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!!
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”.
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.
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
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…
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.”
BBK/Chotting @ Carcroft School
Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead
Student Ambassadors – First meeting of the year @ Plover
Stay and Challenge @ Norton Infants
Class 12: Crew Reading @ Green Top
Act of Kindness @ Norton Juniors
Thank you to everyone who joined us this afternoon for our first stay and challenge. The children created some great capes and there were lots of happy (slightly warm!) faces.
Mrs Parsons xx
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
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.
Today Nursery sat and shared a story with their teddies and friends to acknowledge National Read a Book day. The story was titled “Bunny Loves to Read”. In our story Bunny shared his love of reading and teaches all of his friends that you can travel to different worlds, even when you can’t go anywhere due to the rain! Bunnie’s friends realise how exciting reading is and when the rain stops they play games like the characters from their stories.
