Expedition 360: a time for reflecting on our first year as Crew. Some really insightful and powerful discussion in 7 Pioneer today about what Crew means to them.
Category : E24 Pioneer Class Blog
I think that this is the most beautiful thing I have ever professionally created.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, 7 Explorer and 7 Pioneer went on fieldwork to Treak Caverns and Mam Tor in Castletown as part of their STEM fieldwork. It must be said that the aerial drone footage of the Derbyshire hills from our DJI Spark is stunning, yet this is not why I think it is so beautiful.
In a country where I feel as though we are losing the true purpose of education, the footage captures an authentic kindred spirit of togetherness from our students – engaged within a joyful and wondrous exploration of the landscape. This is what we stand for, and as a school – this is who we are.
There are so many hidden and not so hidden analogies and metaphors within the movements of the students, that once I had finished editing my footage I just sat there and watched it at least 20 times (in total silence except for its hypnotic soundtrack). I know all of this sounds a bit weird, but I will look back on this video in years and decades to come knowing that we were out there… just trying to make a dent in the universe by exploring its beauty.
Unbelievable.
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.
Our Immersion visit to the University of Leeds
On Monday the 12th March 2018, C24 went out on fieldwork to The University of Leeds as part of their new expedition for STEAM. Students got an insight into what life was like on campus, and they discovered the huge variety of courses available to study at degree level.
Mark Patterson of the University of Leeds organised the morning around exploring characteristics for different career paths, and existing students from the faculty of medicine and dentistry hosted our fieldwork and supported students throughout. They took part in different seminars around exploring various aspects of higher education whilst the afternoon was more focused on immersing students in the next expedition.
After lunch, students took part in a lecture with Student Dr. Tom learning about bacteria, pathogens, and different types of diseases. Spending such quality time with an expert is a key aspect of our expeditionary learning model, and it allowed them to engage with high quality expertise in the field of medicine. This part of the day was also designed to provide an element of mystery around what expedition students would be learning about next (this would not be revealed until the following day.)
As you will see from the photos and video, our immersion fieldwork to Leeds was a fantastic day and a great experience for our students.
Linking our HUMS “anchor text” to Spanish
TKAMB in Spanish sessions!
Last week our C24 students used technology to create and describe facial features in Spanish using a series of composite faces that they had created on a specialist language learning website.
This week they developed their responses to include details such as physical build, height and personality. Before returning to their original composite faces they applied this new knowledge to describe Atticus, Scout and Jem Finch – three key characters in their current anchor text “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Stand up! when you can describe others’ faces, build and character in Spanish!
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.
7 Pioneer are preparing for the first assessed piece of writing of the current expedition. They will be describing the key facts and characteristics about one of the main characters from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
Mr Portman is making sure that the class know exactly what is expected from them: they have been zooming in on the rubric, defining the terminology and developing their understanding of words like ‘analyse’ and ‘identify’; they have unpicked a model introduction as a WAGOLL; and they have also been able to peer critique Dakota’s first draft (a fellow student from 7 Explorer).
All this scaffolding ensures that all students know exactly what is expected from them, and gives them all the support they need to go above (and beyond!) their MEGS.
7 Pioneer’s extended study revolves around chapters 1 & 2 of our anchor text ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. Details can be found here and a supporting Padlet with a voice recording can be found below.
The deadline is Wednesday 07.02.18
As part of our expedition ‘Stand Up!’ we would like students to keep a journal, which will support the work we will be doing in our HUMAN sessions.
Each student will be given a journal but we would like the journals to be personalised using images which represent the student’s identity.
To help with this, we would like students to collect images of things that are important to them.
Images could be collected from magazines, the internet, drawings done by the student themselves, etc.
Please bring these into school no later than Thursday 1st February.
Thank you
It’s now time to record your synopsis of Chapters 2 and 3.
Remember – your task is to show a key moment from the chapters, including key characters and a description of an important event.
We would like you be creative, thinking ‘outside the box’ about how you could represent your work.
Examples might include artwork, modelling, collage, use of ICT, poetry, etc.
Looking forward to seeing your work!
Due: Tuesday 30th January