Our Crew has been busy sorting through lost property to help students find and collect any items they may have misplaced around school.
From water bottles and lunch boxes to jumpers and coats, weâve gathered a wide range of items that are ready to be reunited with their owners. We know how important these belongings are, and weâre keen to make sure they make their way back home!
Please take a moment to look through the photos below and check whether you recognise anything that belongs to your child.
If you spot an item, please ask your child to collect it from the XP East office as soon as possible.
Thank you for your support in helping us keep our school organised and ensuring lost items find their way back to the right hands!
We are excited to announce that our upcoming fieldwork to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum is just around the corner! To ensure that all students are well-prepared for the day, please take note of the following important details.
Students should arrive at school promptly at 7:45 AM. This will give us time to organise the group and prepare for our departure. The group will leave school by 8:15 AM to travel to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum. Please ensure that your child arrives on time so we can adhere to the set schedule.
All students are required to bring a packed lunch for the day. For students eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), lunch will be provided. Parents should ensure that their child has a drink for the day. There are no cafe facilities on-site at the museum, so if a student forgets their drink or lunch, it cannot be replaced. The drink for the day should be water, as per our school policy, which prohibits fizzy drinks.
As the museum visit involves a bit of walking, we recommend that students wear comfortable shoes to ensure they can participate in all activities without discomfort.
A warm coat is also essential for the day, as the majority of the visit will be spent outside. The weather can be unpredictable, and we want to ensure that all students stay warm and comfortable.
Students will leave the museum at approximately 2:30 PM, and we expect to return to school by 4:00 PM, traffic permitting. Please be mindful that traffic conditions may cause slight delays, but we will keep parents/carers updated.
In Summary:
Arrival at school: 7:45 AM
Departure for museum: 8:15 AM
Packed lunch required (unless FSM, where lunch is provided)
Drink required (parents to ensure their child brings one)
Comfortable shoes and a warm coat are advised
Return to school: Approximately 4:00 PM
We look forward to a fantastic day exploring the history of the Staffordshire Regiment and experiencing everything the museum has to offer. If you have any further questions or concerns, please donât hesitate to contact us.
It has been an incredibly exciting and action-packed week for our Year 8 mathematicians! As part of our ongoing STEAM expedition, Crash Test Doncaster: How fast is too fast?, students have been stepping out of the classroom to see exactly how the maths they learn on the whiteboard is applied in the real world.
A Visit from the Serious Collisions Investigations Unit
The week kicked off with a gripping presentation from a very special guest: Police Sergeant John Taylor from the Serious Collisions Investigations Unit at South Yorkshire Police.
PS Taylor spoke to the students about the crucial role mathematics plays in real-life police investigations. When a serious collision occurs, investigators rely heavily on maths to piece together exactly what happened. Students were fascinated to learn how equations are used to calculate vehicle speeds from the length of tyre skid marks, and how the scatter location of debris can help map out the exact point of impact.
By walking the students through a real-world case study from a previous incident, PS Taylor brilliantly demonstrated that maths isn’t just about passing examsâit is a vital tool used to keep our communities safe.
Stepping into the Shoes of Investigators
Inspired by PS Taylorâs visit, our students took on the role of data analysts and headed out into the local community to conduct their own primary fieldwork.
Their first task was to carry out a comprehensive traffic and pedestrian count at various locations around the Lakeside area. Students carefully categorised and recorded the flow of different vehicle types (cars, vans, HGVs, and motorbikes) alongside pedestrian footfall.
Calculating Speed on Stadium Way
The most thrilling part of the fieldwork was putting compound measures into practice! Students set up observation points along Stadium Way to investigate local vehicle speeds.
To do this without police radar guns, they had to be resourceful. By using the uniform distance between the street lamp posts as their fixed distance markers, and stopwatches to record the time it took vehicles to travel between them, the students were able to use the classic mathematical formula: Speed = Distance Ă· Time to determine how fast cars were travelling around our local community.
Whatâs Next?
Now that our Year 8s have gathered all this fantastic raw data, the real mathematical heavy lifting begins! Over the next few lessons, students will be taking their findings into the class rooms. They will be using Google Sheets to digitise their data, organising their counts into grouped frequency tables, and calculating averages to finally answer our expedition’s guiding question: How fast is too fast?
A huge thank you to Police Sergeant John Taylor for giving up his time to inspire our students, and a massive well done to Year 8 for their excellent behaviour and focus during the fieldwork.
On Tuesday this week, our crew took part in a litter picking session around our school grounds as when we came back after half term, we noticed that there was quite a bit of litter left around the site. We all agreed that we take pride in our school, so we decided to do something about it!
Working together as a team, we collected rubbish from the playground, field areas and pathways. It was surprising to see how much litter had built up over just one week. However, it felt good knowing that we were making a positive difference to our environment.
As a crew, we have now made a commitment to tidy up our school every two weeks by litter picking during crew time. We believe that small actions can make a big difference, and we want our school to be a clean, safe and welcoming place for everyone.
This experience reminded us about the importance of responsibility, teamwork and respect for our environment. We are proud of what we achieved and look forward to continuing this effort throughout the term.
National Careers Week (2ndâ7th March 2026) helps students learn about different careers through workshops and employer activities. The school follows a Careers Roadmap from Year 7 to Year 11, guiding students as they explore options and make decisions about their future.
At XP we develop key transferable skills such as listening, teamwork, problemâsolving, and creativity.
Please support your student in Years 9â11 complete an aspirations survey, and Year 11 students also must complete a Next Steps survey to support postâ16 planning.
Work Experience for C29 (Year 10) will run from 11thâ15th May 2026, offering benefits like realâworld experience, confidence building, and CV development. It requires full attendance and support from parents/carers.
Year 10 will also be attending taster days at local colleges to help them begin to make choices about where they will study after XP.
