We will be celebrating Pyjamarama Day on Friday 17th May to help raise money for BookTrust to help spread the magic of reading to the children and families who need it most. We can’t wait to spend the day in our pyjamas!
Headteachers weekly newsletter – issue 27
Share a Story Month
May is National Share a Story Month and we’d love for you to celebrate it at home with your children through reading together and sharing your favourite books! Also check out the reading bingo card for some of the fun activities you could do.
We’d love to create a video to celebrate all of your wonderful reading at home so please send any photos of your reading to [email protected] by the end of May.
Have fun reading this May!
Sharing our Stories: 26/04/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Beautiful Activism @ Green Top
A few months ago, Jake in Year 6 approached the school and his Crew with wanting to raise awareness around Motor Neurone Disease. Being a big fan of Leeds Rhinos, he has been inspired by Rob Burrows’ bravery and the superb effort of his ex-team mate, Kevin Sinfield.
Last week, Jake and his Mum organised a coffee morning fundraiser – including a bake sale, raffle and more! With the help of the Green Top Community, they have raised over £2600.
You can donate here: xptrust.info/MND – please leave a note to say ‘care of Jake at Green Top School’!
We would also like to give a massive shout out to Elsie from Class 6 and her family, who raised an outstanding £275 to buy raffle tickets. This is a cause very close to their hearts as they sadly lost Elsie’s Grandad to the disease in 2011. You can read more about it here.
Once again the generosity of the Green Top community has blown us away. We are Crew!
Full Steam ahead at Gresley Exhibition launch
A remarkable new exhibition about Sir NIgel Gresley has opened at the Danum Gallery in Doncaster – and our XP Schools Trust is playing its part! Our Rail City book, which is on sale in the gift shop at the gallery, was one of the catalysts for the invitation to contribute to this important collection of work – and the inspiration for the brochure which has been delivered by our Comms Crew. Our students’ study of our city’s rail story has given them a real overview of how important the work of Sir Nigel Gresley, who created Flying Scotsman and Mallard at the Plant, is in the history of steam and speed.
Letters and personal objects such as his hat and portrait are part of the exhibition, which has been curated with the collaboration of the Gresley Society, the Doncaster Grammar School Railways Archive and Doncaster City Council. Students from XPD are creating an audio experience for exhibition visitors and our Primary School Pupils are being invited to create rail related illustrations for colouring books that will be part of the gallery’s summer holiday resources for children across Doncaster.
Seb, who joined us at the launch said: “Going to the private viewing of the exhibition was great. It is important that young people carry on the legacy of our ancestors!”
Mel Cocliff added: “It was a privilege to be invited to the launch of the Sir Nigel Gresley exhibition at the Danum Gallery. To watch students from XP interact with people involved, including our Civic Mayor, was truly heartwarming. It’s vital that young people in our communities continue to appreciate the rail heritage of Doncaster, and pass on that baton as they grow up, too!”
The exhibition runs until September.
EYFS @ Green Top build their sandpit!
Following the playhouse being removed from the Reception outdoor area, it was in need of a revamp so the children decided to create a sandpit in this space! What a perfect opportunity to work collaboratively to create a purposeful learning space for their Summer term expedition ‘What happens where the sea meets the shore?’ The children designed the space and made a list of resources and jobs – beautiful work!
Beautiful Curation @ Carcroft
Beautiful displays were installed this week at Carcroft School – a culmination of last term’s Expedition ‘There is no Planet B’.
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Join our Crew!
Share your stories with us!
Crew Knowles: Awesome Expedition!
Crew Knowles had a fantastic expedition lesson this afternoon learning all about Mayan life. I was really impressed with the independent reading and retrieval skills and all of the information they learned along the way!
Year 2 spelling rule
Y4 PE – Long Jump!
Today our Year 4 enjoyed an athletics PE session practising their long jumps. We used iPads and an app called ‘measure’ to measure the distance of each jump. Great work everyone!
Just a reminder that Y4 PE will now be on a Tuesday afternoon and children will require outdoor kit.
Crew Shaw Target setting
In crew yesterday, the children set their own target for what they wanted to work on. They had a choice of what they felt they needed the most practice with and then they independently worked on this area…it was great to see them being so pro-active and leaders of their own learning.
Class 8 are geographers!
Class 8 have started their geography case study this week. They have been exploring maps, atlases and globes and discussing the different features. They found lots of keys, scales and images that needed to be unpicked to help us to understand the information. The children then presented some of their information that they found in their groups to the rest of the class. It was great to see them grappling together.
Diverse Doncaster – Where do I belong? KS1 extended study menu and parents overview.
Today we began our learning for our new expedition. Please find below links to the overview of what we will be learning in the summer term and extended study menu’s for Y1 and Y2. There is no obligation to complete all of the homework, but past experience has shown that studying themes at home linked to our expedition has helped the children to consolidate the learning they have done in class. Plus they LOVE sharing their new knowledge with you. Don’t forget to send the work into school or email photographs so we can celebrate their achievements.
Miss Rodgers, Miss Schon, Mrs Shaw, Miss Hilton and Miss Good x
Class 9- Mayan artwork with oil pastels.
The children had a brief introduction to the popular Mayan City, Chicken Itza and the importance of the pyramid, El Castillo.
They then looked at some oil pastel techniques to recreate their own version of this.
Here they are in action, their final pieces were wonderful, hopefully we will get some of the finished ones uploaded soon ☺️.
Class 6 Hook Week
We have had a very busy week in class 6 as we began our new Expedition – Diverse Doncaster. Where do I Belong?
We made double sided art work showing some of the familiar landmarks in Thorne – St. Nicholas’ Church, the water tower, Mr ap Harri’s house and Peel Hill, painted huge copies of some of these landmarks to decorate our classroom and sketched and coloured logos of some of the shops from our town. We were very lucky to have a visit from Phil Sheppard, who told us all about the books he has written and illustrated about Doncaster and gave us a live performance of some of his stories. We also used our knowledge of past and present to match some of the staff at Green Top to pictures of them when they were cute little bubbas!
We can’t wait to begin our learning next week.
Awesome Fundraising in Class 6
A huge thank you to everyone who donated, bought wristbands and badges and entered the raffle to raise money for the MND charity last week. I would also like to give a massive shout out to Elsie from class 6 and her family, who raised an outstanding £275 to buy raffle tickets. This is a cause very close to their hearts as they sadly lost Elsie’s grandad to the disease in 2011.
Once again the generosity of the Green Top community has blown us away!
