I’m really proud of this photo. It represents just 5 days of the 1st week back after our 2 week holiday. It represents the quality of student experience at our school.

We use Diptic app to create our photo collages – it’s great but it’s limited to 9 photos for one collage, and I could have done with an option for 20 photos such was the week that we’ve had. In all honesty though, the activities and events that this week has contained haven’t really been out of the ordinary for us, but here we go nevertheless…

As part of the Immersion process for launching expeditions we went on Fieldwork to Leeds University as part of STEM’s ‘That’s Sick!’ expedition. This blended discussion and activities around the University experience with input on viruses, pathogens and diseases from student Doctors and professionals. It also helped our students to realise our ‘Common Mission’ (that as a Crew everyone will go to University if they so wish). This led to discussions during our review the following morning around working in the NHS, being an Engineer, working for the Police, wanting to work in Mental Health etc.

After Monday and in HUMS we continued with our ‘Stand Up!’ expedition and we’ve moved onto Case Study 2 which is an exploration of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. We began to watch, discuss and learn about ‘Roots’ – a powerful TV mini series that covers serious themes from the trade: kidnap, torture, sorrow, assault, enslavement, loss of freedom, love of family etc. (We’ve all fallen in love with Kunta Kinte and the struggles that he has encountered so far – some of us have even shed tears for what has happened so far.)

On Tuesday and Wednesday Kirsty Fong came into XP East as an expert and dissected a Rat to explore its anatomy and physiology. We used my iPhone 7 on a stand to connect to the classroom TV via the Airplay feature which allowed us to zoom into the specific features of the dissection. This provided a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the Rat’s body, and directly linked to STEM’s Guiding Question ‘What is my body made of why do I get ill?’

We’ve also launched a pilot which revolves around an exciting Maths initiative (more on that another time) and our Community meetings provided more opportunities for students to apologise and appreciate each other, and make stands about what they’re unhappy with or want to challenge.

From start to finish: University fieldwork, experts, ‘Roots‘, Community meetings, Maths initiatives – everything was met with an incredible sense of maturity, focus, and commitment from all of our students in ways in which I’ve never experienced before. A real sense of purpose has been established.

All of this. In just 5 days.

As parents and students are already aware, we operate a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BOYD) policy at XP East. Around 50% of students bring their own personal laptops or tablets to school, and we also have a number of Google Chromebooks for students to use. These devices (including student mobile phones) are connected to XP School’s wifi system – but they are not allowed to use their devices for non-educational purposes.

Each student has an XP East safe and secure Google account for Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive (with online unlimited storage) and other apps.

Although we have only been open for 4 months, we are already using such devices to create learning opportunities that can amplify and positively influence the progress that students make. For instance, our first expedition ‘Society, Steam and Speed’ had its own dedicated Google site which was made publicly available on the internet, and was linked to our main school website. This allowed me to create sections for the relevant case studies that accompanied our guiding question and contained learning materials from lessons, and other resources to support their learning in and out of the classroom.

To highlight this, Case Study 1 contained rubrics to support the assessment process, videos from our fieldwork to York Railway Museum and Malham, and summary diagrams on our work on ‘What makes a successful community?’.  Furthermore, with the help of an iPad Pro, an Apple Pencil and the Explain Everything App, I was able to personally create 6 tutorial videos (eg: here, here and here) that could support those who needed extra tuition, as well as develop more complex learning points. Mr Smith also created tutorial videos for STEM on ‘force variables that can affect a train journey‘, and ‘weight vs mass’.

We also created an ‘Explore Further’ section that contained video links for students to watch in their personal time, and I was delighted to hear about how some of them watched them with family members!

Our ‘Literacy Support’ section contained several ‘Padlets‘ that allow myself, Mrs Poncia, Mrs Duffield and Mrs Parker to quickly take photos of effective examples of student work, and then post them onto a Padlet Wall – allowing the rest of the class to access them in a matter of seconds – providing such models is a great teaching technique when learning anything new. Padlet is such a powerful tool that I intend to blog about it later.

Imagine using such approaches of tutorial videos created by teachers, providing real time models of success, the use of Google Apps etc during the GCSE period?

I believe that we are laying the foundations for redefining new possibilities, and we’re only 4 months in!

P.S We’re recruiting for teachers

I created the following video as something that may just strike a chord with the like minded teachers out there who have what it takes to join our growing school.

‘The next 73 seconds could change your life…’ provides a brief glimpse into the last 4 months of what students have experienced at XP East – and what a 4 months it has been!

In just over a minute, the video provides a sense of the ambition, excitement, innovation and intention that lies at the heart of the XP Trust, and our school.

This is who were are, and this is what we’re about.

Please spread the word that we are recruiting.