Today we used the knowledge we have gained so far on The Blitz to begin to compose a composition of music using different instruments. We explored sound clips taken during WW2, including aircraft, the Blitz and air raid sirens. We thought about the pitch and tone, selecting instruments which best demonstrated the effects. We then looked at how we can show different beats and started to layer the different parts of our composition. We have begun to put our piece of music together, demonstrating how well we can work together as a crew to produce our final piece of music.
Welcome to our first selection of beautiful work from the brand new 2024/2025 academic year!
Highlights from our first week back!
At XP Trust we always use our first week back to establish and reaffirm our culture of Crew. This year has been another resounding success as young people across our schools have considered deeply the purpose of Crew through a range of opportunities and experiences and how Crew develops character and service so that they can help themselves, others and the wider community to be compassionate and successful.
At Carcroft we saw students engaging fully in a community meeting reflecting on their habits of work and learning and expressing what working hard, getting smart and being kind looks like every day at school. Students at Norton Infants Y5 visited local Care Homes delivering glasses cases they had made as well as treats! At Plover students were working alongside the RSPCA to capture and tell the stories of abandoned pets and, alongside drawing beautiful pictures of the animals, helping to find them homes as well as creating stunning murals in a street art style to promote the importance and legacy of Crew.
Students at Green Top took part in a fundraising Colour Run which was quite frankly spectacular whilst also creating kindness key rings that they gifted to members of the community! At XPG, Year 8 showed their qualities as leaders of their own learning by planning, organising and leading Year 7 activities including creating resources and fieldwork opportunities for their peers. Finally at XPD, students carried out acts of random kindness at the Lake side and welcomed past students who came back to school to talk about how Crew and their time at XP shaped the beautiful people they are today.
It was striking to hear a member of staff at Carcroft say, ‘I’ve been teaching for over twenty years and this is the best start back I’ve ever experienced.’ – I think that says it all!
In addition, our new Year 7’s from XP Doncaster and XP Gateshead spent their first days of secondary school building Crew together in the Lake District with Outward Bound. This is something we have been proud to do with our students for ten years now and it was inspiring to see students cultivating resilience, compassion and teamwork – especially through some very adverse weather! We are looking forward to seeing Crews grow together over the coming years…
Andy Sprakes at BridgeFest
Our Chief Academic Officer, Andy Sprakes was the keynote speaker at Spaghetti Bridge’s ‘BridgeFest’ earlier this week. He shared beautiful work and stories from our students at XP as part of their inspiring itinerary celebrating the last year. We are proud to be a part of their story and a key influence on the work that they do.
XP Alumnus Alfie is Oxford bound!
Alfie Lockey was part of the X22 cohort at XP and left two years ago to study for his A Levels at New College. His results of 3 A*s and and A, helped secure him a place at one of the oldest and renowned universities in the world – Christ Church College, Oxford. Alfie will be studying biology; a lifelong love and something that during his time at XP was actively encouraged and supported.
He created an allotment at school, had an opportunity to take part in an online conference organised by the Edge Foundation, which addressed climate change. That day Alfie spoke alongside the co-creator of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Sir Tim Smit KBE. An office at XP also became the perfect place for Alfie to experiment with growing a variety of plants for several years; bringing a touch of hot house greenery to XP!
CAO of the XP Trust, Andy Sprakes commented:
“Alfie is one of our many alumni who are already making a positive difference to the world. We’re always thrilled to hear about how our students are progressing and where they are now – they will always be part of our Crew.”
XP Doncaster’s High Flying Birds
In Summer 2024, XP and XP East’s Year 8 students embarked on Learning Expedition called ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’, where they aimed to answer the guiding question: ‘Is migration worth the risk?’.
In Art, they looked at the work of artists who used imagery of birds to represent migration. Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy and used that to design flying machines. The students took his ideas and constructed their own three dimensional bird designs. They then made large scale sculptures of the birds that you can see on display, here. Before culminating in the display, the sculptures were paraded at this summer’s inaugural XP Festival of Arts & Culture.
Today in spelling, we were working with a partner to find the word subtle in a dictionary and read the definition aloud. We then wrote a sentence using the word subtle.
Today in PE we developed our teamwork skills, collaborating and communicating. This was key for the tricky challenges we had to complete as a crew. Our first challenge was to ‘cross the river’. The objective was to move across the river, however, we were only allowed to stand inside the hoops without touching the rest of the space on the floor. We could only move the hoops with our hands. It took a lot of communication and resilience!
Our second challenge, the spiders web! This involved a lot of planning and problem solving skills. We could only pass through each segment once, we had to explore how each crew mate could pass through each section without touching the web. I was so proud of the teamwork and resilience we displayed to achieve our goals.
Crew Elmer have created some beautiful art work of the Sun and Moon.We have used a variety of skills and tools to produce these, including dabbing of a sponge and flicking of a toothbrush to create different elements of our image.
Today we used the knowledge we have gained so far on The Blitz to compose a composition of music with different instruments. We then looked at how we can show different beats and started to layer the different parts of our composition. We worked so well in mini crews, encouraging each other and ensuring everyone was involved. Then we all performed our composition to the whole crew 🙂 A great afternoon in MI 🙂
Thank you to all the parents who joined us this afternoon for our first family learning session of the term. It was lovely to see so many children and parents taking part and producing some amazing Van Gogh inspired artwork.
We can’t wait for our next family learning session.
