Dear Families
Students have settled back into school and routines well and it has been great to hear staff and students recognising this in themselves and each other during briefings, crew sessions and community meetings.
Immersion
Last week we launched our new learning expeditions across all years. As is always the case, expeditions start with a week of immersion which is an opportunity for students to dip their toe into the content of the learning expeditions, to build background knowledge and generate curiosity about the GQ (guiding question) for the expedition.
G32 Immersion
Year 7 students have two new learning expeditions in STEAM and HUMAN. Their STEAM immersion has involved reading extracts from a dystopian novel called Station 11 and preparing to carry out food tests, making connections back to their study of elements, compounds and mixtures from term 1.
In HUMAN and ARTS year 7 have been building background knowledge about World War I, and beginning to read a play called White Poppies as well as revisiting skills from term 1 to represent medals in graphite pencil drawings.
G31 Immersion
Year 8 have carried out a gallery walk in HUMAN, making connections between stimulus images on natural hazards and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They have also started to read an abridged Modern English version of The Scottish Play to put together a storyboard of its key moments, before grappling with the full text. Connected to this in STEAM students have grappled with an excerpt from A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson about the genius of Sir Isaac Newton.
G30 Immersion
Year 9’s immersion has involved building background knowledge about health around the world and in our own country as well as trying to unravel a mysterious connection from these ideas to a 17th century poem by John Dryden. In STEAM students have been building viral, fungal and bacterial cells from scrap materials as part of their immersion.
G29 immersion
This term Year 10 have an expedition that combines HUMAN and STEAM. The week of immersion has involved studying Nazi ideology and how pseudoscientific arguments were used to promote fear and division, as well as a study of The Weimar Republic of Germany between wars, and the impact that The Treaty of Versailles had on living conditions and society pre-WWII. Connected to this students have made connections from this and their wider studies from previous expeditions about the class system in Britain, that of today and of the past.
As you can see, these immersive and intensive experiences at the beginning of a learning expedition help to generate curiosity and excitement about the topic, build background knowledge and provide students a solid starting point to launch into and tackle their guiding questions for the rest of their learning expedition.
Guiding Questions
This week will see all of the GQs (guiding questions) revealed for our new expedition. GQs are a crucial part of the anatomy of an expedition and are revealed at the end of immersion.
GQs influence, shape and act as a reference point for student learning. GQs provoke thinking and deepen learning throughout the 12 week expedition and allow students to be engaged in authentic and purposeful work which makes connections between different subject areas and disciplines. During the course of a learning expedition, our children experience a range of case studies, with challenging texts which deepen their understanding and help them to develop an answer to the rich GQ for the expedition.
G28
Our Y11 students have made a strong start to their final Spring Term at XPG. As subjects move towards course completion, more time will be dedicated to revisiting and securing prior knowledge with revision and exam preparation becoming more prevalent this term. G28 students continue to show high levels of maturity and commitment which will serve them well in the coming months.
This week we started our Tuesday and Thursday Academic Crew sessions which have allowed us to run more targeted intervention sessions across Science, Maths, English, Art, Photography. This intervention block will run until February half term and we will look at new intervention groups and subjects next half term.
At the end of this month we will start our final mock session which will run across 3 weeks. We will be publishing our mock exam timetable later this week and continuing to work with students to support their preparation and revision. Please look out for the upcoming website post from Mr Mead.
XPG students are once again published
Last term, as part of celebrating National Poetry Day; 21 of our students entered the Young Writers’ poetry competition ‘I have a Dream’. This week we found out that every single entry from XPG had been selected to be published which is a phenomenal achievement and we are delighted. Look out for the post from Ms Tatters this week where she will share more details – our poets and some sneak peeks of their beautiful work due to be published. Huge congratulations to all of our poets for their beautiful work and courage in sharing with a wider audience.
Staffing update
On Friday we said farewell to Miss Blain. Again I want to take the opportunity to thank Miss Blain for her work with our students as a Phase and Crew Leader, Learning Coach and member of our SEND team. We have advertisements in place for posts of both a Phase Leader and a Learning Coach/Crew Leader and will look to make quality appointments as soon as possible.
The week ahead
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- For G32 students (Y7)
- G32 Class 2 students have PE on Monday
- G32 Class 1 students have PE on Wednesday
- G31 students (Y8) have PE on Tuesday
- G30 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday
- G29 students (Y10) have PE on Monday
- G28 students (Y11) have PE on Monday
SLC Preparation G32 and G31
SLCs for G32 and G31 will take place this term in the two weeks commencing 26th January 2026. You will soon receive an email from your child’s Crew Leader asking you to make an appointment through Google Calendar.
Crew Windsor’s SLCs will take place later in the term although they will still start preparation for that. Mr Said will be in touch with Crew Windsor families starting next week to give updates around HoWLs and academic progress.
We invest a lot of time in giving students opportunities to reflect upon their learning and growth. A significant amount of Crew time is devoted to this in the run-up to SLCs. Please do also ask your child about how their preparation is going
Clubs and Extended Study
Lunchtime and after school Clubs and supervised Extended Study sessions after school return this week.
Upcoming Events
Passage Presentations for G30 and Pathways into KS4
This half-term we will host an information evening for G30 families to discuss the rest of the year ahead including Passage Presentations and pathways into GCSEs. Look out for a separate post this week with more information.
Teacher / Student Led Conferences for G29 – Tuesday 17th February
G29 will have their first TSLCs (Teacher / Students Led Conferences) on the evening of Tuesday 17th February. During a TSLC your child will sit alongside their teacher to update you on the progress they are making in their GCSE and Level 2 courses.
Each conference will be strictly five minutes, with a few minutes of input from your child which our staff will support, and then there will be an opportunity for you to ask any questions of your child or their teacher.
Following these events next week, we will post some further guidance about revision and Year 10 study habits in the run up to mock examinations which will take place early in the Summer Term after the Easter holidays.
We will share information on how to book slots closer to the time.
Upcoming Staff Days on Friday 23rd and Monday 26th January
Please note that our whole staff will be travelling to Doncaster on Thursday 23rd January for a twilight CPD session which will launch an XP Trust Teaching and Learning conference on Friday so school will end at the slightly earlier time of 1.30pm on Thursday 22nd January to allow for this.
As usual if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance. Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley
Principal
