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Crew Backshall’s Outdoor Crew
We had a wonderful Outdoor Crew this morning, making the most of the beautiful sunshine! We started by circling up together for our check-in, taking some time to connect, share and enjoy being together outdoors.
We then had lots of fun taking part in Mrs Jackson’s nature scavenger hunt, exploring our surroundings and seeing what we could discover. It was lovely to see everyone working together, sharing ideas and enjoying the fresh air.
A brilliant morning of connection, teamwork, exploration and lots of sunshine and smiles!
Sharing our Stories: 18/09/2026
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
What does it mean to be human? @ XP
]We are making our mark! @ Norton Infants
Stepping back in time at Norton Village Hall @ Norton Juniors
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Celebrate XP… support a charity!
Announcing Our New Publication: ‘Celebrating Ten Years of Expeditions at XP’
A new publication, ‘Celebrating Ten Years of Learning Expeditions at XP’, written by our co-founder, Andy Sprakes, is now available. The book highlights an extensive and broad selection of the beautiful work created by our young people and staff from across our Trust. It is a profound and often moving reminder of the purpose, agency, and consequence of our work; illuminating the transformative power and far-reaching impact of Learning Expeditions.
In the next few weeks, the book will be made available to the general public and will retail at £20. However, to mark the publication of this much-anticipated book, it is being made available exclusively to staff across our Trust for a not-for-profit cost price of £5. In the spirit of Crew the proceeds will be donated to charity.
When staff fill in the google form and order the book at this price, they will be able to choose to donate to one of two local charities and one national charity that have supported and worked alongside us in the past.
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to the exceptional staff across our Trust whose unwavering dedication, creativity, and passion made this publication, and the transformative work within it, possible.
Charities Staff can support by purchasing the book
Curriculum Seam: Protecting Our Planet
RSPCA – https://www.rspcadoncasterrotherham.org.uk/
Curriculum Seam: Standing for Social Justice
Schools of Sanctuary – https://schools.cityofsanctuary.org/
Curriculum Seam: Diversity and Belonging
Children in Need – https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/
Reception Children Embrace the Great Outdoors
What a wonderful week our Reception children have had exploring and learning in the great outdoors! It has been fantastic to see our youngest children showing such enthusiasm and developing their independence as they settle into life at school.
Through a range of outdoor activities, the children have been developing their teamwork, resilience and determination. They have worked together to build exciting obstacle courses, putting their coordination, balancing and problem-solving skills to the test. They have also been practising the letters they have been learning in their phonics sessions, taking their learning outdoors in a fun and engaging way.
There has been plenty of opportunity to get active too, with the children enjoying team games such as football and cricket, as well as activities designed to keep them moving and fit.
Perhaps most special of all has been watching new friendships begin to blossom. It has been lovely to see the children’s confidence growing each day as they become more familiar with their new surroundings, make new friends and discover all that Reception has to offer.
We are incredibly proud of how well our Reception children are settling in and can’t wait to see what adventures and learning opportunities the coming weeks bring!
We are making our mark!
Our children have been exploring both indoor and outdoor environments, using their creativity and imagination to make marks in all sorts of different ways during choosing time.
Choosing time is such an important part of Early Years. It is when children have the opportunity to lead their own learning, follow their interests and apply the skills they have been developing in meaningful, purposeful ways. This is when we often see real learning taking place!
It has been wonderful to see our children understanding that we can make our marks everywhere! We have spotted:
Children writing their own kindness messages in our Message Centre.
Children creating their own wonderful paintings and pictures in our Painting Area.
Children making amazing models in our Construction Area and then writing labels.
Children writing a special sign for our bug house outside.
Children recording their mathematical ideas through recording.
We love seeing children realise that writing isn’t just something we do during a handwriting lesson. Writing has a purpose everywhere! Whether it is leaving a message for a friend, labelling a model, creating a sign or recording an idea, our children are beginning to see themselves as writers.
We have also started our daily handwriting sessions, and we have been blown away by the children’s concentration and enthusiasm! We have been learning all about our 4 P’s:
Posture – sitting comfortably and being ready to write.
Pencil grip – holding our pencil in a way that helps us to write effectively.
Paper – making sure our paper is in the right position.
Pressure – using just the right amount of pressure when we make our marks.
It is wonderful to see how much pride the children are already taking in their handwriting. They have shown fantastic concentration and are working so hard to develop the foundations they need to become confident writers.
Keep making your mark, Class 1!
Timeline Of Toys at DGLAM 🧸🪀
Yesterday Y2 undertook amazing fieldwork to Doncaster Gallery, Library and Museum where we dove head first into toys through time.
Throughout the morning, Class Six spent their time in the Timeline Of Toys workshop. We discovered what the oldest toy ever was, how the teddy bear got its name and even about Doncaster’s special link to Paddington Bear. After all of our amazing learning we even got to explore and play with lots of different toys – we covered everything from diablos and pick up sticks to stacking dolls and marbles. We had the best morning!
In the afternoon, we spent our time wandering around the museum and art gallery. We look at fossils, dinosaur eggs, oil paintings and even a real life sun bear!
The children were all absolutely amazing, they listened, showed respect and were incredible mascots for our school. They should be incredibly proud of themselves! We are so so proud of them!!
Hook Week – What does caring look like?
Last week Nursery were hooked into our Be Kind, How do we show we care expedition with the launch of our key text The Everywhere Bear. Miss Tunney kindly provided Nursery with their very own Everywhere Bears that we can learn to care for, by taking them home each weekend for adventures.
Nursery learned that caring is looking after each other and our things. In our text, the Everywhere Bear gets lost and we have been thinking hard about how we could care for the bear to keep him safe. We thought how our own families are special and what belonging to a family means, as they help, love and keep us safe. The children took part in special family orientated crews on Wise Wednesday and Thoughtful Thursday, piecing together what makes our families special… quite literally.
The children took part in a thought shower of ideas that would keep the bear safe, from our own experiences of how our parents look after us. The result was that we decided to make identity bracelets for the bears.
Nursery then agreed it would be kind to share the love and safety around the school, to any other class or crew bears, to help be able to identify them easily if they ever got lost and to keep them safe. So the children gifted each class and staff members bracelets for their teddy bears.
Such beautiful and powerful learning to the beginning of expedition, to truly understand what it means to care for someone or something else – Well done Nursery!
Sharing our Stories: 11/09/2026
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
]Celebrating Crew @ Norton Infants
Digital Leading Experts @ Norton Juniors
Fossils, Discovery, and Coastal Exploration @ XP East
Share your stories with us!
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
