Information Evening for Year 6 Parents – 3rd and 4th October 2018

By Mr M Said17th September 2018

Due to the level of demand we receive each year, once again we will be holding two information evenings for prospective parents and students for both XP and XP East. These will take place on on Wednesday 3rd October and Thursday 4th October.

The evenings will take place from 6:00pm, with registration starting at XP School on each evening. Both evenings will have the same schedule and will be appropriate for parents applying to either/both of our schools, with an opportunity to see both.

Please attend on Wednesday 3rd October if your son’s or daughter’s surname is between A and K in the alphabet.

Please attend on Thursday 4th October if your son’s or daughter’s surname is between L and Z in the alphabet.

The evening will provide details of how we learn at XP Trust secondary schools through academically challenging learning expeditions, what you should expect from us and what we expect from you. This will include presentations from our students as well as a chance to see both of our secondary schools where there will be activities taking place in different rooms.

We expect each evening to finish at around 7.30pm.

Please park in Doncaster Rovers FC Car Park 3 and enter the school through the student entrance gate on the south side of the campus and not the vehicle entrance gates on the north side.

There will be an opportunity for parents/carers to ask any questions, all are welcome.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Dropping off and picking up students

19th September 2018M Jones

When dropping off and picking up students please stick to the speed limit in the car park and approach with caution. Please do not cut across the car parking spaces and look out for students cross the car park when driving around it.

Thank you for your support in this.

X25 (Year 7) Admiral – Extended Study – Hegarty Maths

By Mr M Said18th September 2018

Students in X25 Admiral have been given instructions on how to log into hegartymaths.com

They need to put in their first name, surname and then their date of birth. They will then be asked to set a password.

Once they have logged in, they will see that I have set them three exercises. To get the most out of Hegarty Maths, students should:

  • Watch the accompanying video for each exercise
  • Have a pencil and paper handy to make notes and do working out
  • Send messages to me when they do not understand a question

The tasks that have been set are some of the earlier set of skills around addition and subtraction. There are over 800 skills in total which take students right up to GCSE level. At the moment we are still getting baseline information on where students are at in terms of prior knowledge but in the coming weeks, increasingly I will set personalised sets of questions to make sure that all students are challenged.

The deadline for completion of these three activities is for the morning of Tuesday 25th September.

(X25 Skipper will have this extended study task set tomorrow)

FXP are selling Purple Voucher Booklets

By M Jones17th September 2018

FXP are pleased to be able to offer the latest Purple Voucher Book containing 100’s of local & national money saving offers.

Buy 2018/19 book £25 & for a LIMITED TIME ONLY, receive a FREE 2017/18 book (valid until end December).

All profits go to FXP to benefit pupils at XP & XP East.

To order yours, please send £25 to the school office & we will leave your Purple Voucher Books in an envelope with your name on, ready for you to collect.

Crew Bronte: Twenty Ways to Be XP!

By Mr A Sprakes16th September 2018

At the start of term crews in X22 (Y10) engaged in a number of activities linked to our Character Traits and Habits of Work and Learning to allow them to reflect on what it means to be part of XP. The activities included: service learning at Sandall Beat Woods; visiting the elderly at an Age UK Centre; leading crew activities; acts of kindness and just having fun as a crew!

Below are Bronte’s thoughts about crew and some of the things we did in the first week back.

At XP we learn about teamwork and show acts of kindness, for us it’s important to go to a school where we can be ourselves and try to make our work significant. We call this our ‘crew’,

In crew we can share ideas and be creative, for example, every week we share what we have done on the weekend to our crew and show acts of kindness by doing greetings; this happens every Monday.

In crew we all feel like we can share things with each other without getting embarrassed or scared.

We read on Wednesdays to allow us to build our knowledge of vocabulary, punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. On Thursdays we (sometimes!) have an activity day, it’s a day where we all come together and have fun which makes us succeed in team work. We also work hard by focussing on academic work to better prepare us for our upcoming GCSE’s.

On Fridays we participate in a whole school community meeting. This is an opportunity to show integrity and apologise for our mistakes, we also appreciate others that have shown us compassion and respect and we hold each other to account by making stands. This relates to our character traits of ‘Courage, Respect, Craftsmanship and Quality, Compassion and Integrity’.

To show compassion and kindness, every year our crew choses a charity to support. The charity we chose as a crew in Year 9 was Cancer Research UK. They are a non profit charity that provide money for research into cancer suppressant or curing treatment, also they fund the treatments to some degree. We organised 2 fundraising events. The first was a bag pack in Asda and the other was a sweet sale in school. In total we raised £341.09. We were really proud that we had helped others.

Below are some thoughts from us about the visit to the Goldsmith’s Centre at Sprotborough:

Noah

On the 29th of August, as part of ‘Twenty Ways to be XP!’, we went to see the elderly visitors at the Goldsmith’s Centre at Sprotbrough. We asked them questions about their life, played games with them and other activities. At first it felt daunting to meet and talk to people who you have never met but when we got to talk to them we found it enjoyable and fascinating. When we were there we played dominoes and talked to people who told us about the mines and their past lives.

Ben

On our table, there was me and 5 other elderly visitors. At first it was hard to start a conversation but after we had it was fine and we began playing dominoes. Some of them got a bit confused at first but after a few games it was fine. I got speaking to Jim who was from Scotland and had moved to Doncaster to work in the mines. He was nice and happy to talk to me. Everybody there was different and was born in many different places. All of them were happy and seemed to be enjoying their time at age UK.

Cleaners wanted for XP East!

By M Jones12th September 2018

We are looking for two cleaners to join our team working 5:30am to 7:30am Monday to Friday (term time only) to clean our new school.

Duties and responsibilities include:

  • Cleaning designated areas (dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, toilet cleaning, desk cleaning, etc)
  • Replenishing toilet rolls and soaps when necessary
  • Cleaning internal windows and doors
  • Emptying waste bins and taking rubbish to the bin store
  • Operating floor cleaning machinery after training
  • Notifying management of any repairs and maintenance issues
  • Following all health and safety regulations

Applicants must:

  • Have previous cleaning experience, ideally in a school environment
  • Have general awareness of health and safety legislations
  • Be punctual, reliable and trustworthy
  • Be able to manage time effectively
  • Be able to work to a schedule

Pay: National Living Wage.

Shortlisting will take place on Friday 21st September 2018 and it is anticipated that interviews will be held on 24th September 2018.

To apply please send your CV to vacancies@xptrust.org

X25 (Year 7) Extended Study – Times table rockstars

By Mr M Said12th September 2018

Dear parents and families

Students have now been introduced to ttrockstars.com . This is a fantastic online website dedicated to making times tables practice fun. Students can play competitively against each other or do some solo training.

Each week we ask students to earn at least 1000 coins.

Students have written down their usernames and passwords but please do email me if you would like a copy of their login details. (msaid@xpschool.org)

With this being students’ first week, the deadline to earn 1000 points is Friday 21st September. Students earn points more quickly if they play in the garage solo.