This week, Year 4 have been immersing themselves in our new expedition! This term, we shall be looking at the Second World War. We have begun learning about some key events, alongside partaking in craft activities such as creating silhouette skyline artwork showcasing the Blitz, and creating wooden aircraft models!
What an extraordinary Hook Week! Year 6 have officially launched into their Autumn learning expedition, ‘To Infinity and Beyond’, immersing themselves in the wonder, science, and creativity of space exploration.
Channeling their inner artists, the children began the week by creating stunning, vivid galaxy artwork using oil pastels. They experimented with smooth blending techniques, bold colour contrasts, and rich layering to capture the glowing depth and mystery of the cosmos.
Turning that creative energy toward engineering, the class then stepped into the roles of aerospace designers to construct their own rockets. Focusing closely on streamlined shapes and fin placements, they explored the core principles of aerodynamics to build models ready for high-speed launch.
The absolute highlight of the week was an unforgettable trip to the National Space Centre in Leicester. Walking beneath towering rockets and diving into interactive exhibits, the experience set everyone’s brains alight with curiosity and wonder, giving the children a genuine taste of what lies beyond our planet.
It has been an incredible start to the term, and we now look forward to watching our young space explorers rocket to new heights as this expedition unfolds. What a week!
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.
Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!
To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.
Focus and Deep Thinking in Year 8 this week @ XP
Hook week day two @ Norton Infants
Crew week = complete! @ Norton Juniors
G29 first week back! @ XP Gateshead
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Year 5 Crew has spent the week exploring the guiding question: How can our Crew be strengthened by acts of service to others?
Following their discussions, the children considered different ways they could support others and make a positive contribution to their community.
On Friday, a group of children visited The Laurels, a local care home. During the visit, they spent time with the residents, shared the poems they had written and showed them their artwork. The visit gave the children an opportunity to put their learning into practice and reflect on how giving their time and skills can benefit others.
This was just one of several acts of service completed by Year 5 this week, showing how working together as a Crew can help us make a positive contribution to our wider community.
Year 6 have hit the ground running this week, throwing themselves into exploring our core character traits through a variety of hands-on tasks. Class 6CC have bonded brilliantly, and watching pupils collaborate so seamlessly across their crews has been a true highlight.
Among the pupil favorites were ‘courage charades’ and a collaborative crew graffiti project, where each child crafted an individual oil pastel piece to build a vibrant mural now displayed in the Year 5/6 corridor. Demonstrating incredible determination, the children also tackled a massive crew challenge—walking, jogging, and running laps of the field to push their collective limits. Together, they logged an average of 880 laps (66 km) per class, reaching a staggering combined total of 265 km! That is the equivalent of scaling the height of some of the world’s highest mountain peaks.
For Mrs Blunt and me, it has been wonderful getting to know the children we haven’t previously taught, while watching familiar faces continue to grow and express themselves. We are both thoroughly looking forward to the exciting year ahead with this incredible group!
This week, Year 4 celebrated the First Week Back through undertaking the challenge of answering the Crew Guiding Question of, ‘How can Crew work together to achieve an end goal?’. To answer this, Year 4 decided that spreading kindness would be our end goal! We would achieve this by baking a range of treats to take home and gift to parents and carers, and to also create a range of ‘Kindness Cards’ to spread to children in our school. Year 4 showed great craftsmanship and quality to create such beautiful creations and bring smiles to the faces of many! Well done Year 4 on a lovely start to the year!
This week, Year 5 Crew has focused on the guiding question: How can our community be strengthened by acts of service? The pupils decided they would like to give back to the community in a variety of ways. They created bookmarks, poetry and cakes which they delivered to the residents at the Laurels carehome, they held a bake sale and toy sale to raise money for the local foodbank and they did a litterpick in the school grounds. Each and every child showed just what the power of Crew can do!
This week, Year 6 have focused our crew week heavily around understanding and demonstrating our Character Traits: Courage, Respect, Integrity, Compassion and Craftsmanship & Quality.
For our final Character Trait, the children worked together to create an exceptional piece of artwork which really demonstrated the jaw dropping quality that they can produce. Every child worked with exemplary precision, care and patience allowing them to produce something they were all extremly proud of.
What a first impression! We are well and truly back and straight in with a bang: I can’t wait to see how much they can achieve!
We’ve engaged in a multitude of challenges this week in 3GC and haven’t we had some fun along the way!
