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.
Beautiful Work by Daria @ XP Gateshead
Mindful Monday @ Norton Infants
Highwayman ‘Swift Nicks’ Nevison visits NJS @ Norton Juniors
C30 Tranquil Tuesday @ XP East
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Last week, our UKS2 Crews had a very special visit from an expert artist and Tudor enthusiast. She brought with her a remarkable portrait of King Henry VIII, which had been painted for her by her father. Seeing the portrait up close was a fantastic experience for the children, as it helped bring our Tudor learning to life.
During the session, she shared fascinating information about Hans Holbein the Younger, one of the most famous artists of the Tudor period. Holbein is well known for painting incredibly detailed and realistic portraits of important figures at the court of Henry VIII. His paintings were not just about showing what someone looked like — they were carefully designed to show power, wealth and status.
We looked closely at some of the features that made Holbein’s portraits so distinctive. The children noticed the rich fabrics, detailed jewellery and confident poses used to show the importance of the people being painted. We also discussed how artists used colour, position and symbolism to send a message about the subject.
Our visitor also gave the class some helpful critique and advice about their own Tudor portrait work. She encouraged the children to think carefully about proportion, detail and expression, just as artists like Holbein would have done hundreds of years ago.
The session was a brilliant opportunity to combine history and art, helping the children understand not only what Tudor portraits looked like, but also why they were created in that way. It was a memorable experience and gave everyone lots of inspiration as we continue developing our own Tudor-style portraits.
Today, Crew Godley have been exploring air resistance in a hands-on way! We began by planning our investigation, thinking carefully about the controlled elements (things we kept the same) and the variable elements (things we changed) to make it a fair test. We started by dropping paperclips attached to parachutes to see how the parachute slows their fall. Once we understood the basics, we took on the challenge of protecting eggs from breaking! We discovered that parachutes with larger surface areas slowed the eggs’ descent more effectively, keeping them safe on impact.
Today, Harlow, Hunter and Rose did a fantastic job reading stories out loud to their crew. Each of them chose a story they were excited about and took turns sharing it with everyone.
Harlow read with great confidence and expression, helping to bring the story to life for the listeners. Hunter did a brilliant job reading clearly and taking his time with tricky words so the story flowed nicely. Rose also read beautifully, using a strong, clear voice and showing great focus as she shared her story.
It was wonderful to see them all being brave and proud to read in front of their crew. Everyone listened carefully and enjoyed the different stories that were shared.
Well done, Harlow, Hunter and Rose – you were fantastic storytellers today! 🌟
Today, Crew Colclough began to complete their final product. This is our final design and we are now producing our final packaging for our Maya inspired chocolate.
Today we compared newspaper and non-chronological reports before beginning to write our own newspaper reports about a brand new species of jaguar that has been discovered!
We used string to help us workout the perimeter of regular and irregular 2d shapes.
Crew Godley have been exploring air resistance and motion using frisbees! We planned the investigation by deciding what variables to change, like the angle and speed of the throw, and what to keep the same, so our tests were fair. By experimenting with different throwing techniques, we observed how the shape and orientation of the frisbee affects how far and smoothly it flies. This helped us understand how air resistance and forces work in real life, all while having lots of fun outdoors! We can’t wait to apply this to our learning tomorrow.
Over the past few weeks in music, we have been learning the song, ‘I’ve been to Harlem”, thinking about the shape of the tune and using our voices to show this. We’ve spent time learning the lyrics and the tune, and today, we have moved on to creating an accompaniment using the pentatonic scale on the glockenspiel. We used the 5 notes – F, G, A, D and C – to create note clusters and we began practising playing along to the song.
