Its been a really busy week for Crew Malala! We have begun our Passage Presentations, with Will setting the standard through his thoughtful reflections on his character growth, work and readiness for GCSE’s on Monday.
In Crew time on Thursday Malala showed a lot of courage and compassion as they supported a Year 7 Crew in their script writing and preparation for their first Student Led Conference.
We have also been carrying out our DofE volunteering and had a very successful litter pick on Thursday.
Finally, a huge congratulations to Alex who is now a member of the Doncaster Youth Council. He will be representing XP Trust and the views of young people aged 11-18 from across Doncaster. What an achievement!
Now that students have sat their first round of mock exams this year, their exams have been marked, moderated and have now been graded. Students will receive their mock grades during Crew time tomorrow morning. Students will also receive a set of predicted GCSE grades for the real exams which take place in the spring. Whilst these predictions are informed by the mock exams, they are also based on other assessments of student work and their current Habits of Work and Learning grades.
Students will reflect on their mock grades and predicted grades in the upcoming Student Led Conferences which will commence from next week. Your child’s Crew Leader will be in touch this week to book in a day and time for their student led conference. The timing of the SLC will allow students to consider any personal pledges that they need to make in advance of the next round of mock exams which takes place in February. More information on the February mock exams will follow closer to the time, but again this will be an opportunity for teaching staff and students to gauge their progress, revise predictions and look at other areas of support before the final exams.
There are a small number of students who may have been absent for some of the mock exams and as such, there might not be a grade provided on their grade card that they receive. These students will have the opportunity to sit missed exams in a formal setting this week and will have their exams marked and grades reported back to them.
If you have any questions in the meantime about any of the above, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance.
The whole English team would like to appreciate all the C26 students who attended the Learning Lab tonight. Nearly every student across both schools attended and they were all fully engaged in some superb poetry revision.
This commitment and effort will pay off in the long run. Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint. Think of these session as a key part of your training.
It has been wonderful to hear students discussing exam technique, the alternative meanings of some of the quotes and considering complex poetic techniques such as iambic pentameter, free verse and colloquial language.
Thanks so much guys, you made Mrs Desborough’s day!
After a well-rested summer holiday, Crew Rowling arrived back at school to relearn the meaning of crew. During this first week, Crew completed many tasks, challenges and activities which brought our crew closer together.
On the first day back, to build back up the bonds of crew, we went on a hike in Langsett and the Peak District. While this walk may have been difficult to some, with crew by their side, we were able to complete this hike in record time. Some (well, maybe just Harvey) had fun!
The following day, time was spent together in our new Crew room, doing activities to build up our sense of crew. During this time, we played a (improved) version of Mafia, created and led by Lily. We also tackled the ‘30 Ways to XP’, where Crew created postcards full of inspirational quotes and advice and Ben and Oliver even cleaned the Crew room 🙂 We also thought about revision techniques and looked at important dates for year 11.
On Thursday, Crew tackled games of rounders and other fun games organised by Mrs Nixon. Crew’s determination saw them fiercely winning rounders, as well as Extreme rock paper scissors! After Crew fought through ‘the floor is lava’, Shawn and Layton’s epic chopstick skills meant we smashed the next game, where we had to get as many pieces of dry pasta into a cup. After fighting through a few more activities, Crew felt more competitive then ever!
We look forward to looking back at our week as a whole tomorrow and sharing our thoughts and experiences with the rest of C26.
Today we got together for our final Y10 community meeting! As well as going over our first week back plans, we used it as an opportunity to share our final appreciations of the year. The biggest appreciation came from Mrs Sprakes and Mr Voltaire for the hard work and effort they all put into last week’s Climate Conference (which they’re all quite rightly still buzzing from!)
It was also a delight to be able to announce the recipients of our ‘Above and Beyond’ awards, nominated by Crew Leaders to celebrate those students who embody our character values and HoWLS day in, day out. As well as receiving a certificate, the 10 students selected have been given the opportunity to go ten pin bowling on Friday morning. As I said in this morning’s meeting, we really could’ve have given the award to most of Y10!
Y10 have been absolutely awesome this year and they already have developed the attitude, mindset and work ethic needed to get through Y11. We are all feeling really positive about our final year together.
Wishing you all a great summer!
Mrs Parker, Mrs Barnes, Mrs Goddard, Miss Cross, Miss Burrows & Mr Wilmott 🙂
‼️ UPDATE – Please can all Y11 parents complete the consent forms by Friday 25th August (if you haven’t already done so)this is to allow your child to attend the hike to Langsett ‼️
We are pleased to be able to share with you the first week back plans for C26/Y11, as outlined below:
Tuesday: Y11 students will be out on fieldwork to Langsett Reservoir on the first day back. Please read the attached parent letter, kit list and complete the consent form if you haven’t already done so. XPE students should arrive for an 8am start; XP are in at the usual time of 8.30am.
C26/Y11 Langsett Consent forms – to be completed by parents/carers of Y11 students only
WOW! What can I say, Crew Rowling were incredible on sports day!
First off, we took on the athletics track and field and dodgeball. Ben and Harvey competed in the long jump, Oliver competed in the tennis ball throw, Thomas and Cerrina ran the 100m sprint and then we had an unbelievable team for the 400m relay which included Oliver, Ben, Cerrina and Thomas.
While this was going on Layton, Shawn, Lily, Logan and Faith played dodgeball. Hearing crew chatting before heading to this event they seemed to be positive and afterwards it sounded like they worked really well as a team (I would expect nothing less).
Our second session consisted of football and rounders. Both teams did really well in these sports and staff were complementary about their conduct at these events.
We then spent time drawing up and narrating our Crew mascot, completing a sports quiz and recreating an iconic sporting photo. Then we headed over to the athletics track to hear the results of the day…
Crew Rowling were announced as the winning crew for E26!!
Crew showed excellent sportsmanship throughout the day and both Miss Johnson and I are incredibly proud of them.
On Monday, 19th June 2023, X26 Skipper and E26 Pioneer will be attending fieldwork to Bradford Literature Festival as part of their current expedition, Bad Romance – attending a day called ‘How did Hitler Happen?’.
X26 Admiral & E26 Explorer will be attending fieldwork on Wednesday, 21st June to Bradford Literature Festival – attending a day called ‘Shakespeare Day!’.
We will depart promptly at 8:45am, meaning students need to arrive at school NO LATER that 8:30am to be registered and briefed about the day.
Please see the attached letter for more information. If you have any questions or queries, please get in touch.
For the past week, Crew Turing have focused on personal wellbeing – we’ve been exploring how to make sure we practice some self-care during the stressful GCSE exams that are coming up!
One way we chose to de-stress as a crew was by running a ‘spa morning’. We kept some humour in it, though, by choosing funny face masks! We also welcomed Jay into crew who will join us for this week!
Lewis seemed to really enjoy the cucumber slices… and I’ve never heard a better “disgusting” than when Dylan put his hands in the moisturising gloves! A big thanks to Mrs Parker for providing smoothies, too!
We’ve kicked off the new term with Y11 students heading straight into their Art exam. Next week, Spanish students have their Speaking exam, and we then begin the final countdown to the full GCSE exam window.
We are going to keep you up to date with all our important information/reminders/messages leading up to the exams by publishing our weekly ‘what’s on our plate’ (WOOP) briefing. This is shared with students during Monday’s Crew session.
