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!
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!
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!
I firstly want to say how amazed I am of the compassion shown this week in Crew Rowling. There have been ups and downs but we have pulled each other through and had great fun along the way.
To start off we had a day in Crew and we were introduced to our guiding question which was ‘How can we get everyone to the top of the mountain?’. This got us thinking about how we are going to tackle both year 10 and 11 and the all important process to sitting GCSEs. Crew got straight on with this and I loved hearing about their ideas, concerns and ways we could overcome these.
The second day we had a day packed full of team building activities from WiseUP. These tasks tested Crew’s ability to work together, their compassion, resilience, perseverance, patience and communication skills. As a Crew we did tasks such as the magic carpet, crazy maze, baton pass, shepherd and sheep and say what U C, to name a few. This day was full of laughter and we had an amazing partnership from Charlotte and Harvey, who were determined to conquer the most difficult of tasks (switching places on a beam). Every single member of Crew Rowling took part, whether it be planning, voicing strategy, reading or selecting the activity card and all worked together in the tasks which was great to see.
Thursday we went off to Flamborough where we walked from North Landing to South landing, stopping half way at the lighthouse for lunch. The conduct from students was impeccable and it was so lovely to see them showing respect to members of the public by letting them pass by and saying ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’. We were lucky with the weather which meant we could admire the stunning views whilst walking with the rest of E26.
Friday we planned a product of learning to deliver to the other Crews in E26. This needed us to work together to give each of our thoughts on the week. We then split into two teams to begin designing our roadmaps to success. These are not quite finished as we want to get the craftsmanship and quality just right so these can be added to our Crew wall. So watch this space as a further update on these will follow! The POL which was presented in the afternoon really captured who our Crew had worked together so brilliantly all week and I was extremely proud of each one of you! We then has a small awesomeness community meeting which allowed students to appreciate each other. We ended our first week back with a Crew game of mafia which as always, had us in stitches.
It has been a fantastic start to year 10 for Crew Rowling. I can’t wait to see where this coming year takes us but after this week I know that Crew Rowling can get through anything together.
On Wednesday the 20th of July, E26/Year 9 XP East students would like to invite you to their Presentation of Learning. This presentation is the final one from year 9 until their next one in year 10! The students will be sharing their learning as part of the ‘Hold Back the River’ expedition.
We would love to see you there to share in their experience and progress. It will start at 4.00pm and last until approximately 5.00pm.
What a wonderful day our fieldwork was to Edale! Although it is coming up to a few weeks ago now, it’s been worth the wait to see the video footage.
The students were absolutely fantastic – we couldn’t fault the behaviour and conduct of anyone. Everyone got involved with loads of enthusiasm and had a great time. It helped that the weather and setting were gorgeous!
As part of our ‘Hold Back the River’ expedition which had the guiding question: ‘how does water shape our world?’ we have been focusing on the geography of fluvial landscapes. This included the processes and landforms that occur from source to mouth and how both human and physical factors affect flood risk. We were collecting data to find out how the river changes downstream by measuring width, depth and velocity. When we got back to school the students analysed the data in their maths lessons to discover if our data met the hypothesis that width, depth and velocity would increase downstream. Wait and see to find out the results, which will be incorporated into our PoL, at the end of term.
Overall, it was an absolutely brilliant day and I cannot praise the students enough for their enthusiasm and behaviour – what a lovely way to end the year!
Year 7 are going on fieldwork to Potteric Carr on Tuesday 12th July. They will be leaving school at 9.00am and will return to school at 2pm. Students will be travelling to Potteric Carr via coach.
As students will be out of school for the majority of the day they will need to bring with them a packed lunch, a large bottle of water, sun cream, strong insect repellant and a hat.
If students are on free school meals they will be provided with a packed lunch.
Students need to wear full length trousers / leggings and a full length top to limit susceptibility to insect bites. Students also need to wear suitable footwear, preferably walking boots or old trainers.
The purpose of the fieldwork is to collect information on species habitats in the local area and for students to develop their knowledge on the specific species they have been assigned.
If you have any further questions please get in-touch.
C26 and C25 GCSE geography students had a lovely time on Friday at the Longshaw Estate in the Peak District. They were collecting data on the width, depth and velocity of the river at two sites so they could analyse whether there were changes downstream to support Bradshaw’s Model.
In our lessons preparing for the fieldwork, students had to select our hypotheses, consider the suitability of the site and any risks involved as well as justify our sampling and data collection methods. But, we’re only half way through! Next steps in our upcoming lessons after the fieldwork are to present and explain our methods of data presentation and evaluate the enquiry. During our evaluation of the enquiry, students have to consider any problems with their data collection methods, limitations of the data and suggestions for improvement. Finally, they will evaluate the extent to which conclusions are reliable.
No wonder Dylan, Rosie and Marcus fell asleep on Friday and Rihanna needed a hot chocolate boost – all this hard work is tiring!
On Friday 1st July, Y9 and Y10 GCSE Geography students (Common Mission/Leading our Own Learning) will be going on fieldwork to Burbage Brook at the Longshaw Estate, Peak District.
This is a required part of the GCSE and we will be studying changes downstream along the river. If your child is in year 9, this is similar to the fieldwork they have undertaken as part of their expedition – but the GCSE version and at a different location!
Please find attached the kit list which details everything students need to be prepared.
Students need to be at school by 8:15, ready for a quick briefing and ready to leave promptly at 8:45. We should be back at the end of the school day, traffic depending, and students will keep home updated with the travel progress.
Crew Rowling along with the rest of E26 went out on fieldwork last Friday to Edale. The feedback from staff that accompanied them expressed how impeccable their behaviour was, I love hearing such feedback as crew leader! It sounds like a great day was had by all. I also managed to get my hands on some gorgeous photos by Harvey and Olivia from the fieldwork.
Monday morning we took on the challenge of walking a mile in crew to promote sport within school. Luckily the sun was shining and C26 had a pleasant 4 lap walk around the 4G court.
‘Leading our Own Learning’
Students seem to be settling well into their chosen pathways on a Wednesday afternoon. I can’t wait to see them expand and further their knowledge in whichever path they are following.
