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This morning, C33 students had the opportunity to engage with a British Museum broadcast exploring the Bayeux Tapestry.
As part of our expedition, students had already explored why the tapestry was created. The broadcast deepened their understanding by examining different scenes, the purpose behind its creation and the importance of historical sources in helping us understand the past.
This was a valuable opportunity for students to build on their existing knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of how historians use sources to investigate and interpret history.
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.
Today I had the pleasure of visiting XP and XP East to complete English walk throughs and review our students’ books.
Across year 7, with both Mrs Poncia and Miss Johnson, I was able to see some beautiful narratives being carefully crafted. Students were incorporating a range of tier 2 vocabulary and were redrafting key paragraphs based on specific feedback from their teacher. It was fantastic to see the students so engaged and working so meticulously.
In year 8, Mr Wilmot’s Explorer class showed superb recall of key details from their anchor text. They were all working diligently and offering wonderful contributions and ideas. Their books were also very good and showed some high levels of productivity.
In year 9, Miss Wilkinson and her Pioneer class were considering how the character of Jack had changed from the beginning of Lord of the Flies to chapter 8. They could clearly recall key events and were curious when asking clarifying questions about key vocabulary. They then used this vocabulary to support their choices about the character. Additionally, the maps they have created of the island are fantastic!
Finally in year 10, both Ms Cross and Miss Buckley’s Skipper and Explorer classes were grappling with annotating a key poem from their GCSE anthologies. In Skipper students offered some stunning inferences carefully considering the context and motivations of the poets. Whereas in Explorer students summarised key contextual information on the background of Wilfred Owen and practiced their subject terminology skills.
All in all it was a pleasure to be in all these classrooms. In every room the atmosphere was positive and enthusiastic and students were engaged.
Well done Team English from Mrs Desborough (Trust Leader of English)
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 4:30pm 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.
