Sharing our Stories: 12/01/2024

12th January 2024Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

Another brick in the wall: Beautiful Work from XP Gateshead

In Autumn 2023, students in Year 9 studied a joint HUMAN and STEAM expedition called ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ where students had to answer the guiding question: ‘How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?’ 

For the final product, students used plaster to create sculptures in the brutalist aesthetic. The Presentation of Learning (PoL) was an unveiling of an installation to the community and dedicated to the people of Gateshead, who have suffered due to the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis; both examples of failings of societal structures. Experts, including architects from SOS-UK and Ryder Architecture, whom the students had worked alongside throughout the learning expedition, came along to speak at the PoL at the Farrell Centre, Newcastle University.

The work will be on display there for the foreseeable future!

We Are Artists at Plover

Mel from the XP Trust Comms Crew visited Plover as an Expert Artist – showing Year 5 how to draw trains and teach them about perspective and the vanishing point. The children enjoyed seeing her amazing drawings and made a great start on having a go at their own drawings.

Carcroft’s Fabulous Foyer!

Whilst making an impromptu visit to Carcroft Primary in December, we noticed this! We simply had to get the phone out and take some photos of the wonderful displays on show in the Carcroft foyer area. The array of work exhibited was interesting, engaging and of high quality; and was curated impeccably by the staff – beautiful work!

Top of the Blogs

Who’s hiding in the pages of this book? @ Norton Infants

Crew Jackson – Science Investigations @ Green Top

Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead

Crew Pasteur @ XP

Working Hard @ Plover

C30 – HSBC Money Management @ XP East

Amazing Fieldwork at YWP! @ Carcroft School

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Sharing our Stories: 22/12/2023

22nd December 2023Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

Lungs of the World: Beautiful Work from Norton Juniors

In Autumn 2023, Year 5 and 6 across the trust embarked on an expedition with the guiding question: Why should we help our planet survive?

As part of the Expedition, students created their own soft toys based on a chosen animal from the Amazon rainforest – learning about why it is endangered and what we can do to protect the species. The students used ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ as a model text. The pupils wrote their own version of the story through rainforest animals’ eyes for younger children in the form of a book and shared them with Year 2 pupils (along with the soft toys) with the purpose of teaching them about deforestation and its impact.

G30’s first POL at St Mary’s Church, Heworth

In the Autumn term of 2023 students at XP Gateshead studied an expedition called ‘From the ground up’ with the guiding question “What do the communities of the North-East of England owe to the miners?”. They presented their learning from this Expedition on Monday at St Mary’s church – sharing their story and performing the songs they have written to tell the stories of the mining community.

These songs will be recorded in New Year and a CD will be produced!

As part of the presentation, students unveiled a board full of their beautiful work – including narrative accounts, diary entries and artwork relating to the Felling Pit disaster.

The chosen venue for the presentation was also historically significant. Not only is St Mary’s the site of a memorial to the disaster and those who lost their lives, but it is also the final resting place of Thomas Hepburn – the famous miner, Trade Union leader and advocate of better working conditions for miners. The building that XP Gateshead is now based in was once named after him.

Sir Tim Brighouse

We were deeply saddened across the XP Trust to hear about the death of Sir Tim Brighouse on 15th December. 

Sir Tim was considered to be one of the most important voices and thinkers in education, and a great champion of state schools.

We were very fortunate to be able to welcome him to XP on a couple of occasions and to hear him speak about our school with warmth and encouragement.

He has left a legacy of equity and advocacy for education for all and we are very proud that he is part of our story.

Top of the Blogs

Rail City Launch @ Doncaster Free Press

Enjoying Christmas Lunch in our festive clothes! @ Norton Infants

Crew Spetch Christmas Fun @ Green Top

Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead

There’s s’more from XP Outdoors @ XP

Christmas Party @ Plover

Primary School Christmas Musical @ Norton Juniors

E28 Crew Malala Roundup @ XP East

Festive Fun @ Carcroft School

We’ve got Vacancies at XP Trust!

Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and apply to #JoinOurCrew

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Merry Christmas

Primary School Christmas Musical

21st December 2023Lauren Gate

A massive well done to the fabulous children who took part in the Christmas musical last night. They put on a super performance, sang their hearts out and delivered their lines like oscar worthy actors. Their hard work, giving up their lunch times, staying after school and being pulled out of classes paid off, with them giving a performance of a lifetime. Well done to everybody who took part, we are incredibly proud of you!

Sharing our Stories: 15/12/2023

15th December 2023Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

Book launch on track!

Our latest Trust publication ‘Rail City’ was launched at the amazing Doncaster Gallery, Library and museum – DGLaM.

The book, an updated and lavishly illustrated compendium of all the work created by students across the Trust, over the last five years, captures our city’s rail heritage – and future.  

It is also timely as 2023 is the Flying Scotsman’s Centenary year, the iconic steam engine built here in Doncaster.

Our thanks go to the team at DGLaM and the city council who have facilitated the launch and supported our work across the Trust. 

‘Rail City’  will be on sale in DGLaM, the TIC and Waterstones in the Frenchgate Centre. The perfect present for anyone who loves rail, trains and local history. (You can also purchase the book from our online shop!)

Welcome Back!

We continue to welcome delegates from all over the world. Last week our friends and partners from the Wood Foundation in Scotland joined us once again with 25 teachers from schools in the Aberdeen area.

Over two days they looked at Crew, expeditions and the bigger picture of what we do and how we do it.

They even enjoyed a tour of our students’ work in the heart of Doncaster.

Last but not least as you can see from the photograph with their Crew they also joined in with our charity Christmas Jumper day! 

A day of music for XP Doncaster Year 7!

Dave Evans ran a series of awesome workshops for our Year 7 students with professional musicians! Our students improvised, created digital beats, sang and played the drums!

Merry Xmas from Crew Da Vinci!

UKS2 Presentation of Learning – Earth Emergency

XP Trust Primary Dodgeball Tournament

Top of the Blogs

Making Someone Smile at Christmas @ Norton Infants

A Spanish Extravaganza! @ XP Trust

Year 3/4 Presentation of Learning @ Green Top

Jujitsu Success @ XP Gateshead

Crew Pasteur Working Hard @ XP

Our Christmas Fayre @ Plover

Bazaar Bonanza at NJS @ Norton Juniors

Our Christmas themed day was a big success @ XP East

Book Talk @ Carcroft School

We’ve got Vacancies at XP Trust!

Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and apply to #JoinOurCrew

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Crew Pizza! 🍕

15th December 2023Charlie Cicero

This morning, Crew Cicero had a treat as they made their own pizzas in flexible Friday. The crew banded together ingredients, sharing cheese, pepperoni and ham as well as pittas for their pizza bases. Who needs Dominoes!

Bazaar Bonanza at NJS

13th December 2023Gavin Chadwick

What an afternoon it was during our recent Christmas Bazaar! There were numerous stalls and activities for our pupil’s delight and delectation. Of course, the school raised a substantial amount to boot which means they’ll be more super reading books purchased for our wonderful children 📚

The Lungs of the World: Presentation of Learning 🫁

13th December 2023Charlie Cicero

This afternoon marked a special occasion as parents and carers were invited into our Presentation of Learning for this term’s expedition, ‘The Lungs of our World’. After weeks of hard work learning about the geography and science behind the complex eco-system that is the Amazon rainforest, the children were finally able to present their outcomes: each child wrote a ‘Kapok Tree’ inspired rainforest story, which featured an endangered rainforest animal of their choice, as well as creating a handcrafted soft toy of their animal. The stories were shared last week with Year 2 at Norton Infant School where the children had their chance to read them to a younger audience and educate the infants about what they could do to help our world survive (reducing paper usage and using more technology at home and in the classroom). As act of activism, parents and carers were asked to donate money to the Wildlife Foundation, an organisation formed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Park to help promote animal welfare and educate the public about the dangers faced by endangered animals across the globe. Thank you to all who came and we hope your cuddly toys and rainforest stories bring enjoyment for years to come! 🦥

Sharing our Stories: 08/12/2023

8th December 2023Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

Green Top EYFS: Exploring our World – beautiful curated work in our community!

Activism at XP Gateshead

Carcroft KS1 Santa Dash!

Green Top UKS2 ‘Earth Emergency’ Presentation of Learning

Top of the Blogs

Class 8 Christmas Jumper Day @ Green Top

Crew Stanton Christmas Movie Night @ XP Gateshead

Festive Friday @ XP

Community Clubs @ Plover

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas @ Norton Juniors

Working Hard in Human! @ XP East

Christmas Dinner @ Carcroft School

Our week in Class 1 so far @ Norton Infants

We’ve got Vacancies at XP Trust!

Visit xptrust.org/vacancies to find out more and apply to #JoinOurCrew

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Year 5 & 6 visit NIS to share their products!

7th December 2023Stephanie Oliver

Year 5 and 6 visited the Year 2 pupils this week to share their amazing expedition products. As part of their ‘Lungs of the World’ expedition, Year 5 and 6 have created Amazon Rainforest stories for younger children to teach them about the impact of deforestation on animals’ habitats. They read these wonderful stories to the Year 2s and showed them their cuddly toy characters – which feature in their books.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

6th December 2023Lauren Gate

Christmas has officially hit 3LG with the arrival of our mischievous elf. Frederick the Elf brought the Christmas spirit and 3LG have offically got the Christmas bug! 3LG spent their Flexible Friday crew session decorating our Christmas tree and completing the exciting activities Frederick had brought us!

On Monday afternoon, we held our annual Christmas Crafts fair where children turned themselves into elves and created paper christmas trees and baubles. We had a fabulous afternoon and will be finding glitter around the classroom for weeks!

On Tuesday afternoon, we brought back the famous NJS Christmas Bazaar where children spent the afternoon going around the school and playing a number of different Christmas games. From pin the nose on rudolph to catch the snowball – NJS had all the Christmas games you could dream of.