Year 8 across both XP and XPE will be attending fieldwork to Shrewsbury Prison. This is an opportunity for them to get inside a prison and experience what life would be like. Shrewsbury is a Victorian prison which is now used as a museum and is no longer a working prison.
We will be leaving school at 7:30 on Thursday 30th June. Please can students arrive no later than 7:30. We aim to arrive back at school between 3:30-4 traffic pending.
We are back together and super excited to see what this year has in store for us.
This week we have had a real big focus on Kindness, what this looks like and how we can be kind to others. We aimed to answer the GQ – How does the power of kindness impact on your life and the life of others?
Crew Rashford considered what kindness is and looks like? We collaborated together on ideas that we would show kindness in and around our community.
With all our resources and ideas, we created beautiful gifts. Some students made origami flowers, shapes and butterflies, some wrote lovely messages on postcards, some were creative with the resources and made wond’s with kind messages such as “You are Wonderful”, some also hand painted pebbles and gifted bells as a security system for theft.
Here they are working hard and ensuring they have checked for quality and craftsmanship!
Here are some more of the amazing gifts Crew Rashford created.
On Thursday we embarked on our adventure, connecting with the world to spread kindness within the local community.
The visit to Lakeside shopping centre was a massive success and there was a real buzz around the place. Members of the public were blown away with the generosity of our students and their gifts but smiles on the faces of those around us and our students too.
It was fabulous to see crew members step outside of the comfort zones and challenge themselves to approach members of the public. I was super proud of Crew Rashford for stepping up to the plate, articulating themselves well and having lovely meaningful conversations with shoppers around the centre. Quite often there was no physical gift given, but for our crew to have a chat with shoppers and make someone’s day.
It really showed the essence of Crew, it shows how we support each other and play to our strengths.
We thought it was important to remind ourselves of the purpose of this exercise as we went along and students made a scrapbook of the micro adventure to Lakeside.
Here are some of the reflections…
With all these acts of kindness, we considered that we also need to take time to reflect on the week as a whole. This was an opportunity for Crew Rashford to spend time individually and understand how they can be even more kind in the future.
There was a real mixed bag of emotions, some found it lonely. Realising that they enjoy being around others… while others found it relaxing.
Whilst we have been focused on acts of kindness we also revisited our character traits. We discussed these in many ways, as a crew they look at themselves and how they would like to display these this year. They considered what compassion looks like, how we show respect, when we might need to have courage, what is integrity and how we can ensure we consider craftsmanship and quality is encompassed in our work.
We made pledges as a crew on what kind of things we want to do differently this year compared to Year 7. We really dug deep into what this is and how we can achieve this. As a crew we pledge to hold crew members accountable for them.
After a jam packed week, we also had time to let loose and enjoy some time outdoors. So E27 went and enjoyed a fab game of rounders and cricket. It’s safe to say that there are some members of crew who are slightly more competitive than others 😃. I’m not sure of the score, but Crew Rashford did a pretty good job of communicating and having fun.
Here are some action pics.
It’s been an amazing week and I am looking forward to the year ahead.
Next week is our Outward Bound trip to Ullswater. I honestly cannot wait to spend even more time with Crew. Build a great relationship and deeper foundations to become a stronger unity and crew family.
We are the mighty Crew Rashford! 😀
Students who hold prescribed medication at school will be handed back their medication tomorrow. Students who require medication to be taken at school in the new term 2021/22 will be required to fill in the medication form.
The Google form is required to be filled in and then press send. This then gives staff consent to administer medication and for it to be kept on school premises.
Please ensure Inhalers, Epi-pens and other prescribed medications are sent into school with the child’s name and expiry date clearly visible.
Thank you!
E27’s fieldwork to Sandall Beat Wood was great! We went as part of our expedition “No One is Too Small to Make a Difference” which is focusing on the world’s animal and plant species in different biomes and the threats to the environment globally. We were lucky to have such beautiful weather which made the experience even better. We’re so pleased with how the students conducted themselves, got involved in the activities and were listening and asking questions to the experts that guided us around the wood.
Students learnt about the history of the wood, for example, when and why it was created and how it has changed over time. We identified and learnt about different tree and insect species, where they are in the food chain and how each one of them plays a vital part in the ecosystem of the wood. Another focus of the day was the carbon cycle and the role that dead trees and wood has and the management of the wood due to its SSSI status. We discussed the importance of creating a balance between protecting the environment but also having a space for people to enjoy at their leisure.
Overall, it was a great day and we were really impressed with the students and how they could articulate what they had learnt when we returned to the classroom.
I am really pleased to write that we are going to be taking E27 on their first fieldwork at XP East on Monday (7th June) and Tuesday (8th June) to Sandall Beat Wood as part of our expedition “No one is too small to make a difference” which has an environmental focus. Due to Covid, we haven’t been able to do this sooner so I am really excited they are finally getting the opportunity.
Explorer will be going on Monday and Pioneer will be going on Tuesday. We will be leaving school at 9.30am by minibus and be back in school for 1.15 pm.
Students are advised to wear appropriate clothing for the weather that day as we will be outside for the entire time – suncream will be a definite if the weather is like it has been during the holiday! Hopefully we won’t get any rain but if it is forecast make sure students bring waterproofs. Sensible shoes such as trainers will need to be worn as we will be walking and on our feet for most of the time.
Students will need to bring a packed lunch and make sure they have plenty to drink if it is warm (unless on Free School Meals where one will be provided).
Normal school equipment (pens/pencils/device etc) should still be brought to school as the students will have their normal school lessons in the afternoon, iPads etc will be left in the classroom when on fieldwork which will be locked.
On Thursday, all our Year 7 students had a hangout with their first art expert.
Their expert was called Derek Robertson who was speaking to our pupils about his ‘Migrations‘ exhibition.
These pieces of artwork that Derek created fitted in perfectly with Y7’s current expedition called ‘Wherever I lay my hat’ where they are answering the guiding question of ‘Is migration worth the risk?’
Our expert was able to give our students information about his experiences when visiting refugee camps around the world and insights into the lives of the people he met.
Mr. Wilmot made loads of notes!
Mrs. Marshall was on fire with the anchor charts.
Miss Hickson was busy making notes on the board.
Manveer and Maisie shared the notes that they wrote during the hangout.
Keegan even recorded the whole hangout as a voice note on his iPad and sent it to me!
I was so impressed with our Year 7’s. They were respectful and inquisitive. They asked some fantastic questions and wrote brilliant notes.
Well done Y7!
E27 have really impressed me in their art sessions. They have been learning about line drawing using a range of media including pencil, fine liner, biro and sharpies.
We have looked at how we can use different types of lines to create a range of effects and also grappled with creating a continuous line drawing of a shell (which a lot of pupils found really challenging).
They have listened to my instructions really well and grappled with some new techniques.
All Y7 pupils have also been set homework to create a line drawing of their house, which I am really looking forward to seeing.
Here are some lovely examples of the work E27 Explorer and Pioneer have created in their art sessions.
