Sharing our Stories: 07/06/2024

7th June 2024Geoff Hewitt

Beautiful Work This Week

Year 10 Band ‘LOOM’ @ the Doncaster Festival of Colour

On the last Friday before half term, students from XP Doncaster performed their original composition ‘Like A Storm’ in the magnificent ‘Luminarium’ at Right Up Our Street’s Doncaster Festival of Colour.

As part of ‘LOOL’ music sessions, Year 10 students have worked really hard to write this piece of music with Skinny Pelembe and Higher Rhythm as part of the Noise Collective project.

We are really proud of what they have achieved over the last few months – they’ve created beautiful work and developed a true sense of Crew in music.

There is No Planet B – Product Curation in Carcroft Community

Beautiful work from LKS2s most recent Expedition ‘There Is No Planet B’ has been curated on three signs in Carcroft! Their guiding question was ‘How can we protect our wonderful world?’.

Their learning focussed on the climate emergency and the impact that humanity is having on the environment, as well as what can be done to prevent further damage and protect the planet. The curated signs they have created not only celebrate the beautiful work they have done during the Expedition, but also make a stand about a persistent issue with local fly tipping.

Students have created helpful guides on recycling as an alternative to tipping and how this can benefit the community as a whole.

Friends of Norton Campus Football!

Friends of Norton Campus Association organised a community football match – parents versus teachers at Askern Miner’s Welfare Ground. Teachers were joined by some of Doncaster Rovers coaches and staff from Green Top – a real crew effort. The match was a tight game with both teams really wanting the win but at the final whistle it was the teachers that took home the trophy!

Friends of Norton Campus organised food, face painting and activities for the children – we even had a special visit from Donny Dog! We were supported with over two hundred members of the local community resulting in a really fantastic event.

Student Showcase – 4th July 2024

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Y5 parents please find attached an event you can attend to find out more about XP and XP East.

Please note this is not for Y6 students who have already been allocated their school. 

You can book your place here.

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

Top of the Blogs

Beautiful Work from Elize, Lyra and Leo @ XP Gateshead

Brilliant Bakers @ Norton Infants

D-Day @ Green Top

Pride of Plover @ Plover

Grammar in MI @ Carcroft 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!

How to draw a pirate

4th June 2024Elouise Chadwick

The children in reception have enjoyed learning how to draw a pirate in the style of Simon Rickerty’s ‘Ten Little Pirates’. The children showed high levels of concentration and engagement. As a result they produced some high quality work that blew us away…

Sharing our Stories: 24/05/2024

24th May 2024Geoff Hewitt

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

Top of the Blogs

Beautiful Work from Adam @ XP Gateshead

Nursery’s Fish @ Norton Infants

London 2024 @ Green Top

Dodgeball Fun at Kingfisher @ Plover

Drawing Pictograms @ Carcroft School

This week in PE @ XP School

Year 10 Awesomeness @ 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!

Doing the Ocean Jam…

23rd May 2024Elouise Chadwick

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

21st May 2024Sarah Winkley

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!!