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Find out more here and apply to #JoinOurCrew
We’re looking for Cleaners at Green Top!
Colour Run Fun!
What a fantastic time we had at our Colour Run! The children absolutely loved taking part and there were smiles, laughter, and colourful powder everywhere.
As they ran around the course, the children were covered from head to toe in bright colours, making for a truly memorable and exciting experience. It was wonderful to see everyone having so much fun!
Of course, it was very messy, but that was all part of the fun! The children embraced every colourful moment and created lots of happy memories with their friends.
We hope you enjoy looking through the photos of our vibrant and joyful Colour Run adventure!
Sports Day and Celebration of Learning
What an amazing Sports Day we had, even in such hot weather! The children showed fantastic enthusiasm and determination as they took part in all the activities.
A huge thank you to all our families for your support and for joining us to make the day so special. It was wonderful to see so many of you cheering the children on and celebrating their achievements.
Following Sports Day, we loved welcoming you into the classroom for our Celebration of Learning. The children were incredibly proud to share their beautiful work and talk about everything they have been learning throughout the year. It was a lovely opportunity to celebrate all of their hard work, progress, and successes together.
Thank you once again for your continued support. We hope you enjoy looking through the photos from this fantastic day!
Sunny Days in Class 1
We’ve been making the most of the glorious sunshine in Class 1! With all the hot weather recently, we decided to bring the seaside beach vibes to school.
The children had a fantastic time paddling in the water, splashing their friends, and enjoying lots of fun outdoor playing in the sunshine. There were plenty of smiles and laughter as everyone embraced the beach-themed activities and cooled off in the warm weather.
Days like these provide wonderful opportunities for children to explore, play, and create special memories with their classmates. It was lovely to see everyone having so much fun while staying cool and enjoying the outdoors.
We hope you enjoy looking through the photos of our sunny day…
Sharing our Stories: 10/07/2026
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
Crew Irwin attending the ‘We Care’ event @ XP School
Year 9 Sporting Leaders Shine at Owston Sports Day @ XP East
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Sharing our Stories: 03/07/2026
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
Celebrating Our Learning @ Norton Infants
Energy, teamwork and school pride! @ XP School
Inside Out: Beautiful Work at Doncaster Airport! @ XP East
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Celebrating Our Learning
In crew this week, our Year 1 children have been busy preparing for their Student-Led Conferences by practising how to share their learning with confidence. They spent time showing their chosen pieces of work to their friends, explaining what they had learned and why they were particularly proud of each piece.
The children worked hard to speak clearly, listen carefully to one another and celebrate each other’s achievements. It was wonderful to see their growing confidence as they reflected on their progress and practised talking about their learning. We are so proud of the enthusiasm and pride they have shown, and we look forward to seeing them share their beautiful work with their families next week!
A Seaside Adventure to Remember!
Last week, our children enjoyed a fantastic fieldwork visit to Cleethorpes, and what a wonderful day we had!
From the moment we arrived, the children were a credit to our school. They behaved beautifully throughout the day, showing excellent manners, enthusiasm and curiosity as they explored the seaside environment.
We were very lucky with the weather too. The sun was shining and a lovely sea breeze helped to keep everyone comfortable as we spent time on the beach. Of course, no trip to the seaside would be complete without a special treat! The children were delighted to enjoy ice creams and ice lollies, which were the perfect way to cool down after a busy day of exploring and having fun. Please enjoy some of the photos below, which capture the fun, laughter and memorable moments from our day at the beach!
The train journey was definitely one of the highlights for many of the children. There was great excitement as we travelled along the coast together, and it was lovely to see the children sharing the experience with their friends. There were certainly a few tired eyes on the return journey home!
We are so proud of how the children represented our school and would like to thank all the staff and volunteers who helped make the trip such a success.
More than a Festival: A Celebration of Character at XP Trust Festival of Arts and Culture
Yesterday saw the third annual celebration of arts and culture across XP Trust and what a celebration it was! With temperatures soaring, students and partners braved the heat to deliver a festival rich in engagement, quality and community. Young people from every school across our Trust and other partners came together at XP Doncaster to perform and share their work. In addition, the Festival included a number of Presentations of Learning and input from one of our experts, artist (name) who co-created with visitors to the Festival a community piece of art that linked to the Year 8 Expedition ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?
“With temperatures soaring, students and partners braved the heat to deliver a festival rich in engagement, quality and community.”
The stage arrived at 6.30am (thanks to James and Pete) and was swiftly assembled as was the sound system so that students could begin to perform in the early afternoon. The Festival was opened by Dave Evans, whose work on making this a reality is truly inspiring, who introduced Noah Hopewell, our opening act on keyboard, who provided the audience with two stunning performances. This was followed by the Daggers with an indie flavoured set. Next up was Jensen Dickens with a solo acoustic performance. He played and sang beautifully followed by the Velcro Hearts whipping up the audience with an assured performance of the Oasis classic. ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’.
We were then joined by students from XP Gateshead who had travelled down from the North East to perform. Five bands played a range of songs in a variety of styles – from ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ to ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ After this there were a series of solo performances by students under the expert tutelage of Zawedde which were both moving and showed the progress the vocalist had made over the course of the year. Special mention must go to the two groups of dancers and cheerleaders who braved the heat of the mats in front of the stage to deliver their performances!
The vocal group Vox Pops then graced the stage and put on a performance of high quality, enhanced by the accompaniment of their backing band (take a bow Geoff, Dave Harvey and Jensen).
At 3pm the festival moved into its next phase as we opened our doors further to parents, partners and members of the community to enjoy Presentations of Learning from Year 7, 8 and 9, the context of this work elevated by delivery from the main stage. Year 7 culminated their expedition by answering the Guiding Question, ‘How Does Water Shape Our World’ with a pertinent and timely message about the need to be safe around open water which was supported by the fire and rescue service. Year 8 shared their work from ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ which engaged with the compelling Guiding Question, ‘Is Migration Worth the Risk?’ showcased by the permanent and beautiful mural students created to raise the awareness of the challenges facing migrants and refugees alongside local artist Phil Padfield who also attended the Festival to engage our wider community in a graffiti art project linked to the expedition as part of the Festival. Also, Sacha Gray from Community Arts organisation ‘Right Up Our Street’ visited the festival to interview a group of Year 8 students about their work which will be installed, with the support of RUOS, to impact positively in the Balby Bridge estate in Doncaster highlighting the importance of art in bringing communities together. Year 9 held a village fete style experience for their PoL where different stalls covered the different aspects of their expedition that had focused on ‘Protecting Our Planet’. In addition, as part of the culmination of learning, students displayed to parents their learning about coding and programming micro:bits!
“Sacha Gray from Community Arts organisation ‘Right Up Our Street’ (RUOS) visited the festival to interview a group of Year 8 students about their work which will be installed, with the support of RUOS, to impact positively in the Balby Bridge estate in Doncaster highlighting the importance of art in bringing communities together.”
Next up were a visiting band from New College, INOCULUM, who treated our guests to some very heavy rock. After some further stunning vocal performances from Sara and Pixie. The XP Jazz Band took to the stage to bring a chilled out, sophisticated vibe to the early evening performances. This was followed by two rock bands from Norton (what a vocal performance from Logan!) and Carcroft that were quite simply breathtaking. This was interspersed with a high energy and vibrant performance by the Samba Bands from Plover and Green Top (so good they did it twice!!) Thank you to Tom and Harvey who have worked tirelessly with these students over just seven weeks to get them performance ready – remarkable!
The final part of the evening was fired up by sets from the long established band The Roses, followed by the Brackets and Crash Radio.There were some inspired performances of real high quality and range – it was humbling to see how much progress and how accomplished these bands have become over the course of recent years building on their experiences of being patriot of our year long XP Live performance opportunities. My particular favourite was Crash Radio’s rendition of the Sex Pistol’s ‘Anarchy in the UK’!!
The festival culminated with an awe-inspiring parade featuring all of our Primary Schools, resulting in African songs and dancing led by our old friend Xolani – who is amazing!! What a sight it was to behold young people from across our primary schools fully engaging in music and dancing. It was very moving and uplifting.
The festival was closed by our long term friends, partners and residents, Doncaster Youth Jazz Association. As always their Swing Band, that is just about to embark on a tour of Herten in Germany, completed the evening with sophisticated Jazz classics and upbeat swing versions of popular songs. It was a fantastic end to a wonderful day.
“weaving together community, character, and performance into a singular, elevating experience.”
The XP Trust Festival of Arts and Culture 2026 serves as a powerful testament to the transformative impact of our schools’ creative curriculum, weaving together community, character, and performance into a singular, elevating experience. By providing a stage for students from across the Trust to share their work, the festival actively builds essential life skills: nurturing the confidence and resilience required to conquer nerves and individual expression, alongside fostering the compassion and integrity needed to collaborate as Crew. The day acts as a pivotal bridge between students, parents, and partners, creating a shared space where academic milestones like Presentations of Learning meet the joy of collective performance, ultimately reinforcing a culture where students are inspired to pursue mastery, value belonging, and be made to see that there is more in them than they know.
My heartfelt thanks go to the staff, partners, and community members whose unwavering support made this our best festival yet. Particular thanks go to Claira Salter, staff at XPD and Trust staff who bore the brunt of stewardship and organisational duties. Seeing the growth, courage, and connection on display, from our youngest primary dancers to our graduating bands, has been truly humbling.
As we look back on an incredible day of community and celebration, I am already counting down the days until next year…
Andy Sprakes
Sharing our Stories: 26/06/2026
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
A Celebration of Humanity, Harmony, and Heritage @ XP Gateshead
Independent learners leading their own learning @ Norton Infants
Football Stars selected to represent Doncaster @ XP East
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!