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

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 about this here: https://xptrust.info/XPMA

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 2026 and prepared to attend the assessment on 21st November 2026.

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

Community Meeting Celebrations 11.9.26

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Community meetings at XP and XP East serve as a crucial anchor of our community for embedding our school culture. They bring all of our students and staff together to tend to our crew identity, align on shared expectations, celebrate achievement, and reflect on collective growth. Rather than acting as passive assemblies, community meetings embody the core principle that everyone is part of a crew, fostering belonging and mutual accountability across our schools. Our community meeting on Friday highlighted some of these core practices through some magical moments:

  • We always start by reinforcing shared norms around our school spaces, reminding our student to respect outdoor boundaries.
  • We celebrated student achievements in the arts, recognising Year 7 for a strong start in Art and highlighting Year 10 students as Artists of the Week for their outstanding effort.
  • We praised Students of the Week across year groups for earning top praise points and celebrated some great attendance for this week through additions to their Crew Kitty.
  • We shared updates on how Crew Kitty can be earned through additional contributions, such as blogging photographs of learning activities or reaching the top of the leaderboard in the Sparx and Tassomai challenges. This initiative reinforces that every student can contribute to their crew’s collective reward, which can be spent on shared experiences like crew breakfasts or end-of-term activities.
  • We hand the catch box to our students for the majority of our community meeting ensuring that these meeting are guided by student voice through Appreciations, Apologies, and Stands:
  • We reinforced character traits through some powerful stands and lots of appreciations.

By gathering regularly to celebrate success, reset expectations, and speak honestly with one another, our community meetings continue to strengthen our culture of crew.

WOW WOW WOW – What a week for Y11!!!!

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Year 11 have been absolutely INCREDIBLE this week. From 100% attendance (earning some money in the crew funds!) to 0 conducts and lots of praise points… the focus, collaboration, and general attitude from the whole of Y11 this week has been outstanding!

Take a look at some highlights below – including 0 conduct points from Crew Caldwell – a huge improvement from the end of Year 10!!

Also – the BIGGEST shout out to Lewis – Student of the week this week!!!! Keep it up, Crew Caldwell!!!

Teamwork in Netball

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Year 7 XP students showed excellent teamwork skills this week. Students circled up and worked as a crew to figure out what their strengths and areas for improvements were. What a fantastic start to PE.

Sharing our Stories: 11/09/2026

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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.

Top of the Blogs

Arts and craft club @ Green Top

EYFS Sponsored Bear Walk @ Plover

Could You Be a Change Maker? @ Carcroft School

Inside the Code @ XP

]Celebrating Crew @ Norton Infants

Digital Leading Experts @ Norton Juniors

G29 @ XP Gateshead

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

🌟 Crew ABT – 100% Attendance! 🌟

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What a fantastic week for Crew ABT! 🎉

We are incredibly proud to celebrate 100% attendance this week. Every member of Crew ABT has shown commitment, resilience and a fantastic attitude by being in school every day and ready to learn.

This is a brilliant achievement and shows the strength of our Crew when we work together, support each other and take responsibility.

A huge well done to everyone in Crew ABT – keep it going! 💪🔥

100% attendance. 100% commitment. 100% Crew ABT! 🏆

Silver DofE Update

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Good morning from slightly warmer and sunny Silkstone.

Slower start this morning, some tired feet and extra tired faces today.

Day 3 is upon us, they have all shown true grit and determination and as they embark on the last leg they will no doubt dig that bit more to get through.

We will keep you posted on our arrival time home

Silver DofE update

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Just a little update!


We’ve arrived at the campsite and now setting up tents. It’s a little drizzly but in good spirits… we think they will be in asleep early tonight!

Photo is the last leg before they arrived at the campsite!

FLU Programme

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The Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humberside NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) School Immunisations Team will be carrying out their FLU programme on the following 2 dates:

FLU main session: 02nd November 2026. FLU catch-up session: 24th November 2026

ADOLESCENT Programme 2027

Year 8 HPV Session : 23rd February 2027

Year 9. SLB/MENINGITIS Session: 05th May 2027

Catch-up for all years: 29th June 2027

Emails have been sent to parents/carers for the FLU programme from RDASH. Please respond whether you consent or do not consent to the FLU programme for your child. Adolescent programme consent or non-consent emails will follow after the FLU programme.