Crew Weeks

6th September 2026Sarah Winkley

Over the past two weeks Nursery have been introduced to Crew and what that means for us as a school. They are beginning to understand that we are all friends and part of a community where we share and care for one another with kindness at the heart of everything we do. The children have made an excellent start to their school learning journey and have had lots of fun exploring and experimenting in the new environment.

The children have learned to circle up at the beginning of their sessions and use their crew mascot as a tool to recognise when it is their turn to speak and share for checking in or taking part. We have explored our zones of regulations, helping the children to name and identify their feelings more easily. They used a lolly pop stick to choose which feeling monster they identified with at that time linked to one of our crew texts; “The Colour Monster Goes to School”.

In our second week we had an exciting visit from the “Kindness Elves”, two magical elves who brought us a gift! It was the story, “The Hugasaurus” which centres around what a little dinosaur can do to help teach her friends to be kind a play together happily and harmoniously. The children have been thinking about this in their play and we have taken pictures of the children in provision sharing, being loving lions and working together being Teamwork Tigers, two of our most important character traits which the children are gradually being introduced to.

As our crew weeks drew to a close the children created a piece of special artwork which will be included in a unique crew final product which will be revealed later, but I can share our beautiful self portraits that will feature on it.

Finally we have celebrated with a lovely Teddy Bears picnic for our community crew on Friday. Each child brought in their favourite soft toy to share with their friends and we talked about how we all have different ones that are our favourites, as we all like different things making us all special. Yummy treats were enjoyed by all. Beautiful work Nursery.

Our first week back…

4th September 2026Geoff Hewitt

At XP, our first week back looks a little bit different. Across our Trust, students and staff have been working hard to build and reestablish the most important part of our culture – Crew.

Sharing our Stories: 04/09/2026

4th 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

Class 12 | WW2 Crafts @ Green Top

Appreciating Kindness @ Plover

Crew McGlone – Tough Runner @ Carcroft School

Focus and Deep Thinking in Year 8 this week @ XP

Hook week day two @ Norton Infants

Crew week = complete! @ Norton Juniors

G29 first week back! @ XP Gateshead

Crew DCU @ 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!

🎠 Hook Week: Day Two – Designers, Inventors and Lots of Resilience!

2nd September 2026Laura Parsons

Day two of our Hook Week was another busy one in Class Five! Today, we became designers and inventors, putting our creativity (and our resilience!) to the test.

Our challenge was to design and make our very own cup and ball toy. It sounded simple… until we actually had to make one! There was A LOT of sticky tape involved, plenty of problem-solving and more than a few moments where things didn’t quite go to plan! 🤣

But the children showed resilience in bucket loads. They kept trying, adapted their designs and didn’t give up when their toys weren’t working quite as they had hoped. And then came the REALLY tricky bit… actually getting the ball into the cup! Some of us discovered that making the toy was only half the challenge! 😂

In the afternoon, we became toy detectives. We thought carefully about toys from the past and toys we might find today. Rather than simply deciding whether a toy was “old” or “new”, we thought about how we knew. We looked closely at the materials toys were made from, how they worked and the features that might give us clues about when they were created.

We finished our day by getting to properly play and explore some of our new toys in our groups. But there was a challenge attached to our play! We were trying to earn more of our Play Awards by showing all the behaviours that make play enjoyable for everyone – playing fairly, sharing, taking turns, looking after our toys and remembering to tidy up.

It was lovely to see the children putting our learning about fairness, teamwork and being a good crew member into practice while they played.

Another fantastic day of Hook Week – and we think we might have some budding toy designers and inventors in Class Five! 🎠

🧸 Immersion Week Begins! 🧸

1st September 2026Laura Parsons

We have officially kicked off our Immersion Week in Class Five, and what better way to begin than by bringing in something very special from home — a favourite toy! ❤️

The classroom was full of excitement as the children shared their toys with each other. We talked about what our toys were, where they came from, why we liked them and what made them special to us. There were dolls, figures, cars, cuddly toys and lots of other wonderful treasures!

But we didn’t just look at our toys as children…

🔬 We became scientists!

We looked very carefully at our toys and became materials detectives, thinking about what they were made from. We spotted materials such as plastic, wood, fabric, metal and rubber and talked about why different materials might have been chosen to make different parts of a toy.

🎨 Then we became artists!

We slowed down and really looked at our toys. Rather than drawing what we thought our toy looked like, we challenged ourselves to be careful observers and create accurate drawings, noticing shapes, patterns, colours, textures and tiny details.

It was wonderful to see the children looking at something so familiar in a completely different way.

A toy isn’t just something to play with…

It can be something to investigate, observe, question, draw and learn from. 🧸🔍

And this is only the beginning!

Throughout our immersion week, we will be exploring toys from lots of different perspectives and beginning to uncover the clues that will help us discover exactly where our new expedition will take us…

The power of play is already taking us on quite a journey! ❤️

What a Wonderful First Week in Class 3!

29th August 2026Claire Goodyer

What a fantastic first week back we have had in Class 3! The children have settled in brilliantly and it has been lovely to see them growing in confidence, working together and showing what a caring and thoughtful class they can be.

Throughout the week, we have been thinking carefully about our Crew guiding question: “How does what I do impact others?”

This question has been at the heart of our discussions and activities. We have explored lots of different stories together, talking about the choices characters make and considering how their actions can make others feel. We have thought about the many ways we can show kindness, compassion and respect, and how even the smallest actions can have a big impact on someone else’s day.

We have also worked together to think about what makes our classroom a safe, happy and welcoming place to be. Every day, we have considered how we can look after one another, include others, listen carefully and work as a team. It has been wonderful to see the children putting these ideas into practice!

We didn’t stop at thinking about kindness within our crews and Class 3, we also thought about how we could make a difference to other children in our school.

The children decided to design and decorate some special biscuits to give as a little welcome gift to the children in our reception classes. They took great care with their creations and were so excited to make something that would hopefully make the youngest members of our school smile.

It has been a lovely first week filled with kindness, teamwork, thoughtful conversations and lots of opportunities to make a positive difference to others.

We are incredibly proud of how well Class 3 have settled back into school and can’t wait to see where the rest of this term takes us!

Well done, Class 3! 

What an amazing week in Year 1.

28th August 2026Anna Wojcik

We have had an amazing week exploring our guiding question ‘How does what I do impact my Crew and others?’ We spent time discussing what it means to be kind and thinking about the different ways we can show our kindness. We decorated biscuits and gifted them to our Reception classes as a special act of kindness.

Class 1: Our Reception Adventure Begins!

28th August 2026Elouise Chadwick

What an incredible first week it has been for Class 1! 💛

Starting Reception is such a big milestone for our children. There are new faces to meet, new routines to learn, a new classroom to explore and lots of new experiences to take in. We could not be prouder of how wonderfully our children have risen to the challenge!

This week, the children have been busy getting to know one another, making new friends and beginning to build our very special Class 1 community. We have been talking about what it means to be part of a crew, thinking about how we can look after one another, be kind and help each other. We have also been helping our Colour Monster to become untangled by thinking about different scenarios that might happen at school and discussing what we could do to be kind, caring and helpful. The children have been fantastic at sharing their ideas and showing us that they already understand how our kind actions can make others feel happy and cared for.

The children have also been learning all about our new classroom and routines. From finding their way around the different areas of provision, learning where resources belong, getting ready for lunch and remembering our tidy-up routines, they have already made such a fantastic start.

We have seen lots of brave faces, kind actions, curious minds and proud smiles throughout the week. There have been moments when things have felt a little tricky too – and that is completely okay. Starting school is a huge change, and we are so proud of the children for persevering, trying new things and gradually becoming more confident each day.

We have particularly loved seeing the children beginning to play together, share ideas, help their friends and explore their new learning environment. It has been wonderful to watch their little personalities shine through!

We have ended our week with a fun parachute crew session…

It’s going to be a great year! xx

A Wonderful Start in Class 2

27th August 2026Emma Powell

We have had a wonderful first few days settling into Class 2! It has been lovely to see the children getting to know one another, making new friends and becoming familiar with their new environment.

Each day has begun with Crew time, giving us the opportunity to make sure everyone feels happy, safe and welcomed in our class. We have been enjoying learning one another’s names, sharing information about our families and talking about our favourite things.

The children have had great fun exploring our classroom, both indoors and outdoors, and have enjoyed taking part in a variety of exciting new activities. It has been fantastic to see their confidence beginning to grow as they settle into their new routines and build new friendships.

We are so pleased with how well everyone has settled and are looking forward to a fun-filled year of learning, exploring and making wonderful memories together!

Crew Attenborough: Collaboration, Communication and a Floor Full of Lava! 🌿🔥

27th August 2026Laura Parsons

What a brilliant first week back for Crew Attenborough! 💚

We have spent lots of time getting to know one another, learning what makes our crew special and, most importantly, beginning to understand what it really means to work as a team.

We have tackled lots of crew challenges, including one where we had to build the tallest tower we could. It was fantastic to hear the children thinking carefully about how they could work together. One child summed it up perfectly:

“We need to work together or we won’t do it.”

Another noticed just how important communication was:

“We did some good communicating to help us.”

And today, our collaboration skills were REALLY put to the test… because the floor turned to lava! 🌋

Working in small teams, the children had to figure out how to get safely across our classroom using only the stepping stones. Just when they thought they had cracked it, Mrs Parsons made things even trickier…

The floor was lava all the way to Mrs Bradshaw’s office! 😱

There was lots of problem-solving, communicating, encouraging, changing plans and, most importantly, persevering when things didn’t go quite right.

Step by step, the children worked together to pass the stepping stones all the way from Class Five, along the corridor and safely to Mrs Bradshaw’s office. And, of course, we couldn’t resist a sneaky little photo when we finally made it! 📸

What a brilliant way to finish our first week. We are already seeing the beginnings of a crew who listen to one another, encourage each other, solve problems together and don’t give up when something feels tricky.

We wonder what Crew Attenborough will be able to achieve when we really start working as one crew… 🌿💚

Watch this space!