Great work X-Block three. Making some good progress towards our final production evening on our presentation of learning. XP East’s first Samba Band!
Category : Class Blogs
Great work this week from all of Pioneer who have been taking on fractions decimals and percentages. After a number of weeks of ‘learning how to talk’, the class are now enjoying some great rewards of being able to solve problems together, working through collaborative tasks, to then take on the re-grapple!
Hi, my name is Isabel! I’m in Class 7P at XP East. I’m here today doing this blog because I want to tell you how amazing my lesson was in drama with Mrs Poncia.
At the start, we did a trust activity. Trust is important in drama because you have to trust that the rest of the cast in a play are going to learn and say their lines at the right time. Mrs Poncia asked us to find a partner, and to label ourselves A and B. The A’s had to hold their hands out and B’s had to put their index finger into A’s hand. Then the A’s walk around the drama area and the B’s have to close their eyes. We had to really trust the person leading us around not to make us bump into anything!
After that we had different partners and we had to make three different trust moves. My first partner was Dominic and my second partner was Miss Parker. Both of us came up with three more amazing trust activities. After that we could show our moves to the rest of the group.
Finally, the last thing we did was a trust walk. We basically got into groups of around 5 or 6 and we numbered ourselves 1,2,3,4,5,6 and then the person at the front held their hand out and the person behind them put their index finger on their palms. Only the person at the front would have their eyes open and lead the human chain around the drama area, the rest of the line kept their eyes closed. All members of the group had a go leading the chain. Unfortunately, that was the end of that lesson.
So, now it is goodbye from me but make sure to tune in soon for another amazing blog about our lessons 🙂
Izzy N.
Last Thursday we kicked off Case Study 2 of our ‘What does the local community of Doncaster owe to the Railway?’ expedition by taking part in fieldwork to Hyde Park Cemetery. Here, Andria Johns of Friends of Doncaster Hyde Park, gave our students a superb tour of the gravestones of some of the people who had contributed to the growth of Doncaster during the Industrial Revolution period.
Andria provided key details and background information to these people, many of whom died due to accidental death and poor health and safety measures. The visit helped to immerse students in the next phase of our expedition, and also helped students to begin to understand how Doncaster’s rich historical Railway heritage has shaped the town that they live in today.
Andria works voluntarily for Friends of Doncaster Hyde Park, and she gave up her day off to work with XP East. We really appreciated her time and input.
Thank you Andria!
In Steam, 7X have been exploring and beginning to understand balanced and unbalanced forces. To help understanding further Mr Smith took 7X outside so students could feel these forces in practice.
Students used tug of war to explore the balance and unbalanced force and were able to feel the difference between the two when Mr Smith altered the number of students per side.
I’ve been absolutely delighted with every single student in 7X this morning.
After a very busy week due to our walk to Doncaster’s Hyde Park cemetery for fieldwork and two hectic Y6 Open Evenings on Wednesday and Thursday (which many students attended) we continued to work hard on the first draft of our reflection work on answering ‘What makes a successful Community?’
After weeks of learning about the different elements of Community, and an extended study assignment, students began to write a reflection piece in order to conclude and assess understanding of Case Study 1.
After a brief discussion, and with a break in between, students wrote continuously from 9:30am up until 12pm.
As highlighted on my blog post about 7P, being productive is an essential element of being a great learner, and ‘work hard’ is a key habit of work and learning at XP East.
I think a well earned rest is in order after a very productive week!
I was so struck by 7P’s focus and effort this morning, I simply had to write about it.
Every single student was totally absorbed in their first draft of what makes a successful community. After drawing up a brief plan (and after yesterday’s creation of an opening paragraph) students have continuously worked for over 2 and a half hours on their reflective writing.
It must be said that being productive for such long periods of time are qualities of being a great learner, and students should be commended for this. Mrs Poncia introduced short activities in which to re-energise everyone’s concentration, and this clearly helped to make students to remain so focused on their work.
Emphasis on redrafting certainly puts a clear focus on quality and craftsmanship (one of our character traits) and I’m looking forward to reading about the completed pieces of work.
I intend to show examples of student’s work from 7P to my own group (7X) as this will help them to visualise what success looks like, and to aid their own efforts in answering ‘What makes a successful community?’
Great work everyone!
As C24 prepare to launch into Case Study 2 of our expedition ‘Society, Steam and Speed’, they will be visiting Hyde Park Cemetery on Thursday 5th October.
Here, they will be given a guided tour by a volunteer from The Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery.
The arrangements are as follows:
- 7X students will depart promptly from school at 9.15 a.m. returning to school at 11.00am.
- 7P students will depart promptly from school at 1.15 p.m. returning to school at 3.15 p.m.
Students will be walking to the cemetery and conducting fieldwork outdoors and so will need suitable rainwear and footwear. In addition, please send any prescribed medication if appropriate.
Many thanks.
I must congratulate Noah N. on his great start to his Art lessons during X-Block.
In only his 2nd lesson, he is already building on his 1st draft of a bird of prey by creating a 2nd draft as part of his homework.
AT XP East, we have been teaching students the methodology of Peer Critique via the video as shown below. It encourages students to be kind, specific and helpful in working together to improve their work until it is excellent.
Mr Pearson asked me to come into his lesson to see the rapid progress that students are already making. When Mr Sprakes and I visited the class, I was struck by how focused they were in collaborating with each other to improve their work.
Well done everyone so far – especially Noah!
Our 7P students are preparing to write their first piece of reflective writing next week, where they’ll consolidate all their ideas and evidence around what makes a community successful.
Mrs Poncia introduced a new protocol in class this week: the ‘silent conversation.’ We presented the class with five different images (one on each table), gave them some marker pens and the instruction to move around each table, consider the image for a few moments, and then write down what it represented to them… all in complete silence!
This protocol gives students time for some focused thinking, allows them to reflect on the views of their classmates, and helps to stimulate new ideas for them to include in their own work. It also means that all students have the same opportunity to share their thoughts with the rest of the class. It really is a silent conversation!
At the end of the exercise we discussed the common theme, which we agreed was around the sense of ‘belonging’ to a community.
Mrs Parker