Celebrating our awesome Y10 (E26)!

Today’s Y10 Community Meeting focused on some of the good things that have happened this term.

We celebrated praise points, exceptional progress and improvements (Scarlett C is definitely our Y10 Superstar this term!) and handed out certificates to those who have had work published as part of the national Young Writers competition.

We celebrated some of our Student Ambassadors who really impressed our visitors from the Outward Bound Center in Ullswater recently – so much so that they have given them the opportunity to attend one of their summer camps.

We also celebrated and appreciated the efforts of the Spanish Group who have produced some absolutely amazing work for their final product. We shared Faith’s and Thomas’ recordings which were espectacular! You can view all of their beautiful work in this blog post.

Y10 – you are all super awesome and we’re all super proud of the progress you’re making!

Mrs Parker 🙂

History stars in the making…

History stars in the making…

Our students in Y10 have been working extremely hard in their History sessions over the past two weeks. We have been learning about different aspects of Viking life in their homelands of Scandinavia, from the food they ate to their religious beliefs and the rituals they practiced.

I have been really impressed with their work ethic, contributions to classroom discussion and the craftsmanship and quality of their work.  Check out Logan and Harvey’s beautiful books below!

Next week, Y10 will be working hard planning and completing their first formal assessment on the Vikings. If they continue this level of concentration and continue to graft, I am sure they will be very successful and proud of their achievements.

Keep up the great work Y10!

E26 Edale Fieldwork Video

What a wonderful day our fieldwork was to Edale! Although it is coming up to a few weeks ago now, it’s been worth the wait to see the video footage.

The students were absolutely fantastic – we couldn’t fault the behaviour and conduct of anyone. Everyone got involved with loads of enthusiasm and had a great time. It helped that the weather and setting were gorgeous!

As part of our ‘Hold Back the River’ expedition which had the guiding question: ‘how does water shape our world?’ we have been focusing on the geography of fluvial landscapes. This included the processes and landforms that occur from source to mouth and how both human and physical factors affect flood risk. We were collecting data to find out how the river changes downstream by measuring width, depth and velocity. When we got back to school the students analysed the data in their maths lessons to discover if our data met the hypothesis that width, depth and velocity would increase downstream. Wait and see to find out the results, which will be incorporated into our PoL, at the end of term.

Overall, it was an absolutely brilliant day and I cannot praise the students enough for their enthusiasm and behaviour – what a lovely way to end the year!

E26 Edale Fieldwork Friday 17th

Sun, sun, sun!

The weather forecast for our fieldwork on Friday is looking lovely at 25 degrees C – a bit of cloud at first but then sunshine from midday onwards.

Please make sure that E26 come prepared for this with suncream, hat, and cool breathable clothing to cover shoulders and avoid sunburn – there is limited shade so students need to come prepared for the weather. Water is also essential – they need to have enough to last all day as there is nowhere to refill.

Please see the KIT LIST from the original website post for what to bring.

E26 ‘Hold Back The River’ Peak District Fieldwork

Year 9’s current expedition ‘Hold Back the River’ has the guiding question, ‘how does water shape our world?’ 

During this expedition, our geography content is focusing on river characteristics from source to mouth, river processes, formation of landforms as well as the cause, impacts and responses of flooding. As part of this, we are applying the theory of river processes and characteristics to the field. 

On Friday 17th June, students will visit Edale in the Peak District, they will work together to collect data regarding the width, depth, velocity and load of rivers. We will also be capturing the beauty of a river by completing artwork.  This data collection will allow us to accept or reject our hypothesis once we have analysed our data in our maths lessons. 

Students will need to arrive at school no later than 8:15am so that the register and kit check can be completed before leaving school.

3 Peak District waterfall walks not to miss

It is also essential that all students bring all of the kit on the KIT LIST so that they are fully prepared for the fieldwork; this includes a packed lunch and water to drink. Students will need to ensure they have suitable walking boots/trainers as well as wellies or a pair of trainers they can get wet – we’ll be going in the river to collect the data!  If there are any problems in getting the appropriate kit before this, please email your child’s Crew Leader. 

Students will be returning to school for 3:15pm (if traffic allows). Please ensure that you complete the ‘Medical Form’ which will be given to students this week and return it to Crew Leaders/expedition teachers as soon as possible.

Many thanks in advance for your support with this!

Link to KIT LIST

Launch of C26’s Fight the Power plaque – Friday 3rd December 2:00PM

The Fight the Power final product is being officially launched on Friday 3rd December at 2PM, at Sir Nigel Gresley Square (just outside of CAST).

We’d like to say a massive thank you to parents, carers, and our community for supporting the crowdfunder, and we look forward to launching it with students and those involved with the expedition.

If your son/daughter is in C26 (Year 9) and you would like to attend the event to celebrate its launch with us, please join us – feel free to email [email protected] if you have any questions about the grand reveal.

Fieldwork Wednesday 16th June!

Finally, we are allowed to go on fieldwork! We have managed to squeeze one in before the end of term!!

We are currently doing the expedition “Call the cops”, looking at crime and punishment through time. We will be looking at the introductions of police and prisons, having already looked at crime and how it was dealt with before this!

In order to support our work for the introductions and developments of our system, we have arranged fieldwork to Shrewsbury Prison. The prison was closed in 2013 and is used for educational purposes now, so rest assured students will not be walking around a working prison with inmates.

The students will take part in being booked in as prisoners, shown around, then participate in an escape room activity! It is an amazing experience and will be extremely beneficial to the expedition!

We will be leaving school at 7:30am on Wednesday 16th June in order to arrive at Shrewsbury for 10:30. We are leaving the prison at 14:00 with the hope of arriving back at school between 16:30 – 17:00. This will be a long day for the students, but I am sure they will love it! Please make sure students wear comfortable clothes and take a jacket as it can become cold in the prison and sensible shoes. Students will also need a packed lunch and sufficient water for the day. Please don’t pack any products containing nuts in packed lunches as we are a nut-free school!

Any questions please feel free to email me on [email protected] or your child’s crew leader!

Thank you!

 

Following the closure of our Y8/E26 bubble, we will now move to an online educational provision as shown below – this has proved to be highly effective in supporting students in other year bubble closures as engagement rates have regularly been above 95%.

 

Here is our protocol for online learning:

  • all Crew sessions and lessons will take place LIVE via Google Hangout and the timetable is highlighted below.
  • students will receive input from teachers and have time to complete activities on Google Classroom.
  • students are registered in Crew (8.30am), at the beginning of the morning session (9.15am) and afternoon session (1.15pm).
  • all students are expected to join each session.  If a student is absent, Crew Leaders will contact home to ascertain the reason why. If a student is unable to join a session, for example, they are unwell, we ask parents to please contact the office.
  • Crew Leaders and Expedition teachers will send Google Hangout invitations to their classes.
  • invites for live sessions will be sent through email.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact your child’s crew leader.

Thank you.

PS: It was amazing to have 86% (44) students join the hangout this morning with our expert Victoria, who spoke to us about the Suffragette movement in Doncaster.  What a turn out at short notice!

 

E26 Pioneer Fieldwork Cancellation!

Unfortunately due to the closure of the Y8 (E26) bubble we are having to cancel the planned fieldwork on Tuesday 8th December. We were planning to busk at Lakeside Village Shopping Centre to raise funds for our final product but this won’t be possible now.

I am pleased to say that one class did manage to get to Lakeside (pictured above) earlier in the year and there are other fundraising events happening to ensure our final product happens.

To see our current total and for more information you can follow this link to view our crowdfunding page.

I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to Lakeside Village Shopping Centre for all their support with our expedition.

Good luck with the online learning E26 and stay safe.

Fight the Power!

The year 8 students across XP School and XP East are working towards part of their final product for the ”Fight the Power’ expedition. C26 have been learning about the power of protest, and the impact activists have had on the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. The goal is to commemorate this work, both in a plaque that will live proudly in Doncaster train station, and through works of art that we will be curating celebrating local activism across Donny, should we raise the funds.

Check out our crowdfunder here!

With only 19 days left to reach their crowdfunder goal, students will be pushing to make the final £800 over the coming weeks with their fundraising efforts. We have arranged raffle prizes, because our busking plans were unfortunately no longer feasible due to lockdown restrictions, but we’re not letting it stop us!

Students have recently had an expert visit from Olivia from Black Lives Matter Doncaster, who shared with the groups about the protests earlier this year. Her insights into structural racism and her experiences of micro-aggressions helped open up a dialogue in our school on difficult but deeply important topics.

I would like to thank her for the work she continues to do and we look forward to working with her in future.

Students also have a hangout / expert visit arranged this Friday morning, where they will be learning about the impact of the local Suffragette movement, and the impact Doncastrian suffragettes had on women’s rights across the UK.

We were shocked earlier in the expedition to learn that of the 500+ statues in the UK, only 80 were of historical women. We wanted to do something to address this imbalance, so we feel that commemorating the work of Doncastrian women’s rights activists is a great place to start.

Students will be coming round over the coming weeks to sell raffle tickets, prizes include

  1. A chocolate hamper (worth over £30)

  2. A McDonalds meal of your choice (+ McFlurry), delivered to you during dinner time

  3. A pass to skip the dinner queue for an entire week

We appreciate all donations, and ask that if you can continue to share this if you are unable to donate to hopefully spread the word!