Nursery are Crew!

Since the return to school nearly two weeks ago, Nursery have been working hard on becoming familiar with each other and staff, learning new routines and settling into school life – we have all done superbly well. However Nursery needed to learn what a Crew actually means, as it is their first time in school; we had to learn “What is a Crew?”

Through the modelling and explanation of our HOWL’s the children have discovered that we are all expected to Be Kind, Work Hard and Get Smart. Children have been building relationships with both staff and their crews through crew games and activities. Everyone tried hard to be collaborative and inclusive, working as a team, sharing and being kind to each other. We have learned how to form a Crew Circle using song, as that’s always a good way to make routines fun! Check out our Crew building activities:

We played “Fill Up the Bucket” where each Crew had to pass coloured balls, backwards along the line and place them in the bucket with their final crew member. The children loved this game and enjoyed racing to see which crew could empty their starting circles first. We also changed positions to allow children to adopt different roles in the game.

We brought in our own special soft toys from home and began to celebrate how we are all different and like different things. We told our crew members all about our toys and then played a game of “Bounce the Teddy” encouraging the children to pass their special toy on to a friend and understand that sharing is caring and to trust their crew mate with their treasured toy. The children really enjoyed this activity and did very well in sharing and understanding that their toy would be safe and looked after.

We finished our crew weeks with celebration parties from Mr Dan. He made us all feel good and laugh. The children loved his tricks and learnt how to spin a plate! We have had the most amazing two weeks and have enjoyed getting to know each other better. We are Crew!

Roald Dahl Day 2023

This morning in crew we celebrated Roald Dahl Day. We checked in by sharing our favourite Roald Dahl books and characters. Next we played matching pairs with some of our favourite characters like Willy Wonka, the BFG and Mr Twit. We ended our crew session by listening to an extra from Matilda and we loved listening to Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood – it definitely wasn’t the ending we were expecting!!

Reading for pleasure in Crew

A lovely start to our day in Year One, sharing our love of books. Harper said reading this morning has made her “feel happy”, Teddi said his book was “exciting” and Quinn said reading with her friend made her feel “calm”.

Crew time celebrations!

Our Class 2 Reception children had a wonderful time watching and taking part in activities with the amazing Mr Dan! What a lovely way to round up all the great Crew activities that our children have been taking part in.

Mindful Monday

We started our week with some yoga. Kate said it made her feel ready for the week, Ava said it was a little bit tiring and Henry said it made him ready to learn!

Great job everyone,

Mrs Parsons x

Sharing our Stories: 08/09/2023

Beautiful Work This Week – Double Edition!

#C30Aberdovey – Our Reflections

Last week our new Year 7s were the 9th cohort of students from XP to head off to the Aberdovey Outward Bound centre to answer the guiding question ‘What does it mean to be Crew?’. These are their reflections after just three days of their secondary school journey…

Orchestra in residence at XP

XP is now the official new home of the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association.

Fifty years ago John Ellis MBE created the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association (DYJA). 

Over the next half century, with three bands and a fourth ensemble made up of alumni, the organisation was to become internationally renowned.

The Doncaster Youth Jazz Orchestra has played at some of the awesome venues in the world, from the Royal Albert Hall to Buckingham Palace, the United Nations in New York to Ronnie Scott’s in London. Always delighting audiences and showcasing the young people of Doncaster’s talent and virtuosity.

Now, after many years at Beckett Road, DYJA are moving into our XP school, which will become their base. Their office, rehearsal and teaching rooms and music library – as well as full band rehearsal space will be here with us at Middle Bank.

Andy, our Chief Academic officer commented:

“We are absolutely delighted, across the XP Trust, that the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association is now based at our founding school, XP.

To support and be associated with an organisation that has travelled the world, sharing its music and the amazing talent of Doncaster’s young musicians, is very exciting and part of our ongoing commitment to the local community.

As we look forward to celebrating 10 years of XP in 2024, this feels like another landmark moment in our story – and we hope this is so for DYJA too as they continue their decades-long journey.”

Charlotte Arrowsmith, Chair of the Board of Trustees added:

“This feels like a new and exciting chapter for us at DYJA as we enter our 51st year. We’re delighted to have moved into XP School – and we’re looking forward to working and creating here, in such an inspiring place.”

#C30Austerfield

Plover’s Colour Run

Acts of Service: C28’s Sine FM Adverts for Moorends Foodbank

X28, X27 and X26 Building Crew

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Sports Day 2023 Video @ XP East

The Paper Dolls

After some of us listened to The Paper Dolls we decided we wanted to make our very own paper dolls. We talked about what kinds of things connect our crew just like the paper dolls!! I was really impressed with everyones resilience because we soon discovered making paper dolls is fiddly business!

Mrs Parsons xx

Read a book day…

We celebrated the day by sharing lots of lovely stories and making bookmarks in Class 3. We are going to enjoy spending time in our reading area this year exploring many more books.