Magic Maths

Today we have been checking that we remember our 5 timetables so we did some practising on the board.

Changes in the Mining Industry

Crew Hamill have delved deeper into the mining industry and had a look at some of the main changes that have occurred since mining began. We worked in pairs to match the important events to a picture that illustrated them. Once we’d done this, we worked together to order them in chronological order. We discussed whether these changes were social, technological or political and discussed why these events were so important. For example, in the 1980s, lots of miners went on strike to fight for better pay.

Interview Prep

As part of their expedition, Crew Hamill will be interviewing an ex miner in order to find out a little bit more about the experiences they had when working in the mines. In preparation for this, we worked in mini crews to chot some ideas for the questions we’d like to ask. We then worked as a crew to put our ideas together and generate a final list of questions which we will be asking on Friday.

Exciting earthquakes!

In our lesson, we used our prior knowledge about tectonic plates and began to deepen our thinking around what they could cause. We discussed how the movement of tectonic plates can cause earthquakes. There are three different tectonic plate boundaries where earthquakes occur: convergent, divergent and conservative. We then demonstrated our newfound knowledge in an experiment. We used crackers and cream to show how the tectonic plates move at the different boundaries. At the divergent plate boundary, the tectonic plates move apart. At a convergent plate boundary, the plates move together and the denser oceanic plate subducts under the lighter continental plate. Finally, at a conservative plate boundary, tectonic plates slide past each other. Friction happens and pressure builds up which is released as an earthquake. We showed these using the crackers and cream!

Sharing our Stories: 25/04/2025

Beautiful Work This Week

Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust from this week. To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.

Top of the Blogs

Class 8 are Historians @ Green Top

Children dress up day @ Plover

Crowning the King and Queen of Carcroft @ Carcroft School

G31 Year 7 POL – Tonight! @ XP Gateshead

A Fairytale Tea Party @ Norton Infants

Fabulous Fieldwork @ Norton Juniors

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Crowning the King and Queen of Carcroft

On Wednesday we continued our first case study all about King Charles III. We learnt that he became King of England after the death of his mother and that he had a ceremony called a coronation.

We then decided to hold our own coronation to celebrate the King and Queen of Carcroft. We even had trumpet players, the Prince of Wales and finished with a rendition of the National Anthem!

Basketball Hot Seat Challenge

In PE, Crew Godley took on the exciting Basketball Hot Seat Challenge! Working as a team, the children had to use their skills, strategy, and quick thinking to get each other out of the hot seat. It was fantastic to see such great teamwork, communication, and determination on display. Well done, Crew Godley, you showed brilliant sportsmanship and energy throughout, even when it became a little tricky!