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To finish off our time doing XP Outdoors this half term, Crew Gate and Crew Tinker gathered around the campfire and enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate. While drinking our hot chocolates we worked together to tell our very own story… All about a treasure hunting piarate in the desert.
Last week we celebrated World Kindness day on Wednesday 13th November as part of our continuing expedition “Be Kind – How do we show we care?”
During our current and final case study “Where do we live in the world?” The children have began to explore differences between them and their home to that of others around the world, through our key text “My World, Your World” by Melanie Walsh. We have examined key vocabulary which helped us to understand some of our differences, such as “Sari”, “Snowboots”, “Chopsticks” and “Flats”.
Nursery practised thinking about differences between each other, staff and toys to help them understand what a difference is. We then celebrated these differences by making Kindness Wands, using breadsticks, icing and sprinkles to spread kindness everywhere.
At the end of the week the children were thinking about Children in Need and how the cause helps to bring happiness to children that are less fortunate or sick. We made a huge Pudsey Bear collage out of coloured papers, working collaboratively .
The lovely Year 5 & 6 children have been learning all about Children in Need this week and why the cause is so important. They wanted to raise more awareness, so even more children could be supported. We hope you like their version of ‘I’ll Stand by You’ as we stand with everyone who needs the support!
Check out these recent beautiful curations at Green Top School from our Comms Crew!
We asked our students at Plover what Crew looks like and what it means to be Crew – this was their response.
On Friday 15 November Koen Timmers, the world renowned climate educator, visited XP Doncaster to present our students with a plaque entitled, ‘Climate Action Heroes’ in recognition of the work done by students across our Trust in pursuit of our curriculum seam of ‘Protecting Our Planet.’
The recognition is also for being part of the Climate Action Project which allows us to connect with students and learners from across the globe to find practical and impactful solutions to the climate emergency.
Last term, students met a few of the Doncaster Rovers first team players and were able to have photos and get autographs from the players. Students asked questions about the life of a professional athlete and the journey that the players have been on playing for different clubs. It was great to hear the players speak about our character traits and how these character traits link to sport.
In the same week, students visited Hill House school to listen to Olympic gold medal GB hockey player Sam Quek. Her experience as an athlete and the ups and downs she has faced really helped our students to understand that if you want something in life you have to work hard for it! Students were able to have a photo and ask questions to Sam at the end – they even held her gold medal.
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
Recently in Class One @ Norton Infants
Investigation Friction @ Green Top
KS1 Family Learning @ Carcroft School
More beautiful work from Brooke @ XP Gateshead
Year 11s Hard at Work Annotating Poetry Anthologies @ XP East
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!
Well done to all of our amazing HoWLs stars of the week. It was lovely to hear how you are all being kind, working hard and getting smart. You are all amazing role models – keep up the super work!
Class Five have been busy solving problems together. Super communication skills – well done everyone.
Mrs Parsons x
It’s been a busy few weeks in class 1. We started this half term with a bang and carried out a ‘fizzy firework’ experiment! The children enjoyed making predictions and made observations. We then made our own sparklers using straws, tissue paper and pipe cleaners. The children took an interest in learning about the past and listened attentively to ‘The Gunpowder Plot’ story.
One of our favourite times of the day is being outside. The children have recently took an interest in finding different insects. They have handled them with love and care…
Class 1 continue to blow me away with their hard work in our phonics and maths sessions. We have been using our segmenting fingers to spell words and have enjoyed counting some new collections that have appeared in our counting library. For such young learners they show a real love for learning. Well done for a great start to this half term Class 1…
As part of our Remberance Day celebrations Nursery learned why we wear poppy’s around this time of year, as a mark of respect for the fallen and serving armed forces. The children explored remembrance through a simple story thinking of days we would like to remember and days we’d like to forget, titled Lest We Forget by Kerry Brown.
We learned some simple actions to help the children embed the story into their minds about what happened on the battle fields, imagining that the children were bunny rabbits at that time. The children pretended to be aeroplanes that flew over the bunnies and then bombs that dropped, exploding like fireworks. The children show empathy for the bunnies, understanding that they would “be hurt”, “die” or “be scared” and “frightened”.
The children then made poppies from creative materials, play dough and paint to show their thanks to our soldiers and service people. Wow!! Beautiful work in big moments.
Last week Nursery were learning all about the traditions around celebrations of light. The children focused on Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes as part of our own heritage and traditions in England. They learnt who Guy Fawkes was and what him and his catholic friends were planning to do as part of the “Gunpowder Plot” against King James 1. The children sequenced the events in the story during a Crew session and then created their own Guy Fawkes sock puppets during time in provision. This activity took lots of fine and gross motor skills to draw on Guy Fawkes features but to also stuff the sock with straw and then use their cutting skills to make him a hat. Just look at the beautiful work the children produced.
The children thought of ways in which we celebrate bonfire night and created firework scenes in the play dough and also used their painting skills to paint fireworks, which they had experienced at bonfire celebrations that they had attended. We also learnt a fabulous firework song, using actions to mimic the fireworks and our voices to imitate the sounds that they make.
At the later stages of the week the children compared the Hindu celebration of Diwali with our own experiences of Bonfire Night. The children investigated the traditions of Diwali through the story of Rama and Sita. They learned how the community of Rama and Sita celebrated their return by lighting Diva Lamps to help guide the couple home. The children also compared the demon king Ravana (a ten headed and twenty armed monster) to Guy Fawkes as the children recognised that that they were both “unkind” and “baddies” with “moustaches” who had “nasty plans” (Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament and Ravana to kidnap the Sita, the beautiful wife of the Rama the renowned warrior).
The children used collage to recreate their own Ravana, observing his skin colour and traditional dress, along with his jewellery.
Nursery also attempted to make Rangoli patterns using loose parts, to decorate our space.
