Sharing our Stories: 04/10/2024

Beautiful Work This Week

Celebrating XP Doncaster’s Duke of Edinburgh 2024 Expedition

Check out these beautiful highlights from C28s DofE Expedition last academic year! They had an awesome POL to celebrate their success this week.

Working with the National Gallery

On Monday, our dedicated Art Staff at XP Doncaster had the incredible opportunity to attend an enriching workshop organised in collaboration with The National Gallery, made possible through the support of Right Up Our Street. This was part of a larger initiative, as The National Gallery prepares for their upcoming visit to Doncaster on 19th October, which is an exciting stop on their nationwide Art Road Trip. In the lead-up to this highly anticipated visit, the Gallery has been offering a series of free CPD sessions aimed specifically at art teachers. These sessions are designed to enhance teaching practices, and we were fortunate enough that our staff could participate in one of these invaluable opportunities.

“It was really amazing to work with the National Gallery on the Staff Day at XP. They will be coming in to launch the Articulation prize for XP C28 students. Staff had the opportunity to take part in the workshop as a sneak peek before the kids get a chance!”

Kat Taylor – Art @ XP Doncaster

The focus of the workshop was particularly inspiring, centring on the importance of art commentary and how educators can empower students to express their own unique interpretations of artworks. It delved deeply into the ways students can be encouraged to find and use their own voices, providing them with the tools to articulate personal responses to visual art. The session explored various strategies for prompting thoughtful engagement with art, ensuring that students feel confident in offering their perspectives, regardless of the artwork’s complexity or the student’s prior experience. By fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment, the workshop aimed to inspire both teachers and students to approach art not just as observers but as active commentators, enriching their understanding and appreciation of visual culture. This experience was invaluable for our staff, equipping them with fresh insights and methods that will undoubtedly benefit our students in the classroom.

Building Crew at Green Top

On our most recent Staff Day, Green Top School staff completed an awesome scavenger hunt around Snaith! Crews had to complete various challenges throughout the day and they built Crew and formed stronger relationships as a result! Go #CrewGreenTop!

Wood Foundation Visitors!

We love welcoming visitors from all over the world to our Trust and this week it was a delight to work with our friends from the Wood Foundation with teachers from more than a dozen schools in Aberdeenshire. Our work with the Wood Foundation and the many schools they support, began in 2019 and has enabled us to share our story and how we work. We also travelled to Aberdeen this year to deliver CPD – including how we crew!

This week the focus was on creating and delivering expeditions and our visitors created some amazing food from our Plover Pantry recipe leaflets; originally created by the students. Part of this expedition was designed to bring the leaflets to life with a step by step video and photography guide. 

Really purposeful and beautiful work.

Top of the Blogs

Creating Beautiful Work @ Norton Infants

KS1 Community Crew @ Green Top

We are kind in Crew Lewis @ Plover

Road Safety in Crew MI @ Carcroft School

Crew Peak continue to fly! @ XP School

Making music @ Norton Juniors

Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead

Crew HWA/KBU @ XP East

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!

Guess the sweets in the pumpkin!

Next week, Crew Council will be coming back around with our Halloween pumpkin!

Can you guess how many sweets there are? The winner gets to keep the pumpkin and the sweets inside!!

It is 50p a go! – I wonder who will be the lucky winner?!

Class 9 | New Case Study!

Today in expedition we began our new art case study. We began by looking at the artist David Hockney and some of the artwork that has made him famous. We found out that most of his artwork consists of paintings, collages and even digital art, which is something we will be using ourselves in our final product. We created an artist page for Hockney that included different facts and pictures that we had researched. The children did an incredible job and should be proud of the effort they put into their handwriting and presentation!

Here are some of the final designs.

Class 9 | Home Learning

There has been so much great homework being done in Class 9 this week. Take a look at some of the examples below.

Millie has been working hard on designing a propaganda poster whilst Myles has been calculating which World War 2 related items he can buy whilst keeping within a budget!

Ruby and Elea have both been working hard on their handwriting this week. Take a look at the quality they have both produced!

William and Jude have both been working hard on their maths this week. William has completed an arithmetic challenge whilst Jude has been working on place value.

Finally, Arnie has been designing his own T-Shirt for our American-themed day. Looks like you’ve done a great job Arnie!

Autumn 2024 DISCO

Autumn DISCO 

Wednesday 16th October 2024

EYFS 1:30pm – 2:30pm

KS1 3pm – 3:45pm

KS2 4pm – 5pm

£2 entrance to the DISCO will include a hotdog and juice. Additional drinks and sweets will be available to purchase.

Uniform / clothes:

Nursery children are welcome to come to school in their DISCO clothes.

F2, Y1 and Y2 will be in school uniform and will get changed in class before the DISCO begins.

KS2 will be in school uniform for the day and change at home or during their club (if they attend a Wednesday club).

Children will be collected from their usual doors after the DISCO

Thanks