To begin our spring term expedition Nursery have become Nursery Rhyme Detectives! Our task this week has been to find new clues each day to work out which Nursery Rhyme we are exploring that day. The children have searched high and low for clues and used their existing and new knowledge of Nursery Rhymes to work out which props fit with which Nursery Rhyme. Here are some of the props Nursery have found so far….
Also to immerse ourselves in our new expedition, Nursery have been working collaboratively to create artwork of large scale images of Nursery Rhyme characters and iconic objects. There have also been a couple of rather large mice around the Nursery Building!
Lungs of the World: Beautiful Work from Norton Juniors
In Autumn 2023, Year 5 and 6 across the trust embarked on an expedition with the guiding question: Why should we help our planet survive?
As part of the Expedition, students created their own soft toys based on a chosen animal from the Amazon rainforest – learning about why it is endangered and what we can do to protect the species. The students used ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ as a model text. The pupils wrote their own version of the story through rainforest animals’ eyes for younger children in the form of a book and shared them with Year 2 pupils (along with the soft toys) with the purpose of teaching them about deforestation and its impact.
G30’s first POL at St Mary’s Church, Heworth
In the Autumn term of 2023 students at XP Gateshead studied an expedition called ‘From the ground up’ with the guiding question “What do the communities of the North-East of England owe to the miners?”. They presented their learning from this Expedition on Monday at St Mary’s church – sharing their story and performing the songs they have written to tell the stories of the mining community.
These songs will be recorded in New Year and a CD will be produced!
As part of the presentation, students unveiled a board full of their beautiful work – including narrative accounts, diary entries and artwork relating to the Felling Pit disaster.
The chosen venue for the presentation was also historically significant. Not only is St Mary’s the site of a memorial to the disaster and those who lost their lives, but it is also the final resting place of Thomas Hepburn – the famous miner, Trade Union leader and advocate of better working conditions for miners. The building that XP Gateshead is now based in was once named after him.
Sir Tim Brighouse
We were deeply saddened across the XP Trust to hear about the death of Sir Tim Brighouse on 15th December.Â
Sir Tim was considered to be one of the most important voices and thinkers in education, and a great champion of state schools.
We were very fortunate to be able to welcome him to XP on a couple of occasions and to hear him speak about our school with warmth and encouragement.
He has left a legacy of equity and advocacy for education for all and we are very proud that he is part of our story.
What an amazing couple of weeks we’ve had in school. Firstly, I would like to say a huge well done to our Reception children for putting on the most amazing Nativity titled, ‘A Little Bird Told Me’. They all looked the part and did an incredible job performing to their grown ups.
We’ve had a very special visitor in school who put a smile on everyone’s face and brought everyone a gift 🎅🏼
We all looked very festive when we had our Christmas lunch in school…
PARTY TIME!
We’ve all enjoyed our party day and would like to thank you all for your very kind party food donations. It’s safe to say we will be eating more party food tomorrow 😊 We danced, played games and ate some delicious food. Smiles all around 🙂
Today we all enjoyed a delicious traditional Christmas lunch while wearing our festive clothes. The children loved talking about their jumpers and dresses in Crew today too. We all did a twirl in front of our friends!
This morning we had a wonderful surprise! Santa came to see us and very kindly brought a gift for every child. Look at their happy faces! Only 6 more sleeps to go! 🎅🏼
Our Key Stage One children did two amazing performances of ‘A Miracle in Town’. They sang beautifully, spoke clearly and performed confidently to their audiences. We are very proud of each and every one of you!!
Our latest Trust publication ‘Rail City’ was launched at the amazing Doncaster Gallery, Library and museum – DGLaM.
The book, an updated and lavishly illustrated compendium of all the work created by students across the Trust, over the last five years, captures our city’s rail heritage – and future.
It is also timely as 2023 is the Flying Scotsman’s Centenary year, the iconic steam engine built here in Doncaster.
Our thanks go to the team at DGLaM and the city council who have facilitated the launch and supported our work across the Trust.
‘Rail City’ will be on sale in DGLaM, the TIC and Waterstones in the Frenchgate Centre. The perfect present for anyone who loves rail, trains and local history. (You can also purchase the book from our online shop!)
Welcome Back!
We continue to welcome delegates from all over the world. Last week our friends and partners from the Wood Foundation in Scotland joined us once again with 25 teachers from schools in the Aberdeen area.
Over two days they looked at Crew, expeditions and the bigger picture of what we do and how we do it.
They even enjoyed a tour of our students’ work in the heart of Doncaster.
Last but not least as you can see from the photograph with their Crew they also joined in with our charity Christmas Jumper day!
A day of music for XP Doncaster Year 7!
Dave Evans ran a series of awesome workshops for our Year 7 students with professional musicians! Our students improvised, created digital beats, sang and played the drums!
This term the EYFS children completed an expedition titled ‘Exploring Our World’. We were hooked into our learning with a visit from an expert and his feathery friends. This piqued an interest in wild birds and their habitats. The children have worked together to assemble and decorate bird boxes that are placed around our school and community.
We decided that we were going to give the residents at The Laurels Care Home some of the bird boxes that we made. We wanted to enhance their garden area and thought they would enjoy watching the local wildlife from their windows. Some of our Year Two children kindly delivered them for usand they are now sitting under their Christmas tree. We hope that it brings a smile to their faces.
While the year two children were there, we sang some Christmas songs for the residents too. It was truly a beautiful, heart warming moment that both the children and residents enjoyed.
We would like to wish all the staff and residents at The Laurels a very Merry Christmas and we hope to see you all again very soon 🎄 xx
