Dear Families
Welcome to our final weekly update of this academic year. It is another exciting week for us at XPG with our final presentations of learning for each expedition and we will share updates from these events with you over the next week.
There was great work achieved as always last week and our students continued to work hard, get smart and be kind even as end of term tiredness kicked in. Seeing students work together supporting each other to be their best versions, leaning in on crew and culture was a real strength. Here are a some of the highlights from our week:
Crew Day – XPG Sports Day
We enjoyed our final Crew Day of the year last week with a sport and physical challenge to the day. Our Sports Day involved a range of activities with healthy competition within each cohort between Crews and the quality of work across all crews and rounds was stunning – designing crew mascots for a given country, recreating famous sporting images, crew rounders, dodgeball and athletics.
G28 students completed one last major physical exertion carrying out a walk for water. Students were supported throughout the day by ambassadors of the Charity Time to Help. They even brought their mascot the water drop! They also gave students the opportunity to visit Kenya by the power of VR to see a village where their well’s had an impact.
Excitement was high as winners were announced in our whole school community meeting in the afternoon. The winners were:
G30 – Crew Einstein
G29 – Crew Watson
G28 – Crew Parks walked the greatest distance in the walk for water
Thanks so much to all families that have donated to the appeal.
Freya is now a published artist!
As you may have seen, our Year 7 student, Freya and her family travelled down to the Royal Academy of Arts to see her artwork curated in the gallery. Well done Freya!
Working with the Comfrey Project
A group of Year 8 students carried out some volunteering work with our partners at the Comfrey Project in Bensham last week, volunteering in their garden.
“The Comfrey Project provides a safe, welcoming place for people who have fled conflict and persecution to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, develop new skills and put down roots in their new community.
Their approach is based on the use of horticulture-based activities including gardening, bee-keeping, cooking, crafts and construction, to improve people’s lives.”
XPT Festival of Arts
On Friday Mr Said travelled to Doncaster with Miss Wall our visiting dance teacher and our choir, rock band and dancers. The groups have been working on performances over the last term and put on a fantastic show, performing twice. The afternoon performance was to our primary school students and staff, and then the evening performance was to families from across the schools in Doncaster. Just as we finished our first set the heavens began to open, and as our rock band took to the stage for their second performance the area in front of the stage was quite quiet given the rain. However by the time our rock band had finished they had pulled the crowd back in, and they stayed for our choir and dancers. So many colleagues came to find us to say how impressed they were with our children, and how thankful they were that we had been able to be part of the festival. Well done to all of our performers who have put in a massive amount of effort, not least their long shift on Friday! Beautiful work. A special thanks to Lauren for her support with our Dancers across the whole year too.
This week
G30 Celebration of Learning, Tuesday 16th July 4:30-6:00pm
This event will take place in school and will include a hosted gallery walk where students will discuss their learning from across this last term around the guiding question “How does water shape our world?”. Students will also present important updates on their final products from across the year, including their radio broadcast with excerpts of their Creative Writing from term 2 and their folk songs from term 1. More details in Mrs Ross’ post here.
We are delighted to announce that we have copies of the CD with Year 7 students’ music available for families to purchase. We have a limited initial print of 50 copies available, although more will be printed soon. If you wish to purchase your child’s music on CD, then please bring £5 to the event on Tuesday evening.
Due to the limited initial print, it will be limited to one copy per family. When the second print run is done, you will be able to purchase more copies in the new academic year for other family members. This really is a fantastic product, and every penny raised will go back into funding your child’s exciting learning expeditions next year.
G29 Presentation of Learning, Wednesday 17th July 4:30-6:00pm
This event will also take place in school. Students have been working in the kitchen to prepare food so that we can eat an afternoon tea influenced by dishes from across the world, together with our migrant guests. Students will also perform a poem set to their artwork. Following the interval, we will screen the film made by our G28 students which includes the stories of some of our migrant experts. We are really looking forward to hosting you in school – more details in Miss tatters’ post here.
G28 Presentation of Learning, Thursday 18th July 6.00pm
The final presentation of learning for G28 will be a live stream on Youtube, which includes excerpts of poetry and captures their learning from across this term on their expedition: Hold back the river. We will post details of the link to follow to join the stream later in the week.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
- G29 students (Y8)
- 8-1 have PE on Tuesday this week
- 8-2 have PE on Thursday this week
- G28 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday this week
No Extended Study and Clubs
Due to the Presentations of Learning this week we are not running clubs or extended study this week.
Summer Holidays
We break up for Summer holidays this Friday 19th July and return to school on Tuesday 27th August. Please remember that, as always, our students finish at 1:30pm on Friday to allow staff to de-gunge and replenish rooms and teaching spaces ready for the new academic year.
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley