Get Ready to Sparkle! Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children!

We are excited to announce a fun-filled day of festive cheer and fundraising as we take part in Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday 11th December.

This annual event is a wonderful way to bring our school community together while raising vital funds for a fantastic cause: Save the Children.

What is Christmas Jumper Day?

On Thursday, December 11th, we are encouraging all students to come to school wearing their favourite, most festive, and perhaps even most ridiculous Christmas jumper! It’s a great opportunity to embrace the holiday spirit and support children around the world.

How to Donate

To participate in Christmas Jumper Day, we ask that each student makes a small donation to Save the Children:

  • Cash Donation: Please bring a donation of £1 cash. This should be passed on to your Crew Leader.
  • Online Donation: Alternatively, you can donate directly to our JustGiving page using this link.

Your generous donations will help Save the Children ensure every child has the chance to grow up healthy, safe, and educated.

More Festive Fun! Santa Dash, Christmas Crew Dinner & Bake Sale

The fun doesn’t stop with the jumpers! On the 11th of December, there will also be: 

  • Santa Dash: Our fantastic PE teachers have organised an energetic Santa Dash for all students to take part in! Get ready to run, jog, or power-walk your way around a festive course. It’s a great way to get moving and add even more fun to the day!
  • Christmas Crew Dinner: Students will also enjoy their special Christmas Dinner with their Crew. This is a lovely chance to share a festive meal together and celebrate the end of a busy term.
  • Crew White’s annual Christmas bake sale supporting The Eve Merton Dreams Trust will feature festive treats and hot chocolates, with prices starting from £1.

We look forward to seeing the school full of colourful, sparkling, and fun Christmas jumpers! Thank you in advance for your support and generosity.

Miss Jones.

Epic week for PE

What a week for enrichment in PE this week. Start of the week students went on fieldwork to watch Manchester City V Bayer Leverkusen. Students were full of excitement about visiting the Etihad stadium, singing and cheering supporting the team. Even though the score wasn’t the outcome some of the students would have liked, it didn’t affect their buzz.

This week in PE we have had magnitude of extra curricular fixtures that students took part in. On Wednesday the year 7 boys football team played Outwood Adwick at home, the football game was a close game but unfortunately the end score was 6-4 to Adwick. The Year 7 and 8 netball team hosted Trinity for 2 amazing netball games. Both teams were amazing and displayed some fantastic skills against a tough side, winning both games. On Thursday we hosted KS3 Badminton against Armthorpe, some brilliant skills shown but unfortunately lost 4-2. Well done to the students who took part in extra curricular this week.

Next week in PE W/C1st December

Wednesday – Year 7 and 9 netball at home finish at 4.45. Year 7 and 8 girls football at home finish at 5pm.

Thursday – Cheerleading practice 3.30-4.30 and BTEC learning labs 3.30-.4.30

Any questions please email PE team

cogrady@xpschool.org

dcurrie@xpschool.org

abowser@xpschool.org

Sharing our Stories: 28/11/2025

Beautiful work this week

Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!

To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.

Top of the Blogs

Class 8 fantastic writing @ Green Top

Our Disneyland Video @ Plover

David Hockney style artwork @ Carcroft School

Crew Nightingale – kindness @ XP

Stitching up a colourful rainforest @ Norton Juniors

E29 Expert – mental health @ XP East

Weekly update @ XP Gateshead

A Marvellous POL @ Norton Infants

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at comms@xptrust.org –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

E29 Expert Mental Health Management

Our Year 10 students recently took part in a With Me In Mind expert session focused on managing stress during mock and real exams. The session explored a range of practical stress-relieving techniques—including breathing exercises, time-management strategies, positive self-talk, and ways to break revision into manageable chunks. Students engaged brilliantly throughout, offering thoughtful ideas of their own and discussing what works best for them. It was fantastic to see such mature reflections and a willingness to develop healthy habits ahead of exam season. WELL DONE E29.

Crew CBO

Over the past 2 weeks X32 have been getting ready for their SLC’s this is the first time they have delivered this important part of being a member of the Xp community. They have been given a whole crew day to prepare for their presentation and work on their script. During the day we also got the chance to work with a year 11 crew who came and spoke to us and gave us tips and advice on what works well. These students then grouped up with the x32 students and they spent a whole session helping students to prepare. This was a brilliant session and it was fantastic to see students at the start of their XP journey working with students who were right at the other end of theirs.

So far in Crew CBO

Simran, Kacper, Brandon, Harry T.S Harvey J, Heidi and Emily have all done their SLC’s and have all passed. It was great to meet parents at this event and we got to see my amazing crew presenting their learning.

Hopefully over the next week I can tick off the other 6 member of my crew, so please if you haven’t make your appointemnts.

Crew Nightingale – Kindness

Students in Crew donated £3 each to support the charity Samaritan’s Purse, enabling them to send a Christmas shoebox filled with educational supplies and toiletries. Their contribution will help provide a child—who may not otherwise have these everyday luxuries—with a thoughtful and meaningful gift this Christmas.

10 Skipper – Consistently Working Hard in English

Year 10 have not had an easy couple of weeks. After the fantastic performance of A Christmas Carol by the Box Clever theatre company they have gone head first into walk through GCSE English Language mocks.

They understand the importance of practising these skills in timed conditions but there lessons haven’t been the most exciting. However, they have approached every session with superb attitudes. The positivity around this process has been clear to see and engagement has been fantastic.

I am incredibly proud of this group and the progress they are making. Trust me, this will all pay off in the end.

Keep it up!

Mrs Desborough

Crew White

This week, linking to our expedition on transformational change, Crew White turned our attention to small acts of kindness. One of these acts involved writing an appreciation postcard to a member of staff, accompanied by a small flower as a token gesture. It was heart-warming to see Crew members thinking so carefully about who they wanted to appreciate and why. The messages they wrote were thoughtful, genuine, and full of gratitude.

The activity was a real success and provided a lovely pick-me-up for staff. Moments like these remind us how powerful small gestures can be in creating positive change within our community.

Crew Brunel: Highlights of the Week

Crew Brunel kicked off the week in a calm and positive way with a mindful session in the sportshall. We spent some time burning off a little energy – kicking a ball around, skipping, playing throw and catch, and enjoying some relaxed time together before settling into the week ahead. It was a great way to start with focus, connection and a clear head.

On Tuesday, we continued our Passage work, diving back into our science books from Year 7 and 8. It was interesting to look back at how far everyone has come, identify the progress made, and reflecting on their learning journey so far.

Midweek, we explored our final Wise Wednesday topic for this term. With all our topics now finished, students will begin creating and refining their own presentations, bringing together the progress, insights, and reflections they’ve gathered throughout the term.

Later in the week, we looked at praises and conducts, checking out who has climbed to the top of our Crew praise leaderboard. It was great to see so much positive recognition being shared.

We rounded off the week with our whole-school community meeting, where we celebrated character traits and shared real examples of staff and students showing them in action. We also found out who topped the praise leaderboards across the school – huge congratulations to Liam, Matilda, Pippa and Ayden who all tied for the top spot in Year 9! A fantastic achievement. As always, there was time for apologies, appreciations and stands, strengthening our community spirit.

Another brilliant week for Crew Brunel – well done everyone!

Miss Mitchell

A week full of enrichment

Well done to all the students who have taken part in enrichment this week. Great effort from the year 9 boys football team who visited Outwood Adwick on Wednesday evening out in the cold. Cross country was another huge success this week where have had a number of students make it through to the South Yorkshire next round.

Well done to the year 7/8 girls football who have had a busy week. First fixture was against Hungerhill on a cold winter night, not the result we were hoping for but the girls did not give up. The girls then went on to compete in the EFL cup at the Keepmoat, where 21 school competed. The girls were fantastic and came top of their group with some outstanding wins against Hall Cross, Don Valley, South Axholme and many more. The girls then made it through to the semi finals but unfortunately lost 1-0 in what was a tight match. What an incredible achievement, well done to everyone who played.

We have another busy week next week so please read the what coming up next week blog post.

Have a fab weekend from Team PE.