We started the week by sharing some incredible independent writing and extended study that has been happening over the half term break. Well Done Key Stage One
Celebration Crew
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Sharing our Stories: 24/05/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Chance to Dance – Royal Ballet at XP
We were delighted to be able to welcome the Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet programme ‘Chance to Dance‘ to XPE last weekend. Over two days the tech teams and over 100 pupils from five Primary Schools across Doncaster – including our own Norton Junior School – rehearsed and then performed a specially choreographed piece based on a Midsummer Night’s Dream.
For months the children had been working in their schools, finally joining us at XPE last weekend to meet all the other participants and share their love of dance, working together to create a beautiful piece of ballet. Performing alongside them were Isabella and Valentino, remarkable solo artists from the Royal Ballet.
Over two performances several hundred friends and family filled the auditorium at XP enchanted by the stunning piece that was received with cheers and much applause. This is the second year running that XPE has hosted this event and it was a delight to welcome back the team from the ROH and Royal Ballet.
Blue Planet – Product Curation at 23rd Owston Scout Hall
Beautiful work from KS1s most recent Expedition ‘Blue Planet’ is on display of the walls of the Owston Scout Hall! Their guiding question was ‘How will what I do today impact the world tomorrow?’.
The art focusses on three different countries they have been learning about: the UK, Africa and Antartica. The exhibition not only showcases all of the children’s artwork but also food and drink from the countries and facts that they had learnt about each country.
Visitors from Hong Kong at XP
XP Doncaster hosted 50 Visitors from Hong Kong last week. The visitors left feeling very inspired and praised our students for being so confident and articulate – we look forward to welcoming our visitors back to XP in the future!
We’re looking for an outstanding Learning Coach (Teaching Assistant and HLTA) and Crew Leader at XP Gateshead!
Find out more here and apply to #JoinOurCrew
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Doing the Ocean Jam…
The children have enjoyed learning about musical instruments this week. We learned a song called ‘Ocean Jam’ and the children carefully selected instruments to play for each section of the song. We sang, danced and played to the beat of the music! What a jam!
We are looking forward to performing our song to the nursery children in our community meeting tomorrow.
Nursery’s Fish
Beginning in hook week, Nursery began to draw pictures of a Sea Perch carefully chosen for it’s simple and recognisable outline and detailed body. The children first observed only the picture of the Sea Perch and completed their first drafts of the fish. Nursery worked very hard at creating drawings using lines and circles, whilst concentrating on the visual and this activity took quite some time as everyone was trying their best.
Three weeks later our Nursery children attempted a second draft of their fish, but before they began, Nursery watched a short clip about a little boy called Austin, who drew a Butterfly. When Austin drew his first butterfly, despite having the picture in front of him, it looked like the one he visualised in his head. With the critique, help and support of his peers who gave small wonders on how Austin could gradually improve his butterfly to look more like the original picture. (Please check this out on YouTube) Austin produced this butterfly below as his final draft. Our children really responded to the video clip and were amazed at how much Austin’s Butterfly had improved. This gave them a good understanding of how to critique their own work, by just changing one or two things.
Here are some of our drafts for comparison, the children worked very hard to ensure their area of improvement was achieved and we are immensely proud of them. Check this beautiful work out!!
Tuesday Reading Crew
Today Nursery Crew’s were each read a different story, The Magic Porridge Pot and The Wizard of Oz. The focus was to practise listening very carefully to understand and recall who the main characters are, what problems they encounter and how they solved the problems.
Crew Winkley and Crew Mortimer swapped crew leaders at the end of each story to question the children’s understanding and for each crew to explain to us what had happened in the alternate story. The children listened very well and were able to recall events and characters in detail! Well Done Nursery next week we will swap stories and practise again. Beautiful communication and listening skills – great work!
Friday afternoon treat
After working so hard all week we decided to have a little biscuit break this afternoon!
Well done class five ⭐️⭐️
Sharing our Stories: 17/05/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Why We Crew – XP Trust in Aberdeen
Since 2019 we have been working with the educational charity The Wood Foundation, which is based in Scotland. Dozens of educators from schools in the Aberdeen area have been visiting our Trust as delegates for the last four years – learning about Crew, expeditions and Leadership.
This week for the first time colleagues from our Trust, including our CAO Andy, had the opportunity to deliver CPD to teachers in Aberdeen, visiting schools and meeting students. It was heartwarming and humbling to see Crew – sometimes called Squads and Clans north of the border – being delivered in Scotland.
We look forward to welcoming more delegates to our Trust schools in the future and travelling back to support our new friends as they continue their Crew journey.
There Is No Planet B – Product Curation at Norton Juniors
The beautiful work from LKS2’s Expedition ‘There Is No Planet B’ is now curated outside the school! The awesome artwork, created from digital images of discarded waste, depicts various different animals whose habitats are being destroyed in the local community. To further reinforce the notion of climate emergency, through their literacy cycle, pupils also wrote persuasive speeches about how we can all bring about positive change if we work together.
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Mayan Mask Madness @ Norton Junior School
History and Ethics Fieldwork @ XP School
Super focus from Year 11 @ XP East
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Counting Collections
Class 1 have really impressed me in our counting collections session this week. They thought carefully about how they would count their collection and demonstrated their mathematical thinking when recording their findings. Moreover, they worked beautifully together, listening and supporting one another. A superb effort from everyone on a Friday!
Football Logos
Class Five are looking to the teacher versus parent community football match! (Keep your eyes peeled for more details about it coming soon!) We have been busy designing and voting for logos for our teacher football kit!
Awesome job class five ⚽️
Showing Kindness
Our number one rule in class 1 is to be kind…always. This week we have been thinking of ways that we can show kindness. In crew this morning it was great to see the children supporting one another to read words and giving one another praise for their efforts.
Also today, a little girl in class 1 decided she wanted to make something for her friend. She spent a long time in the creative area making two matching teddy bears. It put a big smile on her friends face when he received it! How kind to think of making someone else happy. You all make class 1 a beautiful place to be!