📚✨ Final Word Preparation ✨📚

15th June 2026Laura Parsons

Today, we spent time preparing for our upcoming Final Word, focusing on one of our most important learning habits: reflection.

We journeyed back through all of the expeditions we have completed this year, revisiting beautiful pieces of work and remembering the learning experiences that helped us grow. The children were amazed to see the progress they have made, spotting improvements in their writing, artwork, presentation and overall craftsmanship.

As part of our preparation, the children worked together to support one another in selecting pieces of work to share with their families. Some chose work they are especially proud of, while others selected pieces that they found challenging and had to really grapple with before achieving success.

It was wonderful to hear the children talking so thoughtfully about their learning journey and celebrating how far they have come. We can’t wait for them to share these special pieces and reflections with you at Final Word! 🌟

World Cup Fever in Class 5!

12th June 2026Laura Parsons

Class 5 has been well and truly bitten by the World Cup bug!

As part of our Class 5 sweepstake, each child was allocated two countries to support throughout the tournament. We have spent time developing our research skills by finding out more about our countries, including where they are in the world, interesting facts about them and their football traditions.

Using our research, we then created our very own World Cup bunting display. We carefully studied each country’s flag, paying close attention to colours, shapes and patterns to ensure our designs were as accurate as possible. This challenged us to be precise and pay close attention to detail.

The classroom is now looking fantastic, with flags from around the world proudly displayed and lots of excitement as we follow the progress of our teams. We are looking forward to seeing how our countries perform and finding out who will be crowned World Cup champions!

Good luck to all of our Class 5 teams!

Sharing our Stories: 12/06/2026

12th June 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

Crew Walton Wildlife Park @ Green Top

Handwriting champion of the week @ Plover

Expedition – Science @ Carcroft School

Beautiful work from Harry in Year 10 @ XP Gateshead

Crew Nightingale Hunt for a Rainbow in the Rain! @ Norton Infants

Moving Together @ XP School

A settled and productive afternoon @ 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!

Crew Nightingale Hunt for a Rainbow in the Rain!

11th June 2026Claire Goodyer

The rain certainly didn’t stop Crew Nightingale from enjoying their outdoor learning this week!

Wrapped up and armed with their colour charts, our Year 1 crew set off on a colourful adventure around the playground. Their challenge was to find natural and man-made objects that matched each colour on their chart. From bright green leaves and brown tree bark to colourful flowers, the children became excellent colour detectives.

It felt especially fitting that we were hunting for the colours of the rainbow whilst exploring in the rain! Although the sun didn’t appear to create a real rainbow for us, the children discovered plenty of rainbow colours all around them.

The activity encouraged careful observation, teamwork and discussion as the children shared their discoveries with one another. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and determination, even with the drizzle falling around them.

In Crew Nightingale, we know that learning can happen anywhere, and our outdoor sessions with Mrs Jackson provide fantastic opportunities to explore, investigate and connect with the world around us. The rain simply added an extra layer of adventure to our day!

Well done, Crew Nightingale, for embracing the weather and becoming brilliant rainbow hunters!

Crew Parkinson: Building Resilience Through Tangrams!

10th June 2026Laura Parsons

Resilience was out in full force this morning in Crew Parkinson!

Our children were challenged to create different animals using tangram puzzles. It wasn’t always easy, and there were plenty of moments where we had to persevere, rethink our ideas and try a different approach. The children showed fantastic determination as they grappled with the challenge and refused to give up when the pieces didn’t quite fit the first time.

Once everyone had chosen their favourite animal design, we set about transforming it into our own tangram puzzle. The children carefully added colour and features to bring their creations to life, thinking about how they could make them both attractive and challenging for others to solve.

Next week, we’ll be sharing our puzzles with our crew mates and putting each other’s problem-solving skills to the test. We can’t wait to see who can crack the challenges that have been created!

A wonderful morning of creativity, perseverance and teamwork—well done, Crew Parkinson! 🧩✨

Sharing our Stories: 05/06/2026

5th June 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

Class 5 Artists @ Green Top

Y5 Scientists @ Plover

Crew McLoughlin Become Historians! @ Carcroft School

POL and our first XPG Live for all families @ XP Gateshead

Seaside explorers @ Norton Infants

Spotting Greatness in X32 Skipper: Working Hard, Getting Smart, and Being Kind @ XP 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!

Seaside Explorers.

22nd May 2026Sarah Winkley

Last week the children were hooked into our second case study about “Who would have adventures at sea?” Beginning with an immersive dress up day. Children came to school dressed in beautiful pirate, mermaid or other sea themed costumes. Teachers also dressed as a whole range of seaside explorers too, to broaden the ‘children’s understanding of who you may expect to see at the seaside having adventures. Don’t we all look brilliant!!

The children were engaged in story telling during Tranquil Tuesday crew, where they each acted out sea themed stories using props to use as problems and solutions, developing stories using our Tales Tool kit format. The children individually chose the props for the story they took part in making their story unique to them.

During our mindful Monday Crew the children made sea and sand sensory bottles to show them what happens where the sea meets the shore. This helped them to understand where people have adventures at sea and understand the concept of the stories being based either on or under the water.

Later in the week the children used a photo of them from our immersive dress up day, to help them write a sea themed adventure story using the tales tool kit format. The children chose whether they would be the character or the problem as some of our characters were goodies and some were more tricky! As the children told and drew their stories using a character, a setting, a problem and a solution, grown ups scribed for them.

Beautiful work

22nd May 2026Anna Wojcik

Class 4 have been working incredibly hard on their home learning projects this term. The children created some fantastic under the sea habitats and spent some time researching interesting facts about different sea creatures. They were super proud to present their work to the class. We have also been producing some excellent recount writing based on our fieldwork visit to The Deep.