XP School

Parent/Carer Information

Important Safeguarding Notice: Children’s “Spy” Books

We want to make you aware of a recent issue affecting some popular children’s books by Andrew Cope, including the Spy Dogs, Spy Cats, and Spy Pups series.

Some editions of these books include a printed web address at the back. This link used to go to the author’s website, but the domain is no longer under his control. It has since been taken over by another party and now leads to inappropriate adult content.

The publisher, Puffin, has paused sales and distribution of the books and is working with schools, libraries, and retailers to remove copies from circulation. They have stressed that the website has no connection to the author or publisher.

What this means for you:

• If your child has any Spy Dog, Spy Cat or Spy Pups books at home, please check the back for website links and make sure they do not try to visit the site.
• It is safe for children to continue reading the stories themselves — the concern is only with the outdated link.
• We recommend talking with your child about the importance of not following web addresses in books without checking with an adult first.

We will continue to share updates from the publisher as more information becomes available.

Last week our Y7’s/8s have continued receiving coaching from Club Doncaster and Doncaster knights rugby, which has seen students engaging with the wider community and developing further opportunities outside of school. This week is as follows:

Wednesday – Boys football practice/netball practice. 3.30-4.30

Thursday – Cheerleading practice and girls football practice. 3.30-4.30

C28 and C29 Celebration of learning update

DofE Update

We are currently working hard behind the scenes to finalise and approve all student awards on the eDofE system. This process takes time as each section is carefully checked and verified to ensure students receive the recognition they deserve.

Once this is complete, we will share further details about our upcoming Celebration Event, where students’ hard work and achievements will be formally recognised.

Thank you for your patience and continued support, we’re looking forward to celebrating together. This is likely to be after half term.

Mrs Watson

Every Thursday morning, part of Crew time is spent on independent revision tasks in preparation for the Mocks to come in November. It’s brilliant to see Crew so focused on this!

During pick up time at XP today, you may have noticed an increased police presence at the front of school and in car park 3.

Attempts have been made this afternoon to take bikes from our site. As such, we requested police presence at the end of the day to support us. No bikes were taken today – but as a reminder, students should ensure they’re bringing a D-lock for their bikes and use the racks at the front of XP.

Thanks all

Beautiful work this week

Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!

To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.

G29: What makes a great education?

Last term, students in G29 at XPG were challenged to give a keynote at the MTEM conference on what makes a great education. Over a week they drafted and put together an incredible speech which they have now recorded back in school.

Top of the Blogs

Class 8: Martin Luther King research @ Green Top

Decorating cupcakes @ Plover

Fire Fighters @ Carcroft School

Crew Nightingale – Higher Maths @ XP

XP Outdoors – Year 7 take on mighty task of litter picking @ XP East

A visit from Stuart – learning about helping homeless people @ Norton Infants

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 comms@xptrust.org –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

A few students in Crew Nightingale are in the Higher Maths class; they have been developing their understanding of trigonometry through SOH, CAH, TOA, learning how to calculate missing sides and angles in right-angled triangles. They have also been focusing on changing the subject of a formula, an important algebraic skill that will support their success across many areas of maths and science. These topics encourage careful reasoning and step-by-step working, and it has been fantastic to see students building confidence and accuracy as they tackle increasingly challenging problems.