Sharing our Stories: 19/04/2024

Beautiful Work This Week

Being Human – Beautiful Speeches from XP Gateshead

The G29 students speeches answering our guiding question “What does it mean to be human?” is now live on our website.

You can listen again and relive the POL speeches here!

This beautiful work is also available to visitors to the QE Hospital at the Windy Nook Entrance via a QR code on the art installation. This is important work matters, raising awareness of the importance of organ donation. A work that chimes with Olivias’ concluding remarks to our POL.

“…being human is about our social structures and relationships. How we connect, understand each other and have a sense of understanding and acceptance for ourselves and others.  We build our world through our memories and experience to decide where we want to go in the future. Humans grow through our community and others around us.”

XP Y9 Fieldwork to Thackray Museum

The Power of Change @ Carcroft

In Spring 2024, students from Years 5 and 6 at Carcroft School embarked on an Expedition to explore the 19th century’s impact on our lives today, examining whether its influence has been positive or negative. Students immersed themselves in the era by creating African pattern-inspired book bindings and sculptures. They delved into the work of British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonabare to understand cultural identity and globalisation. The history case study focused on the British Empire, particularly its effects on South Africa and the Zulu people, comparing Victorian society with Zulu society and discussing the legacy of these interactions. The science component of the Expedition related these historical impacts to the concepts of reversible and irreversible changes, using chemistry to draw parallels between the societal changes and scientific processes.

The Expedition’s culmination was an art exhibition-style event where students showcased sculptures inspired by Yinka Shonabare, reflecting on cultural identity and personal, cultural, or ethnic adaptation in an ever-changing world. This final product, along with literacy-based assessments and case study reflections, demonstrated the students’ learning and understanding of the 19th century’s influence. Throughout the Expedition, a diverse range of texts, including graphic novels and classic literature, enriched the students’ experience. Despite limitations on fieldwork due to economic conditions, video calls with South African residents offered insights into the lasting impacts of the British Empire on the Zulu people, enhancing the students’ global perspective and understanding of historical legacies.

Highlights from UKS2’s COL @ Plover

In the last week of term, students in UKS2 at Plover celebrated their work from their Expedition ‘The Power of Change’. Their guiding question was ‘How did the 19th century influence our lives today?’ and their final product explored significant locations in Doncaster, creating a history trail for members of the community to follow to learn more about the City’s history.

‘How will what I do today impact the world tomorrow?’ @ Norton Infants

Last term, students in KS1 at Norton infants explored ocean pollution – contrasting clean and polluted waters and their effects on wildlife, leading to local litter collection activities and artistic recycling projects, culminating in a family event promoting the reduction of single-use plastics. They delved into the science of this by examining the characteristics of living and non-living entities, focusing on animal needs and dietary types, and assessing human impacts on ecosystems, resulting in a detailed report on local fauna. Their geographical studies spanned identifying global continents, oceans, and specific habitats, enhanced by a narrative exercise based on “Somebody Swallowed Stanley.” Art skills were honed through various mediums in creating a sculpture and alternate story settings from “The Tin Forest.”

The students’ final product drew together learning from all three of these case studies. They created these activity booklets, which contain examples of beautiful artwork and written information, and include activities for children to complete – here’s a sample of their work below!

We would like to donate these booklets to local places so that children can complete them whilst they are out in our community! If this is something that you feel you would like copies of, we can send them to you! Please send an email to [email protected] and we will organise sending them to you!

Top of the Blogs

Wise Wednesday @ XP

Beautiful Work from Scarlett @ XP Gateshead

We are Sea Explorers @ Norton Infants

Class 7 found a time capsule @ Green Top

Ready Steady Cook @ Plover

New Reading Challenge @ Carcroft School

What is Power? @ XP East

‘Hats on for Hope’ @ Norton Juniors

Join our Crew!

We’re looking for Cleaners and a Cleaner in Charge to #JoinOurCrew at XP Doncaster – find out more and apply here!

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!

We are Sea Explorers!

As our hook week has rolled out, Nursery have had lots of fun exploring and immersing themselves in all things lurking beneath the surface of the sea, underpinned by our hook text, “Commotion in the Ocean” By Giles Andreas. The children have searched around Nursery for clues of what they may find in the sea? They have learned about how these sea creatures survive and their anatomical features such as; gills, scales, fins and flippers.

The children then created fabulous sea creatures of their own using various craft materials, mediums and techniques. These include jiggling Jellyfish, Octopuses and shimmering Fishes – just look at our beautiful work!

Finally the children have worked hard on beginning to understand and explore our guiding question for our new exciting summer expedition “What happens when the sea meets the shore?”

As part of our Thoughtful Thursday Crew the children used their own experiences to draw pictures of what they recall visually about the seaside and talked about, What does the sand feel like? How does it look on the beach? Their ideas were collected in crews to form spider diagrams.

We then practically explored how the sand and water make the shore by creating sensory sea bottles using sand and blue coloured water. The children were thrilled to experiment and see how the sand and water mixed and then settled separately, creating their own beach in a bottle. It was a fabulous experience for all.

Stained glass windows

We have shown amazing determination and perseverance in Year One whilst creating our stained glass windows. We are really proud of our hard work and how well we drew lines and coloured in staying inside the lines. We think they will look beautiful in our classroom.

Meet the Author

Key Stage One had an exciting visit from the author Phil Sheppard this morning. He told us all about his love of stories, books and reading as a child and how he became an author. He introduced us to his non fiction books all about Doncaster and shared some of his stories with us before holding a book signing. We’re looking forward to sharing some of our own work with him at the end of our expedition.

Crafty Afternoon

We took our inspiration from Doncaster Minister and had a go at recreating our own stained glass windows. We also wondered where we belong in the world so we used maps to create circular diagrams to show.

We think they look great – what do you think?

RE Recap

We spent some time this morning working collaboratively to sort religious symbols, places of worship and special books into which religion they belong to. We had to do lots of talking and listening but together we all succeeded.

Hook Week expert

Geoff came in and spoke to us about aerial images and how they can help us learn more about the world around us. He shared with us some images of Norton and we had a great time locating familiar landmarks. Geoff is coming back during our Geography case study to send the drone up and take some new aerial photographs with us.

We wonder how aerial images will help us in our expedition?

Key Stage 1 Crew Challenge

Our KS1 crews took part in a Humpty Dumpty crew challenge to mark our Norton Campus science week. We investigated materials to see which one would make the best jacket to protect Humpty Dumpty when he fell from the wall. After investigating the materials we voted for the ones we thought would offer the most protection. We also discussed how we could make the test fair and made predictions for the results.

Sharing our Stories: 28/03/2024

Beautiful Work This Week

Sign Language Week at Green Top

Last week was Sign Language week in the UK – so all the students at Green Top have made this video, singing and signing the song ‘True Colours’ as part of the celebration!

‘If We Plant Trees…’ – Legacy @ NJS

As part of their awesome POLs this week, every single Year 3 and 4 child has planted a tree at Norton Junior School, with support from Murphy’s and their Roots Programme.

They also celebrated their product from last term (more on this next time!) and unveiled their awesome digital artwork, made from images of recycling – this will be on display in school after the Easter break!

Plover’s Eco Garden!

KS1 at Plover have just finished their Expedition ‘The Blue Planet’. Their final product has provided a lasting legacy for the community – a lovely eco garden that will develop across future Expeditions to provide a range of habitats and food sources for a variety of insects, birds and mammals.

Students dedicated the trees to community heroes who have helped to improve the lives of people across Intake and Doncaster at their POL yesterday – including Mrs Ogle and Dame Rosie Winterton!

Highlights from KS1 and LKS2’s COL @ Green Top

On Friday, KS1 and LKS2 at Green Top celebrated their learning for their two Expeditions – ‘The Blue Planet’ and ‘There Is No Planet B’

The celebration included an interactive art gallery, a visit from Reptile Rendezvous and showcasing awesome family learning.

Top of the Blogs

Weekly Update for families @ XP Gateshead

Finding the magic in Science @ Norton Infants

KS1 Artists @ Green Top

Action Packed @ XP

Danum Read Aloud @ Plover

UKS2 Celebration of Learning @ Carcroft School

Easter Hamper Day @ XP East

The French Revolution at Campsmount @ Norton Juniors

Join our Crew!

We’re looking for Cleaners and a Cleaner in Charge to #JoinOurCrew at XP Doncaster – find out more and apply here!

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!