C24 (Y11): key dates and information update

Just a quick update on some key information and upcoming dates for our Y11 students (including those all important GCSE dates!)

Firstly, we’d like to massively appreciate those students who are attending in-school and after-school revision sessions, including D6 on Saturday. There is no doubt that this level of commitment to their learning will be reflected in their final grades. Our current revision session timetable is here, but is being updated with more sessions which we’ll publish once finalised.

Although these are optional at the moment, we are targeting specific students to attend and we ask that parents support this. Teachers will be in touch with students and their parents with details of when they need to attend extra revision sessions.

In addition to focussed revision sessions, we are pleased to announce that Extended Study is back up and running for Y11 students Monday-Thursdays, 3.15-4.30. This means that students can stay for an extra hour after school to complete any extended study that’s been set or work on revision tasks with support from staff, away from any potential distractions at home. Please note that this is just for our Y11 students at the moment, but we’re hoping to offer to other year groups soon.

Here’s a quick look at some key upcoming dates – further information about each of these events will be published in separate blog posts:

1st Feb – 11th FebStudent led conferences
3rd February GCSE revision information evening for Y11 parents
21st Feb – 4th MarchMock exams 2
16th May – 24th JuneGCSEs (full timetable will be published at a later date!)
w/b 27th June (tbc)Final Word and celebrating Crew

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Angella Parker (Y11 Phase Lead XP. East): [email protected]

Mel Cocliff (Y11 Phase Lead, XP): [email protected]

With thanks, as ever, for your continued support.

Y11 Learn2Earn revision rewards

Today we launched our Learn2Earn Revision Rewards scheme to Y11 as a way of recognising the hard work and commitment of those students who are attending our lunchtime and after-school GCSE revision sessions (and perhaps encourage some of our other students to attend, too!)

So, what is Learn2Earn?

  • A rewards ‘loyalty’ scheme for revision – the more sessions students attend, the more points they earn! 
  • After 5 sessions, students receive a small ‘reward’…
  • After 10 sessions, students receive a medium ‘reward’…

All completed cards will be entered into a ‘big CREW reward’ prize draw – so the more crew participate in sessions, the more chance their crew have of winning the bigger prize at the end of Y11!

Y11 students working hard in one of our lunchtime History revisions sessions.

Here is our current revision timetable. Please note this is currently under review and we’ll be adding more sessions soon:

Don’t forget that Y11 – and Y10 – students can also attend D6 on a Saturday morning, from 9am – 12:30pm, which is back up and running this weekend (15th January). D6 provides students with a relaxed and informal study space working alongside our expert Student Coaches. We are expecting these to get busier as GCSEs get closer (16th May – 24th June.)

D6: business as usual

C24 can breath a huge sigh of relief as the first set of Y11 mocks are almost over (they still have the Spanish Speaking and Art mocks to look forward to!)

However, it’s really important that students keep the momentum going with their revision all through the year, and not just before the next set of mocks (which are scheduled for March).

Click here to view our current enrichment timetable, which includes details of all the all the lunchtime and after school revision sessions available.

We are also encouraging all Y11s to attend D6 on a Saturday morning from 9am-12.30pm each week to access additional support, or just to have a relaxed space for a bit of focussed self-study away from any potential distractions at home.

For those of you who don’t know, D6 is our voluntary sixth day of school which will take place each Saturday during term time. D6 is led by ex-students of XP who are returning to provide our current students with peer to peer academic study support. There will be additional support from our school learning coaches and members of the Leadership Team.  Refreshments will also be provided.

We’re really looking forward to seeing our Y11s at D6 this Saturday!

(Please note that D6 is only open to Y11s at the moment).

Y11 ‘down time’!

It’s been a wonderful lunch time today spent with Y11 (and other years!) at Embrace in the library at XPE. Some Y11s were revising in study groups ready for this afternoon’s maths exam, but the highlight for me was seeing Tom, Hollymay, Frida, Mia, Ruby and Eleanor play Twister with students from Y7! [I’m not sure how Mia managed to stand back up, though!!] What a fantastic example of Crew – and a good laugh, too!

Enrichment Timetable – October – December 2021

Due to the fantastic efforts of our incredible staff, we are delighted to be able to offer so many extra curricular opportunities to our wonderful students!

Please see attached an updated version of our enrichment timetable. On here, you’ll find sports clubs/fixtures, Arts clubs (including our new Vocaleles!) and KS4 Revision sessions with staff. We would encourage our students to attend as many of these sessions as possible to secure their GCSE grades and achieve their potential!


I can also share with you that D6 will begin again this coming Saturday, November 13th. D6 is our Saturday provision where students are able to come and work with coaches in school from 9am – 12:30pm. For the time being, D6 is open to year 11 only.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the staff running any extra-curricular activities, or myself at [email protected].

Thank you for your continued support – we look forward to seeing many of our students in these sessions!

Mel Cocliff
XP Y11 Phase Lead
Crew Macmillan Crew Leader

C24 (Y11) Mock Exam Timetable

Year 11 will be sitting mock exams over a 2 week period, starting on Monday 8th November:

Please note that Wednesday 10th November may be subject to change due to the school nurses being in to administer Covid Vaccines.

Students have been given revision resources to help them prepare for these mocks, as well as having access to Seneca (science), Hegarty (maths) and all their previous session slides on google classrooms.

E24: Getting started: History Revision Guides

Students this week have been given their own copy of the revision guide for our History exam board OCR B SHP History. All students should have named their copy so that if they are misplaced they can be returned. Students are encouraged to annotate and highlight the guide as they carry out their revision. 

The revision guide has a number of different topics, however, students will need to focus on the following sections for revision: 

  • The Elizabethans 
  • The People’s Heath 
  • Living under Nazi Rule

The locations of these topics can be found in the contents page. We would recommend in general students start by revising The People’s Health as well as focusing on page 88 in order to prepare for the upcoming assessment in lessons.

If any student has been absent when these revision guides were handed out, they can see myself or Mrs Hannam directly and we will make sure they get their copy. 

A further revision guide focusing on the Viking Expansion will be issued to students in the coming weeks.

We are super excited to be taking C24 out on fieldwork on Thursday, 1st July.

We have arranged to take the whole of Y10 to Shrewsbury Prison, to support our final expedition of the year: Karma Police – have we got justice right?

Shrewsbury Prison was decommissioned in 2013 and now provides an “interactive prison experience” for visitors. It was also recently used as the location for BBC’s drama ‘Time’, which gave a harrowing picture of prison life.

We’re not giving too much away about the activities we’ve got planned for students, but we promise not to leave any of them locked in the cells 😉

We are booked in at the prison at 9.30am meaning that we do have to set off between 6.45am-7am at the latest.  If this is a problem for anyone, please let your Crew Leader know as soon as possible.

We will be leaving the prison at approx 1pm, so hope to be back at school between 3.30-4pm, traffic dependant. We will update socials on the day.

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!  If your child is in receipt of free school meals, a packed lunch will be provided for them.