Applying for a place at XP – Fair Banding Assessment

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To ensure a balanced intake of students across all ability levels, all applicants to an XP secondary school must sit a Fair Banding Assessment. 

This multiple-choice test focuses on non-verbal reasoning and helps us place students into one of five ability bands. There is no pass or fail, and results are used solely to support a broad and representative admissions process.

Completing the assessment is a key part of the application and must be done to be considered for a place. 

Please ensure your child is registered by 31st October 2025 and prepared to attend the assessment on 22nd November 2025.

Find out more here: https://xptrust.info/XPTFBA

If your child has an aptitude in music, find out how to apply for a musical aptitude place at XP here: https://xpschool.org/unlock-your-childs-musical-potential-at-xp-school/

Unlock your child’s musical potential at XP School!

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At XP School, we believe music has the power to inspire and shape young minds. Each year, we offer a unique opportunity for children with a natural flair for music to gain a place in Year 7 through our dedicated Musical Aptitude route. 

Whether your child already sings or plays an instrument, or simply has a keen ear for rhythm, melody, and pitch, this pathway recognises raw musical potential. 

With access to expert tuition, vibrant performance opportunities, and a culture that celebrates creativity, XP School is the perfect stage for your child to flourish musically and academically. Click here to see highlights from our recent annual XP Festival of Arts and Culture https://youtu.be/-tcB979lD_g

Apply now, and don’t miss this chance to join a learning community where talent is nurtured and passion takes centre stage!

Find out more here: https://xptrust.info/XPMA

Creating Beautiful Work

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Beautiful work and amazing products are an integral part of our story at XP but equally important are the ways that we achieve that work and those products.

Our students are encouraged to draft and redraft, to refine their ideas, to not accept work that isn’t excellent. In the Arts team this year we’ve seen exactly that with students starting new courses and new expeditions and being given new opportunities to excel.

None of the pictures above show finished products, instead we can see the beauty of the creative process. For some that means painstakingly drafting and redrafting photoreal images using only pencils. For others it may be that a session sharing ideas on the whiteboard is the best way to make progress. Creating models and maquettes in a range of materials can be the catalyst that a student needs to make their creative vision into a beautiful final product. What looks at first glance to be a random collection of scraps can be actually a carefully curated abstract vision. A messy workbench will finally reveal a beautiful relief sculpture.

We celebrate our students creative work not only for the final curation but for the whole process of exploration, experimentation, and growth that leads them there — the ideas tried, the risks taken, and the skills developed along the way.

PE update

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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

Bronze and Silver DofE – Celebration of Learning

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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

Bike Safety at XP

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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

Sharing our Stories: 03/10/2025

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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!

Crew Nightingale – Higher Maths

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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.

Crew Breakfast for Crew Kelly X29 ❤️

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This morning, Crew Kelly enjoyed a special breakfast together to celebrate Nyler’s final day at school. For over three years, Nyler has been an important and valued member of our crew. Although we will really miss her, we are excited for her to start her new, drama-focused adventure! 🫶🏼

Crew Caldwell’s Wise Wednesday– What Drives Change?

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This week in our Wise Wednesday session, we explored the guiding question:
“What drives change?”. We were also joined by some members of Crew Lovelace.

We looked at how physical and mental wellbeing are connected, and talked about what we can all do to support someone else’s physical and mental wellbeing. 

Below you will see pictures of a 3 minute activity that we did. We had to write down a few ways we could help promote or support someone’s wellbeing. 🧠💪

You can see some of the ideas in the pictures—we had everything from encouraging people to be more active, to just being there for someone when they need to talk.

It showed that even small actions can make a big difference!