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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 2026 and prepared to attend the assessment on 21st November 2026.
Over the past few days, we’ve been engaged in some deeply important work with leaders across our school. It has been an opportunity to step back, refine our vision, and realign on a fundamental principle that drives everything we do—from executive leadership down to every single classroom:
Empowerment is not execution.
In supporting our leaders, we have anchored our approach around four non-negotiable commitments:
We model and provide frameworks, but we do not do your work for you.
We lower barriers and build competence, but we do not do the work for you.
We are your advocate and open doors, but we do not do the work for you.
We support and challenge you to remove obstacles, but we do not do the work for you.
This isn’t about stepping back or withholding support. On the contrary—it takes far more intention to build capacity in others than it does to simply step in and do the job ourselves. True leadership isn’t about creating dependency; it’s about fostering agency, capability, and confidence.
The Parallel in the Classroom
What strikes me most about this core leadership practice is how precisely they reflect our core philosophy. The exact same culture we build with our leaders is the culture we cultivate with our students every single day.
When we look at how we set our students up for long-term success, the mirror image is undeniable:
In Lessons: We model high-quality thinking and provide structured frameworks (scaffolds, sentence stems, worked examples) so students can see what excellence looks like. But when it comes to the independent practice, we hand the responsibility back to them. They must attempt the cognitive heavy lifting whilst we remove any barriers.
In Extended Study: We offer extended study opportunities and open doors to enrichment that broaden horizons and spark ambition. We create the access, and the students commit the effort.
In Removing Barriers: We lower barriers, ensuring every student has the tools, technology, and environment they need to thrive. We listen, adapt, and challenge them to overcome obstacles, but the resilience must be theirs to build.
Student Agency
If we solve every problem for our leaders or for our students, we remove the struggle required to grow. Real competence — the kind that lasts long after a meeting finishes or an assessment is completed —comes from grappling with challenges within a secure, high-support environment.
We will advocate for you. We will clear the path. We will show you what success looks like and walk alongside you as you tackle hard things. But the journey, the effort, and ultimately the pride of achievement must belong to you.
Whether in the leadership team or in the classroom, our mission remains the same: high support, high challenge, total ownership.
Please see the attached photos for items currently in lost property at XP East.
If your child has lost an item, please encourage them to visit reception alongside a member of staff to locate and retrieve it. All remaining lost property will also be displayed at the end of term for students to view and collect.
Important: Any items left unclaimed by Friday 16th October will be donated to charity.
If you need any support, please review the photos and reach out to your child’s Crew Leader.
Crew have been busy, busy, busy this half term! Students have immersed themselves in a range of activities since returning to school. Morning Academic Crew sessions have focused on Maths, BTEC Sport, Health and Social Care, and Spanish. After school, students have also been attending Learning Labs on Mondays (Maths), Wednesdays (English) and Thursdays (Science).
They should all be proud of the effort and progress they have made so far. With this being the final week before half-term, it’s important to finish strong, take time to recharge and return refreshed and ready for Term 1b, when GCSE mocks begin. Keep going, Crew Nightingale – you’ve got this!
As part of National T Levels Week 2026, Amazing Apprenticeships is hosting a dedicated webinar for parents and carers to help explain what T Levels are, how they differ from other post-16 options, and where they can lead.
The session will include David Scott, T Levels Lead at the Department for Education, alongside a parent sharing their own experience of supporting a young person through the T Level route.
T Levels Week Parent and Carer Webinar: Understanding T Levels Tuesday 20 October 2026 6:30pm–7:15pm
Even if you cannot attend live, we would still encourage you to register, as all registrants will receive access to the webinar recording and slides afterwards.
This is a useful opportunity for families to find out more about one of the technical education routes available after Year 11 and to support conversations at home about future options.
We are looking forward to welcoming students in Years 9, 10 and 11 to our upcoming Careers Fair, giving them the opportunity to speak directly with a range of colleges, training providers, employers and organisations about their next steps beyond XP.
The aim of the afternoon is to help students explore the different routes available after secondary school, ask questions, compare options and begin making informed decisions about what might suit them best. For Year 10, the afternoon will also include a short soft launch of Work Experience 2027, encouraging students to start noticing sectors, organisations and opportunities that may interest them in the future.
We are pleased to have a broad range of confirmed providers attending, including Doncaster College, New College Doncaster, Outwood Academy Danum Post 16, Club Doncaster Foundation Sports College, Active Fusion, the RAF, South Yorkshire Police and the National Horseracing College.
Each provider brings something different, from A Levels and vocational courses to apprenticeships, specialist training, public-service careers and employment routes. We want students to use the opportunity to ask meaningful questions about entry requirements, courses, progression, apprenticeships, practical experience and what they could be doing now to prepare for their next step.
Year 11 parents and carers
We would particularly like to invite Year 11 parents and carers to join us for the final part of the fair.
From 3.30pm until 4:45pm, Year 11 families are welcome to drop in and speak with providers alongside their child. This is an opportunity to have a longer conversation about possible next steps after XP, including college courses, sixth-form options, apprenticeships, specialist provision and other routes.
For some students, knowing what comes next already feels quite clear. For others, there may still be lots of questions. Both are completely normal at this stage. Having students, families and providers in the same room gives everyone the chance to hear the same information, ask questions together and begin making plans with greater confidence.
Please note that the after-school parent/carer drop-in is for Year 11 families only.
We are really looking forward to seeing students making connections, asking good questions and beginning to make their futures a little more visible.
Students in crew Irwin have been super busy over the past few weeks. It has been so great to see different faces being top of the praise leaderboard too each week. They have been incredibly mature throughout our ‘sex and relationships’ topic in Wise Wednesday and some great discussions have taken place. From chatting and having fun out walking and running, litter picking, working hard, getting smart and being kind they have had a great start to year 9. So here’s some highlights and who is top of the leaderboard this week.
In year 11, taking time out from academic studies can often be just as important as the studying itself. This week during Friday’s crew time, Crew Caldwell stepped back from our traditional routines to focus on what lies at the heart of XP: simply being Crew.
Inspired by the mighty Crew White, we set aside dedicated time to check in with one another, strengthen our connections, and recharge. Central to this session was a shared Crew breakfast, which provided the perfect setting to pause, reflect, and enjoy each other’s company without the pressure of any deadlines or upcoming assessments. We also made some time to share a hot chocolate or cosy cup of tea!
Moments like these remind us that we are crew, not passengers. By making space to listen, support, and appreciate one another, Crew Caldwell continue to progress through Y11 with the ability to lean on each other (and with an unholy number of pancakes in our bellies, too!)
