Thank you to those who have already expressed your interest for our Silver DofE. For those who have not yet responded, we’d love to hear from you.
Your child has the opportunity to take part in the Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) this academic year. The Silver Award is a fantastic way for students to build independence, resilience, and teamwork skills, while enjoying memorable experiences with their peers.
Please take a moment to view the attached information slides which outline what the Silver Award involves. Once you’ve reviewed the details, we kindly ask you to complete the Expression of Interest form using the link below:
Crew Sinfield had a brilliant first week back in school. We completed lots of activities including a successful egg drop, a sponsored colour run, a walk along Monsal trail and a solo to reflect on the last year and how we are going to make this year the best one yet!
Crew showed the character traits every day, encouraging each other to complete tasks and showed compassion all week.
I’m really proud of how hard crew worked last week and excited what year 9 brings!!
Last week, Crew Pasteur embarked upon their final First Week Back; what an important week! It’s hard to believe that we have reached Year 11 already. We started with a beautiful, sunny walk at Langsett reservoir, moving onto Crew building activities on Day 2. Thursday brought an intensive, but fruitful, revision session with a History focus, and plenty of advice about Year 11 and next steps from our ex – XP students in the afternoon. It was a lovely thing to see Crew work on our scrapbook, a piece of work that ran through Year 10, on one of the afternoons. This will ultimately tell the story of Crew throughout Years 10 and 11, which was so interesting to look back on and add to. Good luck this year Pasteur, now is REALLY the time to embody our HOWLs. Work Hard, Get Smart, and above all, Be kind.
The C30 expedition team are excited to let you know that Year 9 will be taking part in a special Survival Skills Immersion Day on Thursday. The aim of the day is to give students the opportunity to build teamwork, resilience, and problem-solving skills in a hands-on, practical setting – themes that are explored in our anchor text.
From the very first session until lunchtime, students will be learning and working outdoors. They’ll take part in a range of survival activities designed to test their creativity, collaboration, and resourcefulness. This is part of our ongoing immersion programme, which gives students space to experience learning in new and memorable ways.
Key information for the day:
Students will be outside all morning – please ensure they bring a waterproof coat, sturdy shoes/trainers, and layers suitable for the weather.
A water bottle/sunprotection will be needed.
Normal school timings will apply in the afternoon.
Thank you for your support in helping them prepare for this exciting experience.
We had a great time last week – setting ourselves up for our final school year together! It was really good to spend time out in nature, settling back into crew and doing some really purposeful work around revision and looking to the future.
On 02.09.2024, year 7 students will be taking part in fieldwork to Murton Park Museum, York.
This fieldwork has been planned to support their learning in Humanities and is a brilliant opportunity to bring the students’ learning to life in an exciting and engaging way. The experience will be used to support learning back in the classroom to help the children better understand the content and develop a deeper understanding of the Vikings and how they influenced how we live today. This will also support us to develop our historical knowledge and see change over time.
Students need to arrive at school for 7:45am. We will depart school at 8:15am and our expected arrival time back at school is 4pm. We will provide updates on our expected arrival time back at school via the school website as this can be impacted by events out of our control such as traffic.
Students will need a packed lunch for this fieldwork. If your child is in receipt of free school meals, a lunch will be provided.
In addition to a packed lunch, students will need the following equipment:
A water bottle
Appropriate footwear
Comfortable clothing
It is advised that students do not wear brand new clothing/ footwear as the ground is quite dirty and the nature of the tasks they will be doing means they may get dirty! Outward Bound clothing/ shoes may be a good choice!
What a fantastic first week back at XP! It’s been a week filled with reflection, teamwork, fresh air, and creativity – all rooted in our guiding question: “How can we support each other and act as role models?” Your children have returned with enthusiasm and maturity, and we couldn’t be prouder of how they’ve started the new academic year.
Day 1 – Rebooting Crew & Setting Intentions
We began the week by rebooting our crew, revisiting our norms, and reminding ourselves of what it means to belong to a strong, supportive community. Each student took part in a reflective solo, considering what they want to achieve and experience during their time at XP. This quiet time gave them the space to think deeply and intentionally.
Students then wrote a letter or email to their future Year 11 selves – a powerful exercise in goal setting and self-belief. Alongside this, they made personal pledges to guide their actions this year, setting the tone for a purposeful start.
Day 2 – Fieldwork at Sandal Beat Woods
Our second day took us out into nature with fieldwork at Sandal Beat Woods, where students explored the idea of stewardship in action. They took part in orienteering, mini-beast hunting, conservation work, and survival skills.
A special shout-out goes to Olin, who was the only student to successfully light cotton wool using a flint and steel – a true survivalist! And Alfie went above and beyond in helping clear areas identified by the rangers, showing incredible dedication to caring for our environment.
Every student demonstrated respect, responsibility, and teamwork – true XP values in action.
Day 3 – Inter-crew challenges
On Thursday the gloves were well and truly off when it was time to take on our inter crew challenges. Crew Irwind competitive streak shone through but I was incredibly proud of how all students conducted themselves throughout each task. The level of compassion, integrity and respect from all crew members was amazing to see. Activities included, heads down thumbs up, red light green light, extreme rock parer scissors, jigsaw races, skittle sort rounders and tower building.
Day 4 – Reflection, Creativity & Celebration
We used Thursday to slow things down a little and reflect on our experiences. Students created beautiful products for our crew wall, including:
Collaborative colouring pieces
A photo collage capturing moments from our week
Hand-crafted origami butterflies
These calming, creative activities allowed students to connect with each other in a different way and celebrate their achievements.
Later, we joined up with other XP crews to present our week in our Community Meeting. Our crew shared highlights, reflections, and examples of how they’ve already started being role models within our school.
This first week has set a strong foundation for the year ahead. Your children have already begun to show how they can support one another and lead by example – both within our crew and across the wider XP community.
Thank you for your continued support. We can’t wait to see how our pledges and reflections shape the rest of the term!
