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.
Weekly Update for Families @ XP Gateshead
Finding our happy @ Norton Infants
Year 11 Rise to the challenge! @ XP East
Litter picking legends @ Norton Juniors
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
This week in Key Stage 1, we came together for a short community meeting built around the beautiful book Find Your Happy. Through this story, we explored something really important: understanding our feelings and knowing what to do when they feel big.
At school, the children are very familiar with the Zones of Regulation, which help us to recognise and name how we are feeling:
During the community meeting, we talked about how we all move through these zones every day—and that’s completely normal. The key message we shared is that all feelings are okay, but we can learn ways to help ourselves feel safe, calm, and ready again.
Using Find Your Happy, we explored how the character experiences different emotions and discovers simple strategies to feel better. We then practised some of these together:
These small strategies can make a big difference, especially when children are feeling in the yellow or red zones.
You might like to continue these conversations at home by:
By using a shared language between school and home, we can help children to better understand themselves and build the skills they need to manage their feelings with confidence.
We reminded the children that being in the green zone all the time isn’t the goal—because that’s not realistic for any of us! Instead, it’s about learning how to recognise our feelings and find our way back to feeling safe and ready.
We are so proud of how thoughtfully the children engaged with this important message. Ask them about how they “find their happy”—you might even learn a new strategy yourself!
Thank you for your continued support.
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.
Another amazing week in PE @ XP
Double, Double, No Toil or Trouble: G31 Nailed It! @ XP Gateshead
Easter Traditions @ Norton Infants
Crew Rosa Parkes – Well done! @ XP East
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Last week Nursery were exploring and for most being introduced to the real meaning of Easter for the first time. We told a child friendly traditional tale of Easter and the children explored themes of whether the treatment of Jesus was fair and kind? Were the people who hurt him “Loving Lions”? They were hooked into the story, using a Good Friday version of pass the parcel. The children pulled out items that were significant to the story and suggested what they maybe… They had some great ideas, grappling that a bamboo cross was “a sign” or “an arrow”. They suggested that the piece of red material was “a towel” or “scarf” and that a crown made from pipe cleaners was “a hat” or a “hula hoop”. They correctly identified bread and fish and stones.
The children carried large construction tubes, testing their gross motor skills, around the outdoor area including up and over the hill. They worked in pairs mostly, being teamwork tigers. The tubes symbolised Jesus cross. The children offered some wonderful ideas around this activities, understanding that Jesus must have been “tired”, “aching”, “sore” and they found it “tricky”.
Throughout the week the children had the opportunity to create an Easter crown using craft materials.
To activate and construct the idea of Easter being a time of new life, the children took part in some planting. They each took turns to plant their own cress seeds, learning what things plants need to survive and grow. The children really enjoyed this activity and were able to explain that plants need “sun”, “water”, “air”, “soil” or “muck” to grow.
Our maths work also centred around traditional Easter and new life last week too as the children recapped on repeating patterns using traditional pictures and baby animals.
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.
X30 Corner Football Thursday @ XP
The Power of Passage Presentations @ XP Gateshead
Where will our vehicles take us @ Norton Infants
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Last week Nursery brought case study three of our expedition to a close by thinking about “Where will your vehicle and imagination take you?”
We all bordered the “Imagination Station Train” and pretended as we chugged along the tracks and pulled into lots of imaginary worlds. The journey began by being modelled to the children, encouraging them to think of far away or imaginary places, such as Lollipop land or Chocolate World. As the children became immersed in their play, they began to suggest stops of their own such as Dinosaur Land, The Jungle, Mermaid World, Unicorn Land and Sweetie Town.
The children were then asked if they could go in any vehicle, to any place – Where would it be? How would they get there? And most importantly what would their vehicle be powered by? The children made some wonderful suggestions using their imagination and knowledge, built up from throughout the expedition, really consolidating their learning. We really have been on the move!
In provision the children also explored, used their imaginations and translated their learning to create their own imagination station journeys.
Find out more here and apply to #JoinOurCrew
Relish has transformed school dinners across XP – but don’t just take our word for it. Hear what students, parents and staff at Green Top have to say…
Find out more about Relish and set up your parent account: https://relishschoolfood.co.uk/parents
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.
Beautiful Work by Daria @ XP Gateshead
Mindful Monday @ Norton Infants
Highwayman ‘Swift Nicks’ Nevison visits NJS @ Norton Juniors
C30 Tranquil Tuesday @ XP East
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Last Friday we celebrated World Book Day. It was a fabulous day and children were all very excited to dress as a book character and design a hat inspired by a book of their choice. We had some amazing creations that will be talked about for a long time to come.
We started the day with our community meeting where we paraded our amazing hats and costumes. We then went back into the classroom to take part in different activities linked to some of our favourite stories. We created Hungry Caterpillar repeating patterns, built houses for The Three Little Pigs and spent time listening to some of our favourite stories.
