STEAM Immersion Fieldwork XPE

By J Smith31st May 2018

Dear Parent/ Carer

As part of the immersion activities to launch our new STEAM Expedition, C24 will be going on fieldwork the first week back in June.

-Pioneer will be out on Tuesday 5th June

-Explorer will be out on Wednesday 6th June

 

This is again an exciting opportunity will enable students to grapple with the guiding question which will underpin our new learning expedition.

However, as before, we aren’t revealing the exact location until the day of travel, as we would like to maintain an element of mystery with regards to the upcoming theme.

The arrangements are as follows:

  • all students to arrive at school by 8.00 am on their day of travel to ensure a prompt departure from school at 8.15am
  • we will be travelling by coach (approx. 70 min)
  • A packed lunch will need to be brought by all students
  • all students will need to bring a bottle of water and optional snack (no glass bottles or fizzy drinks or sweets, please)
  • please bring any prescribed medication required, clearly labelled in a plastic bag or envelope with your child’s name and required dosage
  • sensible clothing, walking shoes, waterproof coat/ warm coat need to be worn (we will be outside for part of the day)
  • all students will return to school at approximately 3.20 p.m

 

In the interests of ensuring a prompt departure from, and return back, to school it is important that – as always – our students arrive on time on these fieldwork days.

Many thanks.

XP East: students visit the new build

By Jamie Portman18th April 2018

Students recently visited the new build and things are getting really exciting now!

The construction company are well on track to meet their completion deadline, and we are hopeful that we will be moving in after the May / June holiday.

Check out the visit below.

‘Chefistry’ Celebration of Learning

By Jamie Portman26th March 2018


The final week of last term contained two Celebrations of Learning (CoL) from 7 Pioneer and 7 Explorer, and as a school we were delighted with both events.

For those of you who may not have attended a CoL, our expeditions always culminate with a public event where students present their learning to a wider audience. We believe that this brings an element of authenticity to proceedings. Furthermore, our expeditions always have a product, and this represents in some way students’ learning and connect with the wider world.

Such an authentic wider audience also ensures that students step up to the plate in terms of working hard, and working as a Crew as students have to show courage and integrity in being able to articulate their learning to parents and visitors. As a result of this, every single student (regardless of ability or background) was able to stand up and formally address those who came to the CoL.

The Guiding Question (GQ) for Y7’s expedition in STEM was ‘What has chemistry and physics got to do with cooking?’ and was entitled ‘Chefistry‘. The CoL consisted of students explaining their understanding of the GQ by using subject specific language and terminology. Parents were also given an ‘Exit Ticket’ where they too had to answer the Guiding Question. The centrepiece of the CoL revolved around students taking orders for a meal and a team of chefs boiled eggs, prepared toast and a served a drink with ice. Essentially, students were able to use their understanding of Physics and Chemistry to explain how cooking works, and whilst this was a very ambitious CoL, our students pulled it off!!

A special thank you to Mr Smith who led the Chefistry expedition with support from Mr Pearson and Mrs Duffield. Sine FM also deserve a special mention for supporting the students’ recording of the audio in their professional radio station studio. P.S. Check out the final product videos from 7 Explorer and 7 Pioneer here.

Just 5 days.

By Jamie Portman18th March 2018

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.

Voluntary Extended Study

By Jamie Portman8th February 2018

It was great to see 15 of our students in voluntary Extended Study today!

As you may be aware, our expedition in STEM is entitled ‘Chefistry‘, and students are busy finalising their work for the forthcoming Celebration of Learning on Wednesday 21st February 17:00-18:30 for 7 Pioneer, and Thursday 22nd February 17:00-18.30 for 7 Explorer.

Remember, students may attend Extended Study as a place to complete their homework, or work on anything that will help to improve their learning. It is open Monday to Thursday until 4:30pm.

 

The foundations for redefining new possibilities in and out of the classroom.

By Jamie Portman25th January 2018

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

 

 

‘The next 73 seconds could change your life…’

By Jamie Portman24th January 2018

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. 

International Slavery Museum – Liverpool (Immersion fieldwork)

By Jamie Portman10th January 2018

Yesterday we visited the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool as part of our ‘immersion week’. This is a period of time where we immerse students in content linked to our forthcoming expedition, often involving fieldwork and input from experts.

Our guiding question has not yet been revealed, as students need to make educated guesses as to what the expedition content and themes will be about.

This term, HUMAN (humanities subjects) and STEM (science, technology, engineering and Maths) will be taking part in separate expeditions.

We would like to thank the museum for their support and expertise. Students’ behaviour was respectful and courteous throughout, and as you can see from the video they were totally engaged in the powerful subject matter.

 

XP School’s Y8 Celebration of Learning

By Jamie Portman19th December 2017

I attended XP School’s Year 8 Celebration of Learning (COL) last week, and I must say that I was sincerely blown away by the quality of what I saw.

The title of their expedition was ‘Being Human’ and revolved around the guiding question ‘What does it mean to be Human?’ The following (taken from the expedition’s narrative) highlights what the expedition was about:

‘We studied four main case studies looking at how science, history and literature convey what makes a human.This involved a study of the human skeleton as well as investigating the history of segregation and the civil rights movement. The text Wonder written by R.J Palacio underpinned the learning, highlighting that what is on the outside does not reflect what is in the inside, that we are more than the sum total of our looks, that what makes us human is our understanding and acceptance of others for HOW they are, not HOW they look.’

The COL involved Y8 students demonstrating their learning via a piece of drama which was specifically based around key historical events within the civil rights movement. The acting was superb and the performance was clearly a Year 8 Crew achievement, as you could sense the collaboration and hard work that had gone into the production. Students also interpreted what it meant to be human via sculptures that they created, all of which will be laid beyond XP leaving a legacy in the community. This outward connection with the world is something that will influence our next expedition at XP East.

A moment that will stick with me was when Y8 students stepped forward to explain their own interpretation of what it meant to them to be human – great work Y8s and all involved!

We’re really excited about own first ever COL which will take place on Wednesday 20th December, at 5:30pm.

 

Dear George from Y7 Pioneer…

By Jamie Portman13th December 2017

Dear George,

I just wanted to let you know that we used your recent work on ‘What does the community of Doncaster owe to the Railway?’ in our lesson yesterday.

After accidentally seeing and hearing you present your work to the whole of Y7 Pioneer, I knew that I had to share your work with my own Humanities class – 7 Explorer. Miss Poncia shared your Google Doc with me, and we copied and pasted a paragraph onto a side of A4 paper, and then glued it onto some larger paper.

During session 5 (just 3 lessons after hearing your work) I put students into groups of 5 and they took part in a carousel activity where they looked at each one of your paragraphs, in order to see what success looks like, and made annotations.

I phoned your Dad to praise you for your wonderful work, and to thank you for working so hard on it. 7 Explorer were very impressed and we will continue to look at the annotations during the last few lessons on our final draft.

Thank you, and well done George!