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.
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!
Just a quick notice to let all Y10 students and parents/carers know that History revision sessions will be resuming after the holidays, starting this Monday.
We will be offering two nights of History revision:
Monday 3.30 – 4.30pm in A06 (XP EAST) with Mrs Elliott & Miss Hickson
Tuesday 3.30 – 4.30pm in X11 (XP) with Mrs Elliott
This is an excellent opportunity for students to embed their learning, to gain support, to practice exam technique and to push themselves further. It really is important that students are revising outside of lessons and this is perfect space to be able to do this successfully.
Students are welcome to come to both sessions or just one. In these sessions we will be recapping GCSE content and applying this to exam questions as well as giving students time to self study areas which they feel they need further development.
Y10 have made a fantastic start to their History GCSE and are working really hard in sessions. We now need to continue this hard work outside of the classroom, there is an expectation that students should now begin revising in their own time to embed the content already covered and prepare themselves for their GCSE exams.
If you have any questions regarding extended study, please don’t hesitate to email Mrs Elliott ([email protected])
It seems like a lifetime ago when we first started to prepare for the Year 10 History mock exams and finally now the whole process is complete and I am really proud of how the students conducted themselves through the process. It all started after October half term with weekly revision being set and the start of after school revision classes – it was great to see so many students taking responsibility for their learning and putting in the effort to prepare for their exams. In our lessons we spent time going through exam technique and what to expect from each style of question and it was clear to see that this advice had been absorbed and acted upon. After the mocks had been marked, students spent their time FIXing the assessments, responding to feedback to improve their answers to the questions and I am confident that they will do themselves proud if they continue. It also highlighted the importance of revision, with some students who maybe didn’t put enough work in being disappointed by their result, I hope this acts as a lesson to learn from and not make these same mistakes as we continue through their GCSE content – as we keep saying, if you don’t know the content you can’t write an answer!
A massive well done to all students who achieved their target grade and a special mention to students who did exceptionally well: Lewis, Zach H, Harvey, Rosie, Mollie and Ava – we are so proud of you and all your hard work has paid off! Keep going and you’ll smash your final exams in year 11.
A reminder as well to keep revising using both the Nazi and Vikings textbooks and to attend the after school revision sessions on Monday and Tuesday with myself and Mrs Elliott.
All students in Year 9 have been given some revision tasks for an assessment for their expedition ‘You give me fever’.
This assessment will take place on Monday 10th May for Pioneer and Tuesday 11th May for Explorer.
Students have been asked to join Seneca to revisit their learning, and have been given access to textbooks as well as their regular quizzing in Tassomai.
To explain how we use Common Mission to support students to access different pathways to academic, career and life readiness at XP. Common Mission is a curriculum process that is additional to our Core GCSEs, where we further develop character and positive habits of work and learning in our students. In addition to our Core GCSEs, we run one session a week from Year 9 called ‘Common Mission’. These sessions allow students to think about, prepare and take qualifications in pathways that will help them to become who they want to be later in life. Common Mission sessions include career and further education advice, as well as time for them to study a GCSE of their choice if they have the motivation, capacity and capability to do so. Common Mission includes the opportunity to study a Choice qualification or to pursue other curriculum or personal interests. In these sessions students develop their self-study skills so they are ready for their next steps in the education process.
X25/E25
On Wednesday the 14th of April, students at X25 and E25 students will choose one of the following common mission options to develop their self-study skills so they are ready for their next steps in the education process, with the potential to gain the listed qualifications. 28th of April will be the start date Your support and guidance as parents will be invaluable to our students making a choice that is right for them. As well as discussions at home, our students will spend time in crew this week. Please see the video below outlining the overview of Common mission. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate use the form attached and I will answer any questions as soon as possible.
When we return to school on Monday 22nd March, students in Year 9 will start working on the final product for their learning expedition ‘You give me fever‘, which has the guiding question:
“Why should we care about health inequality?”
The final product will celebrate and honour the work of NHS staff across the whole organisation during this most difficult of years.
We would like for small groups of students to speak with NHS workers to find out about their role, and how it has been impacted over this last year.
If you or anyone in your family is an NHS worker, we would really appreciate it if our students could speak to you about your important work.
Ideally we would like for workers to meet with small groups of our students online during Monday 29th – Wednesday 31st March.
We are looking for workers from across all of the NHS, and are especially in need of some of the typically unsung heroines and heros such as cleaners, porters or community ambulance drivers for example, although our students would learn a lot from speaking to anyone with a role in the organisation. We have many experts already lined up, but it would be great to get even more from our families at XP.
If you or someone you know can help our students to learn more about the herculean efforts of this past year, please contact Mr Said.
We can’t wait to welcome all of our students back very soon!
Within our expeditionary art sessions in Year 9 we would like students to use the Pixlr app to create some digital artwork.
This is a free and fantastic online image editing app. By doing this it will allow all students to work on the same platform regardless of the device being used.
Students need to sign up for an account, however it specifies that users should be over the age of 16. This is a condition of the app creators, however there are no inherent risks in using the software. Essentially it is an online photoshop equivalent.
Could you please complete this short Google Form to let us know if you give permission for your son/daughter to sign up for an account and use the app.
Our year 9 students were lucky enough to get out on fieldwork on the final week of term to complete work relating to their ‘Welcome to the machine’ expedition. Over the next seven weeks of the winter term, they will be working on their answer to the guiding question:
‘Do the benefits of industrialisation outweigh the costs?’
For their first STEAM case studies, students have been looking at conservation data, learning about how data can be collected and displayed using multiple representations. They have also been learning about specialisation and ecosystem management.
They visited The Hatfield Moors, our local nature reserve, to examine the extent of the fire damage from earlier this year. Students have been learning about the protected species that can be found at the site, particularly the adder, and how Natural England and the fire service prioritised safeguarding these species during the clear up operation.
While at the site, students conducted a series of sampling techniques, as well as collecting data on the wildlife. Sadly, due to slight delays in being able to visit the site, we weren’t able to spot any adders as they have likely gone into hibernation for the winter, however, students were still able to find other species key to maintaining and supporting the ecosystem at the wetland.
Students also conducted a number of tests on the site, in accordance with their two daily learning targets for the day:
1. I can estimate the population density of a species using random sampling techniques.
Students engaged in data collection of various parts of the site, using quadrats to provide increasingly accurate estimations of species numbers in the areas we sampled. We created a set of axes, used a random number generator to find coordinates to sample, and collected the data from those coordinates.
After collecting data in teams of three, we used all the data collected to calculate the predicted species number, based on scaling up the measurements to accommodate the size of the field. In debrief, due to a large range in answers, we went on to calculate the mean for those estimations, to create a more accurate estimation. We also discussed why using the random number generator was fundamental in keeping our research free from bias.
2. I can investigate the effects of abiotic factors using systematic sampling techniques.
Students then went on to conduct a series of pH tests on the wetlands, again using their quadrats placed along a transect, to link changes in species to abiotic factors of the wetlands. In debrief, we examined the data, looking for patterns relating to the abundance of the plant species and the abiotic factor recorded.
I’d also like to thank our very own Marshall Jones, for taking his time on the day and spare time to create this amazing vlog documenting the day:
I feel incredibly fortunate that we were able to make it out to the site given the current circumstances, and I really look forward to hear how the work the students have done on this series of case studies will inform their guiding question answers over the coming weeks.
