English Visit to XPD

Catherine Desborough

Today I had the pleasure of visiting XP and XP East to complete English walk throughs and review our students’ books.

Across year 7, with both Mrs Poncia and Miss Johnson, I was able to see some beautiful narratives being carefully crafted. Students were incorporating a range of tier 2 vocabulary and were redrafting key paragraphs based on specific feedback from their teacher. It was fantastic to see the students so engaged and working so meticulously.

In year 8, Mr Wilmot’s Explorer class showed superb recall of key details from their anchor text. They were all working diligently and offering wonderful contributions and ideas. Their books were also very good and showed some high levels of productivity.

In year 9, Miss Wilkinson and her Pioneer class were considering how the character of Jack had changed from the beginning of Lord of the Flies to chapter 8. They could clearly recall key events and were curious when asking clarifying questions about key vocabulary. They then used this vocabulary to support their choices about the character. Additionally, the maps they have created of the island are fantastic!

Finally in year 10, both Ms Cross and Miss Buckley’s Skipper and Explorer classes were grappling with annotating a key poem from their GCSE anthologies. In Skipper students offered some stunning inferences carefully considering the context and motivations of the poets. Whereas in Explorer students summarised key contextual information on the background of Wilfred Owen and practiced their subject terminology skills.

All in all it was a pleasure to be in all these classrooms. In every room the atmosphere was positive and enthusiastic and students were engaged.

Well done Team English from Mrs Desborough (Trust Leader of English)

C30 You Give Me Fever English Update

Catherine Desborough

C30 are full engaged in their health focused expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’ ahead of their fieldwork to the Thackray Museum of Medicine tomorrow.

It has been wonderful for the English team to see their engagement and progress as we continue with this expedition. They are working hard to build their skills as they edge ever closer to KS4.

In this expedition we are pushing the students to increase their writing resilience. We are empowering them to trust in their own abilities and ideas by removing scaffolds for creative and extended writing tasks.

They are embedding their language analysis skills, developing their understanding of character arcs and complex plot lines whilst grappling with the big moral issues of our anchor text.

It has been amazing to see the connections being made through our anchor text to the evolution of people’s health through time and the biology being studied in science.

Hopefully, all of their parents and carers will be able to see the results of this incredible work at their POL later this half term!

Keep up the good work guys.

Mrs Desborough and all of Team English

You Give Me Fever”: C30 / Year 9 Fieldwork to Thackray!

Eleanor Wilkinson

Our current expedition, “You Give Me Fever,” has seen Year 9 diving deep into the world of pathogens and medical history. To bring our study of pathogens, immunology, and history to life, Year 9 will be heading to the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds later this month!

Dates & Times

  • XP: Wednesday 25th February (8:30 am – 3:15 pm)
  • XP East: Thursday 26th February (8:30 am – 3:15 pm)

Logistics

  • Dress Code: Normal school Dress Code
  • Equipment: Usual school supplies and fully charged iPads.
  • Lunch: A packed lunch is needed. (Students eligible for Free School Meals will have a lunch provided).

Contributions: To make this and future fieldwork possible, we are asking for voluntary contributions of what is financially suitable for your family. We aim to keep these opportunities accessible to everyone, so please contribute what is financially suitable for your family. The Parent Pay option will be added by half term.

We look forward to an purposeful and amazing fieldwork experience!

2026 Thackray Museum Fieldwork Letter (1)Download

C30 Fieldwork – July 2nd / 4th

Claira Salter

Year 7’s current expedition ‘Hold Back the River’ has the guiding question, ‘How does water shape our world?’

During this expedition, our geography content is focusing on river characteristics from source to mouth, river processes, formation of landforms as well as the cause, impacts and responses of flooding. As part of this, we are applying the theory of river processes and characteristics to the field.

On Tuesday 2nd (East) and Thursday 4th (XP) of July, students will visit Endcliffe park in Sheffield. They will work together to collect data regarding the width, depth, velocity and load of rivers. We will also be capturing the beauty of a river by completing artwork. This data collection will allow us to accept or reject our hypothesis once we have analysed our data in our maths lessons.

Students will need to arrive at school no later than 8.00am so that the register and kit check can be completed before leaving school.

It is also essential that all students bring all of the kit on the KIT LIST so that they are fully prepared for the fieldwork; this includes a packed lunch and water to drink. Students who receive free school meals will be provided with a lunch.

Students will need to ensure they have suitable walking boots/trainers as well as wellies or a pair of trainers they can get wet – we’ll be going in the river to collect the data!  If there are any problems in getting the appropriate kit before this, please email your child’s Crew Leader. 

Students will be returning to school by the end of the school day (traffic dependent).