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Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust from the last two weeks of term! It’s been filled with all kinds of wonderful things from all of our schools. To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.
Why the Arts Matter at XP – Our Festival Highlights @ XP Trust
At the Coalface: POL @ Norton Juniors
Climate Change Through Data @ XP
G29 What a Wonderful World POL @ XP Gateshead
At XP, we believe education should help young people discover who they are, what they stand for, and how they can make a difference. The arts are at the heart of this.
Through music, dance, drama, and visual art, our students learn to collaborate, express themselves, and craft work of real depth and beauty. These aren’t “extras” to the curriculum – they are essential experiences that develop the character traits we value above anything else: courage, craftsmanship, respect, and compassion.
Last Friday, we celebrated these values at our second XP Festival of Arts & Culture – a day filled with music, dance, and art from across all the schools in our Trust. Every primary school showcased their dancing skills in collaboration with Phoenix Dance Company, alongside cheerleaders and singers from across the Trust.
The afternoon culminated in a show-stopping parade led by the New York Brass Band, bringing everyone together for an unforgettable rendition of Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration”. The evening carried the energy forward with live music from XP Doncaster and XP Gateshead students, alongside local bands and professional artists.
Our students were phenomenal – both on stage and in the audience – showing once again the power of Crew in action.
A huge thank you goes to the XP Doncaster and Plover staff who stewarded and supported the event. It was a powerful example of what’s possible when we create spaces for young people to thrive.
Here’s to next year!!!
In Crew,
Andy Sprakes
The children have been doing lots of learning using our bear counters. We’ve been following patterns and created our own in our maths learning.
We LOVED our visit from Dr Caragh Whitehead (aka ‘Erik’s Mum’) today! It was so interesting to learn all about the different types of science and learning that it is not always about big experiments but sometimes simply being interested in the world. We also learned that plants are used to make so many every day items that we may not have previously realised! Did you know plants help to make citronella candles and they’re even used in medicines?! It was great to get hands on and be able to explore the plants more for ourselves, using microscopes and our sense of smell to look at plants in more detail.
We loved the firefighter visit yesterday – particularly looking around the fire engine and being able to sit inside it! Some of us had a bit of a shock when the sirens unexpectedly came on. Can you spot the faces of those that were most shocked?!
Todays theme of the day was STEM in the real world. We discovered that STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We started the morning by building a bridge. We started by designing our bridge and then we constructed it using straws and tape. We then tested whether our bridge was fit for purpose.
We then tried to construct a building which was at least 15cm high which would withstand an earthquake. We designed our building first and then constructed it using cocktail stick and mini marshmallows. We also designed a boat with only a piece of foil. We had no other materials and it had to float.
We loved visiting the firefighters yesterday – thank you so much for coming!
Crew McGlone had a visit from ‘Little City’ who turned our school hall into a… well, little city! The children were able to role play different jobs and we absolutely loved all the different props and costumes! Thank you so much to Little City for coming in and letting us have SUCH a lovely afternoon!
Today the theme of the day was… Health and care careers. To start with, we discussed all the different jobs that come under this theme. We then thought about sub categories- medical and hospital jobs, emotional and mental health jobs and care and community support jobs. From here we thought more about nurses, thinking about if we had ever met a nurse and where. What we thought a school nurse would do every day and why nurses are important for schools. We watched a clip on school nurses, writing down all the jobs the nurse did. We then answered the discussion questions, what was something the nurse did that surprised you? How did the nurse make children feel safe or better? What qualities do you think a good nurse needs? We then finished the sentence… ‘A school nurse helps children by…’ We then assessed our knowledge in a mini quiz!
From here we explored some different scenarios making notes on what we would do as the school nurse. We then got into role, acting out some different scenarios, we played both nurse and patient.
We then moved onto thinking about therapists, exploring what a therapist does and the types of therapists. We then matched different statements to the correct type of therapist. From here we designed our own therapy room, we created a calm space where someone feels safe, calm and listened to. Some children added comfy chairs, coloured walls, plants, a music player, art tables and soft toys! We ended the day listening to some calming music whilst completing some mindfulness colouring.
