Yesterday Nursery had brief history lessson, learning what VE Day is and why we celebrate it? The children joined the whole school for a special VE Day assembly and we had Crew’s dedicated to the celebrations where the children watched red arrow displays and VE Day parades. We all looked beautiful in our red, white and blue clothing with our lovely flags and home made accessories.
The children enjoyed colouring VE Day posters and celebrating with special red, white, blue buns kindly made by our school cooks – they tasted amazing!
Wearing red, white and blue the children in Year One joined in with today’s VE Day celebrations. After learning about and discussing the importance of VE Day we enjoyed fish and chips for lunch and created some fabulous WW2 spitfires.
The children enjoyed their fish and chip lunch today. They showed great respect when the whole school came together to celebrate the peace and freedom that VE day represents.
What a way to start our new case study! Exploring space in the WonderDome. We can’t wait to use what we have found out to help us answer our guiding question – where could your journey take you?
This week Class Six have been working as artists and creating rocket and space art inspired by Peter Thorpe. We worked with the tricky medium of chalk on black paper to create some stunning artwork!
We think the children have outdone themselves and the art is incredible!
This week Y2 have been making the most of the good weather! We spent lots of our crew sessions outside, but our favourite was our Tranquil Tuesday crew sessions.
At XP Trust, we’re proud to be long-standing partners and friends of EL Education. We take part in Better World Week every year – not as a one-off event, but as an extension of the work we do every day in our schools. Like EL, we believe that learning should be purposeful, rooted in community, and driven by the desire to make a positive impact. It’s a shared mission that sits at the heart of our relationship and everything we do.
In every XP school, students take on meaningful work that matters to real people. From campaigning for local change to producing high-quality expedition products that leave a legacy, our young people learn not just how to succeed – but how to contribute. Better World Week gives us the opportunity to shine a light on that work, celebrate the voices of our students, and stand alongside a global network of educators who are committed to doing things differently…
Click ‘read more’ below to see our students’ beautiful work from this year…
Just like at EL, at XP this isn’t a one-off event – it’s the work we do every day. But this week gives us a moment to pause, reflect, and share the incredible ways our students have stepped up.
In the last year, they have:
Hosted tea parties to tackle loneliness
Campaigned for safer streets around their schools
Created environmental art with purpose
Challenged inequality through powerful public products
Brought communities together
…and that’s just the beginning.
You can read all about their beautiful, purposeful work here:
This week began with Nursery taking a trip into the woods (within school grounds) to explore and experience what it would be like to be inside a forest as part of our first case study; Where in the world will this story take you? Our first anchor text of this case study is the classic fairytale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children were so excited to go on an adventure and were also a little bit nervous about who or what they would find in the woods, as they explored using their senses.
Once inside the woods the children were relieved to find there weren’t any wolves, bears or Gruffalo’s! We used our senses to think about what we could see, hear, smell and feel with both our hands and feet. The children were read the story inside the woods to set the scene and bring the story to life. They really enjoyed it and listened attentively whilst holding their sticks, leaves, flowers and ferns.
Once back in the classroom the children shared thoughts of their experience and completed a class sense map, noting down ideas of what they could see, hear, smell and feel. There were some beautiful thoughts and sentences that were communicated from the adventure which really helped the children to understand what a forest is. We have used this knowledge and experience to inspire large scale pieces of artwork, which will be part of our final product in terms of creating a story setting. The children also watched a short video of a virtual tour through Sherwood Forest, in Nottingham, where they tried to spot Robin Hood! They then compared that to the experience of our school woods in Norton and talked about what was the same and what was different? They soon realised that forests were much bigger with larger trees, thicker bushes and more undergrowth. They also learnt that not only animals but people could also possibly live in a forest like in olden times. You have been great geographers Nursery! Here’s a sneak peak of our artwork…
This week we have delved straight into case study one, the children considered the question, Where in the world does this book take us? We have focused our attention on a book titled ‘The Way Back Home’ written by Oliver Jeffers. The book has truly captivated the children and has encouraged them to imagine what it would be like if they were stuck on the moon. We have created some beautiful writing about things we might see, feel, hear and smell on the moon.
The children have practised their counting skills and have been counting the moon rocks in our maths area…
In our creative zone the children have been busy creating their very own space scene with flying rockets…
The children have also been inspired by Oliver Jeffers and have chosen to draw the characters from the story themselves. We most definitely have some artists in the making…
In our construction area, we have been busy making our very own rockets and spaceships. Take a look at our impressive models…
