The Bog Baby

24th September 2026Sarah Winkley

This week Nursery children have been thinking about, what does caring for animals look like? The children were immersed in pond life through the exciting and magical text, “The Bog Baby”.

In the story two little girls capture a “Bog Baby” from the pond in Bluebell Woods and take him home in a jar. Although the girls love and try to care for the creature, unfortunately he becomes sick. The Nursery children compassionately thought about why he became ill….Would a Bog Baby really eat cake? Live in clean water with shells? Or be walked on a lead?

We learned a super simple song about pets, which sang all about regular pets, but then suggested that someone might have a pet lion. The children were questioned whether a lion would make a good pet? They decided it would not with some of the following reasons; “It would eat you”, “It would scratch”, “It’d be too big” and “It would smash your house”. This showed good reasoning and we were then Slinky Linky Snakes and linked this back to the Bog Baby; as a Lion and a Bog Baby are both wild animals and would be better in their natural environments where they are safe and can live their healthiest lives.

The children worked collaboratively to create two large pieces artwork of the Bog Baby which they have decorated to add extra magic.

They have also created their own Bog Baby that they can take home and care for using salt dough. Each child sculpted and decorated their Bog Baby individually, making choices about how they would decorate it. They are adorable, just look at our beautiful work!

As part of our Tranquil Tuesday Crew the children we introduced to The Tales Tool Kit resource which helps children create and structure stories, developing language and excitement through 4 key points; character, setting, problem and solution. Our stories were focused around animals which weren’t pets this week to link in with our expedition.

Our Thoughtful Thursday Crew engaged the children in a step by step tutorial of drawing their own Bog Babies, following the teacher model. Their listening and attention was superb, almost as good as their artwork! To check in we consolidated whether or not the Bog Baby Would prefer to live in clean or dirty water? The children expressed their opinions and gave reasons for their answers confirming that he would prefer to be in the pond, in the mud, water and plants.

Just a magical week Nursery, You are Being Kind, Working Hard and Getting Smart!!

Crew Backshall’s Outdoor Crew

22nd September 2026Claire Goodyer

We had a wonderful Outdoor Crew this morning, making the most of the beautiful sunshine! We started by circling up together for our check-in, taking some time to connect, share and enjoy being together outdoors.

We then had lots of fun taking part in Mrs Jackson’s nature scavenger hunt, exploring our surroundings and seeing what we could discover. It was lovely to see everyone working together, sharing ideas and enjoying the fresh air.

A brilliant morning of connection, teamwork, exploration and lots of sunshine and smiles! 

Sharing our Stories: 18/09/2026

18th September 2026Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful work this week

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.

Top of the Blogs

KS1 Community Crew @ Green Top

Open the book @ Plover

Strong Foundations In Crew Ramsay @ Carcroft School

What does it mean to be human? @ XP

]We are making our mark! @ Norton Infants

Stepping back in time at Norton Village Hall @ Norton Juniors

Weekly update @ XP Gateshead

Sports Day Winners @ XP East

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!

Celebrate XP… support a charity!

18th September 2026Andy Sprakes

Announcing Our New Publication: ‘Celebrating Ten Years of Expeditions at XP’

A new publication, ‘Celebrating Ten Years of Learning Expeditions at XP’, written by our co-founder, Andy Sprakes, is now available. The book highlights an extensive and broad selection of the beautiful work created by our young people and staff from across our Trust. It is a profound and often moving reminder of the purpose, agency, and consequence of our work; illuminating the transformative power and far-reaching impact of Learning Expeditions.

In the next few weeks, the book will be made available to the general public and will retail at £20. However, to mark the publication of this much-anticipated book, it is being made available exclusively to staff across our Trust for a not-for-profit cost price of £5. In the spirit of Crew the proceeds will be donated to charity.

When staff fill in the google form and order the book at this price, they will be able to choose to donate to one of two local charities and one national charity that have supported and worked alongside us in the past. 

ORDER THE BOOK HERE
FILL IN THE FORM HERE

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to the exceptional staff across our Trust whose unwavering dedication, creativity, and passion made this publication, and the transformative work within it, possible.

Charities Staff can support by purchasing the book

Curriculum Seam: Protecting Our Planet

RSPCA – https://www.rspcadoncasterrotherham.org.uk/

Curriculum Seam: Standing for Social Justice

Schools of Sanctuary – https://schools.cityofsanctuary.org/

Curriculum Seam: Diversity and Belonging

Children in Need – https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/

Reception Children Embrace the Great Outdoors

17th September 2026Emma Powell

What a wonderful week our Reception children have had exploring and learning in the great outdoors! It has been fantastic to see our youngest children showing such enthusiasm and developing their independence as they settle into life at school.

Through a range of outdoor activities, the children have been developing their teamwork, resilience and determination. They have worked together to build exciting obstacle courses, putting their coordination, balancing and problem-solving skills to the test. They have also been practising the letters they have been learning in their phonics sessions, taking their learning outdoors in a fun and engaging way.

There has been plenty of opportunity to get active too, with the children enjoying team games such as football and cricket, as well as activities designed to keep them moving and fit.

Perhaps most special of all has been watching new friendships begin to blossom. It has been lovely to see the children’s confidence growing each day as they become more familiar with their new surroundings, make new friends and discover all that Reception has to offer.

We are incredibly proud of how well our Reception children are settling in and can’t wait to see what adventures and learning opportunities the coming weeks bring!

We are making our mark!

17th September 2026Elouise Chadwick

Our children have been exploring both indoor and outdoor environments, using their creativity and imagination to make marks in all sorts of different ways during choosing time.

Choosing time is such an important part of Early Years. It is when children have the opportunity to lead their own learning, follow their interests and apply the skills they have been developing in meaningful, purposeful ways. This is when we often see real learning taking place!

It has been wonderful to see our children understanding that we can make our marks everywhere! We have spotted:

Children writing their own kindness messages in our Message Centre.

Children creating their own wonderful paintings and pictures in our Painting Area.

Children making amazing models in our Construction Area and then writing labels.

Children writing a special sign for our bug house outside.

Children recording their mathematical ideas through recording.

We love seeing children realise that writing isn’t just something we do during a handwriting lesson. Writing has a purpose everywhere! Whether it is leaving a message for a friend, labelling a model, creating a sign or recording an idea, our children are beginning to see themselves as writers.

We have also started our daily handwriting sessions, and we have been blown away by the children’s concentration and enthusiasm! We have been learning all about our 4 P’s:

Posture – sitting comfortably and being ready to write.

Pencil grip – holding our pencil in a way that helps us to write effectively.

Paper – making sure our paper is in the right position.

Pressure – using just the right amount of pressure when we make our marks.

It is wonderful to see how much pride the children are already taking in their handwriting. They have shown fantastic concentration and are working so hard to develop the foundations they need to become confident writers.

Keep making your mark, Class 1!

Timeline Of Toys at DGLAM 🧸🪀

15th September 2026Lauren Gate

Yesterday Y2 undertook amazing fieldwork to Doncaster Gallery, Library and Museum where we dove head first into toys through time.

Throughout the morning, Class Six spent their time in the Timeline Of Toys workshop. We discovered what the oldest toy ever was, how the teddy bear got its name and even about Doncaster’s special link to Paddington Bear. After all of our amazing learning we even got to explore and play with lots of different toys – we covered everything from diablos and pick up sticks to stacking dolls and marbles. We had the best morning!

In the afternoon, we spent our time wandering around the museum and art gallery. We look at fossils, dinosaur eggs, oil paintings and even a real life sun bear!

The children were all absolutely amazing, they listened, showed respect and were incredible mascots for our school. They should be incredibly proud of themselves! We are so so proud of them!!

Hook Week – What does caring look like?

14th September 2026Sarah Winkley

Last week Nursery were hooked into our Be Kind, How do we show we care expedition with the launch of our key text The Everywhere Bear. Miss Tunney kindly provided Nursery with their very own Everywhere Bears that we can learn to care for, by taking them home each weekend for adventures.

Nursery learned that caring is looking after each other and our things. In our text, the Everywhere Bear gets lost and we have been thinking hard about how we could care for the bear to keep him safe. We thought how our own families are special and what belonging to a family means, as they help, love and keep us safe. The children took part in special family orientated crews on Wise Wednesday and Thoughtful Thursday, piecing together what makes our families special… quite literally.

The children took part in a thought shower of ideas that would keep the bear safe, from our own experiences of how our parents look after us. The result was that we decided to make identity bracelets for the bears.

Nursery then agreed it would be kind to share the love and safety around the school, to any other class or crew bears, to help be able to identify them easily if they ever got lost and to keep them safe. So the children gifted each class and staff members bracelets for their teddy bears.

Such beautiful and powerful learning to the beginning of expedition, to truly understand what it means to care for someone or something else – Well done Nursery!