Dear Families of students in Year 11,
Further to the Spring Newsletter which you will have received earlier in the year, please find the attached letter which details some additions to our current offer of Extended Study and study support. This will come into effect fully after next weeks mock exams and leading up to the start of the summer GCSE examinations which begin during the next half term.
Best wishes,
Mr Voltaire
Our Saturday provision, D6, is still on this week despite the staff days today and Monday!
XP East School will be open from 9:30 – 12pm! Our student coaches (ex year 11s!) are in attendance to support with revision techniques, practice questions, or any content you need support with. Alternatively, you are more than welcome to just come and use the space to study independently!
We had a good turnout of students last week who enjoyed their morning and gained lots from it.
We hope to see you here in the morning! 🙂
We only have one week left and that’s the first half term done! Again, Crew Anoa’i have had another good week in crew, creating a great atmosphere to be in.
To start the week, Crew Anoa’i began colouring their own Mandalas. A geometric configuration of symbols that are commonly used by tantric Buddhists as an aid for meditation. There were some beautiful designs and choices of colour used. Once finished, our goal is to place them on our crew wall to add a pop of colour to the room.
On Tuesday, some of us went over to XP to discuss Work Experience and our list of ‘to do’s to ensure we are all ready before next Monday. The rest of us completed our forms for Work Experience and then started to create some flash cards for a subject of our choice.
Wednesday, our team building activity day! This week we were joined by Crew Ali and some of Crew Parkinson. We went outside to complete a variety of activities, some required teamwork and some required early morning brain power. This was my highlight of the week, seeing other crews join us and having some fun. What a great morning!
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i composed our weekly appreciations, reflecting on the week we’ve had. We then moved on to some self study, allowing us all to focus on our own topics.
On Friday, we cleaned our crew room, ensuring it was spotless before we left for session. Everyone counted their class pack item and added any missing equipment to the list, as we like to keep our crew room neat and tidy every day for others to use. Crew Anoa’i take pride in being great stewards of our school.
One week to go. Let’s keep going!
– Miss Mitchell
#7DaysLeft
Although it was a short week, with only three days for us to continue improving our awesomeness, Crew Anoa’i have managed to bag another great week.
On Tuesday, Crew Anoa’i completed some Maths revision, where we looked at a previous Foundation paper. This made us think about all the work we have done in the past few years at XP East. We then marked our work and set personal targets to work towards.
On Wednesday, instead of going outside to take part in our weekly team building activities, we stayed inside and continued our seasonal colouring whilst having a lovely crew discussion. It was great to spend time with everyone in a calm environment, it was definitely needed.
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i looked at their student pledges once again but in more detail. We then helped one another to improve them further, ensuring everyone had two detailed pledges. We also wrote our appreciations for the week.
I’m loving crew at the moment. We seem to have settled this year, allowing me to deliver a wide variety of activities each morning. Enjoy your long weekend Crew Anoa’i, see you on Tuesday!
– Miss Mitchell
#ShortButSweet
Absolutely fantastic turnout at tonight’s after-school history revision sessions. Great to see Y11 so committed to their learning and already thinking ahead to GCSEs. Creating good study habits now is absolutely crucial.
Here’s the full timetable of learning labs/revision sessions.
Our Saturday morning revision session – D6 – will be back up and running after the October half-term. This will be open to Y10 and Y11.
Mrs Parker
Another fantastic week for Crew Anoa’i! I’m seeing such a difference in our crew at the moment. Everyone is attempting tasks in crew time with no hesitation or reluctance. I’m so pleased to see this big change.
On Monday we celebrated Miss Mitchell’s birthday and took on the challenge of learning ‘Origami’, the art of folding paper, often associated with Japanese culture. This activity definitely divided the crew; some struggled to follow the complicated instructions, whilst others were paper-folding magicians! Despite the clear divide, we helped each other follow the instructions, step-by-step, and we all managed to create some origami animals and boats.
On Tuesday we took some time to revise, looking back at the work we completed last year regarding the Nazis and Hitler’s rise to power. As you can see, everyone got stuck in, sparking some great discussions around the contrasting nature of Nazi Rule in Eastern and Western Europe.
Wednesday was great fun! We went outside again to take part in some team building activities, including: Silent Line Up, Jump In Jump Out and River Crossing. These activities got our brains working, in particular Jump In Jump Out. We had a good laugh with this one, as this activity tested everyone’s coordination. What a great way to start a day!
On Thursday, we looked at the praise log whilst composing our weekly appreciations. We then completed our student pledges, thinking about what we need to work on this term.
And on Friday, we had our whole school community meeting, where the Attendance League was reintroduced. After one week, Crew Anoa’i are joint 15th with 12 points. I’m not going to lie, it’s not an amazing start, but we can improve on this and we will. This is something we will be working on this term, as the winning crew receives £50 as their prize!
We’ve got this Crew Anoa’i, let’s win that money!
– Miss Mitchell
#GotThis
Year 11 have been thrown straight back into it in history – we’ve started our new history unit ‘The People’s Health’ that is a thematic study focusing on how factors such as beliefs, technology, government, wealth and poverty impacted public health from 1250-present day. I’ve been so impressed with Pioneer – particularly in our lessons this week as they have been so focused and motivated to do well. It seems like everyone has their eye on the end of the year and there is definitely an atmosphere of determination and motivation to do well – I’m pleased that they are taking everything in their stride whether it is the mountain of content and knowledge they need to learn or practising their exam technique each lesson, it is all attacked with hard work and a maturity that seems to have developed over the summer.
It’s been wonderful to watch your personalities and academic skills grow over the years since our first lessons in year 7 and I’m sure all this hard work will pay off – and yes Charlie, I may still have my Miss Battle-Axe moments, you’ll thank me for them later!
Miss Hickson
After a great start last week, Crew Anoa’i have continued to amaze me this week. I’ve heard nothing but praise for our Year 11s. Crew Anoa’i have had another fantastic week!
On Monday we took some time to relax and enjoy some seasonal colouring. On Tuesday we completed our ‘to do’ list full of little jobs, ensuring we were ready for the week ahead.
Wednesday was a great morning! Despite some grey clouds hanging over our heads, we went outside to take part in some team building activities, including: The Human Knot, Crossing The Line and Buzz Off. We even had a few members of Crew Turing join us. It was amazing to see everyone getting involved and having a good laugh with each other. Thank you for joining us Callum, Ralph, Lewis and Tyler!
On Thursday, we had our first Year 11 community meeting where we shared our appreciations with each other. And on Friday, we had our first whole school community meeting, the perfect opportunity to share more appreciations.
A special shout out to Jacob Sutton for his hard work this week. He has started Year 11 with such determination and a fire to succeed. I’m so pleased to hear so many positive comments around his work ethic and contributions in sessions. Keep up the good work, Jacob!
Crew Anoa’i are smashing it so far, let’s keep going. Here’s to next week!
– Miss Mitchell
#SmashingIt
What an absolutely cracking start to the year. Both year groups across both schools have been absolutely on it! Some of our Y10 students are already getting smart by creating revision resources to help them over the next 2 years, whilst our Y11s have come back ready to work hard for their GCSEs.
This week we held our first year group community meetings and, as you can see from the slides below, we already have lots to celebrate!
Your child’s Crew Leader will keep you up to date with what’s happening in crew via their crew blogs. You can find these here:
| X26 | E26 |
| Crew Blessed | Crew Frank |
| Crew Kahlo | Crew Obama |
| Crew Pankhurst | Crew Mercury |
| Crew Thunberg | Crew Rowling |
| X25 | E25 |
| Crew Piper | Crew Ali |
| Crew Rosa Parkes | Crew Anoa’i |
| Crew Stan Lee | Crew Parkinson |
| Crew Tomlinson | Crew Turing |
We have asked all students to re-familiarise themselves with our dress code policy. We understand that our lack of uniform allows students to express themselves, however we do still have guidelines. If students persistently break the dress code guidelines, they will be challenged and required to complete after school reflections. We want to avoid this, so they can attend revision sessions instead to achieve their best grades at GCSE level!
Could we also ask for your support please in ensuring your child comes to school every day with appropriate equipment. This should include a pen, pencil, ruler, water bottle, and fully charged device (we don’t allow students to work on mobile phones). In Y10/Y11 we find devices are used a lot more, so please make sure students are bringing their chargers to school too! It’s vital that they have access to these devices to achieve their full potential through work in sessions and revision. Students may find it beneficial to have a notebook for revision material too, but that’s personal preference!
As ever, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions and we look forward to meeting some of our Y11 parents at our work experience launch on Wednesday 14th September 🙂
Mrs Parker (E25/E26 Phase Lead, XP East) and Miss Cocliff (X25/X26 Phase Lead, XP)
How time has flown for Crew Anoa’i and E25. It feels like it was only yesterday I met the crazy bunch of kids who would change my life forever. We’ve had many ups and downs along the way but we’ve made it! I can’t believe that in only a few months time Crew Anoa’i will be fledging the nest and venturing into the big wide world.
For the first few days of Year 11, we spent time refocusing and coming together as a crew once again. We reflected on our time here at XP East, looking back through photos and reminiscing the journey we’ve had so far.
On Tuesday, we travelled to Flamborough Head, where we walked from North landing to South Landing. Whilst faced with a beautiful landscape, we were given the opportunity to catch up with one another after a long 5 weeks off. It was a great way to start the week, tiring but great.
On Wednesday, we spent the day in crews. We started with a check in regarding the summer holidays then completed several tasks as individuals: tasks such as ‘We Can Be Heroes’, an activity that involves each student designing a fancy dress costume. The designs are then swapped over and a background is created to set the scene of someone’s car breaking down whilst dressed in the costume. This naturally is the worst place imaginable. Then the designs are swapped over again and students have to design a superhero, the saviour of the person stranded in their party outfit. A superhero name is given and powers are selected wisely, all relating back to our XP character traits. All designs are then revealed to each other, here are some examples.
Crew Anoa’i then focused on completing their letters to their year 7 self. Everyone took their time and thought very carefully about their individual journeys at XP East and composed some great letters offering guidance to their younger selves.
We then moved onto our last task of the day, our GCSE Roadmap. We were given instructions to create a journey that resembled our last year at XP East, including Mock Exams and revision techniques. Our aim was to create a roadmap but in a theme of our choice. All designs are then judged and the winning design would secure the prize cake for their crew to share. (We will update you on this next week, fingers crossed we win!)
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i and the rest of C25 took part in countless activities organised by Wise Up. We worked together to complete a number of team building tasks, including ‘Flip It’, ‘Giant Nails’, ‘Crazy Maze’ and ‘Say What You See’. We were given the job of scoring ourselves in the following categories – Planning, Communication, Motivation, Teamwork and Completing The Task. During this process we showed integrity with our marking. After we completed as many tasks as we could in the time given, we calculated the average of our scores. We came SECOND out of 8 crews, with an average of 21.8! This was a huge achievement for us and we are very proud of ourselves for doing so well with the team activities, something we have previously struggled with.
On Friday, we celebrated our success with some sweet treats and then focused our attention on answering the guiding question:
“How can we get everyone to the top of their mountain?”
We created a short video showing our journey from year 7 to present day and how we have come together, as a crew, in this past week. We presented this video to the other crews in E25 and shared our answers to the guiding question.
What a start to the year we’ve had. I can’t wait to see what Crew Anoa’i do in their final year at XP East. I’m looking forward to spending these last few months together, creating memories that will last a lifetime!
– Miss Mitchell
