information!

And finally, last night G28 celebrated their learning from their ‘Hold Back The River’ Expedition with a Live Stream full of creative writing, read and recorded by the students – you can watch the stream below!

Farewell, Class of 2024!

As we say goodbye to our Class of 2024 cohort across our XP Trust primaries, we wish them all well with their futures! We will miss you and remember – you will always be Crew.

Here are some highlights from Green Top’s Leavers celebrations yesterday!