Building Trust and Teamwork in XP Outdoors

Our children have been embracing the great outdoors as part of their Crew sessions, working collaboratively and building trust through a range of team challenges and activities. It’s been wonderful to see the children supporting each other, stepping out of their comfort zones, and showing real Crew spirit in action!

Carcroft Crew out in the Community

Our children have been proudly working with Doncaster Council and Asda’s Community Champions to help make a difference in our local area. Equipped with litter pickers, high-vis vests, and lots of enthusiasm, they took to the streets to help tidy up and learn about the importance of looking after our environment.

This hands-on project not only supported our learning about citizenship and sustainability, but also showed how small actions can make a big impact. Well done to all the children involved – you’ve made our school and community proud!

What happens to chalk when it is exposed to different types of weathering?

Today we carried out an experiment to investigate what happens to chalk when it is exposed to different types of weathering. This investigated represented the three different types of weathering: biological, chemical and physical. We set up our experiment by pouring water (physical weathering) into a cup and vinegar (chemical weathering) into the other. We put the chalk into the cups and set a timer for 5 minutes. We observed what happened to the chalk during the 5 minutes. We then used a piece of sandpaper to lightly rub the piece of chalk for 30 seconds. We concluded that the chalk in the vinegar changed the most because after the 5 minutes in the vinegar it had holes and slight cracks in it. The chalk in the water didn’t have any changes after the 5 minutes.

Peter Thorpe Artwork

This week the children in Crew Robson have worked hard to create a piece of artwork based on the work of Peter Thorpe.

They have created several drafts and have given and received critique to improve their work each time.
Today we put the finished touches to our artwork by adding the Moon and a rocket zooming through space.

The children were so proud of the artwork they created and I am so proud of them too!

Sharing our Stories: 06/06/2025

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

Y5 Mining Expert visit was amazing! @ Green Top

Pompeii and Pebbles @ Plover

Consolidating Maths Learning @ Carcroft School

Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead

Once upon a time… @ Norton Infants

Phoenix Dance Theatre Project 2025 @ XP

When NJS met a Gladiator @ 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!

Consolidating Maths Learning

Today, Crew Hamill consolidated their maths learning on the transition of shapes as we found it a little bit tricky during our first lesson. We began by playing a game in which we had to get a monster around the grid in order to eat all of his lunch. Once we had worked out how to get to each item individually, we worked in pairs to create a maze that the monster could follow to collect all of his meal items in one trip. Following this, we completed a MyMaths lesson to demonstrate our improved understanding. We are now ready to move on to our next maths lesson tomorrow.