Last week, Churchill Crew challenged Parkinson Crew to a dodgeball competition!
Both crews lined up on the tennis courts and, when the whistle blew, sprang into action, each determined to be triumphant.
Game one was won by Churchill. Yippee!
Game two started but had to be suspended due to timings and so a rematch will be arranged so Crew Parkinson can hopefully equalise the score.
Watch this space…
Today’s academic check-in for Churchill Crew focused on maths.
It was great for me to see, as crew leader, what students have been working hard on in the first six weeks of term: times tables, polygons, angles and perimeter.
We had an extremely productive discussion talking about being challenged, craftsmanship and quality and the importance of showing working out when solving a longer mathematical sum or word problem.
It was great to hear that Churchill Crew think that academic check-ins are going to help them work hard and get smart.
They also welcomed the fact that they will have very clear targets that they can be working on in lessons and we can then check-in with progress towards meeting these during our crew sessions.
Today in Crew, we checked in by sharing some of the things we have been up to over the weekend.
Adam chilled out on Friday night and then got his bike fixed on Saturday. He slept at his mate’s house and played Fortnite.
Niven played out all day on Saturday and on Sunday he played football and his team won 3-0!
Kaiden went to his nana’s on Sunday for dinner. He had chicken, carrots, peas, mash and
Yorkshire pudding. Delicious!
On Sunday, Rhys went to the cinema and watched the new Johnny English film.
Ben also spent time watching films, including Ant-Man and the Wasp. He recommends it!
Lewis played Fortnite and chilled with Mackenzie.
Denzil went to church on Saturday and then played football. Unfortunately, his team lost their match 4-1.
Kyle stayed over at his mates over the weekend and played Fortnite.
On Friday, Tyler chilled out watching YouTube and went shopping to town with his mum on Sunday.
Ruby has been busy dancing but also had time to go to her auntie’s party and watch some boxing!
Alyssa had a football match on Saturday but lost, however, they played with one person down. On Sunday she went to town to hang out with some friends from school.
Aran had a busy day on Saturday! She travelled to Walsall to celebrate her niece’s 11th birthday and her nephew’s 7th birthday. She didn’t get home until late so she spent Sunday chilling!
Theone chilled out on Saturday as she was not feeling well. Feeling better, on Sunday, she went to Ikea and Meadowhall and then went to her grandparent’s to celebrate her grandad’s birthday.
So, that’s what we’ve been up to… and now we’re checked in!
Today in Crew we have taken part in an academic check-in where we shared a piece of work from our HUMAN sessions that we are proud of.
Adam, Kaiden, Tyler and Kyle shared their pieces of work describing the Mansion House in Doncaster using literary devices they have been learning about whilst studying ‘Of Mice and Men’.
Theone was also extremely proud of this piece of work. Take a look:
Aran’s highlight of HUMAN work was her piece of writing about symbolism and how this links to Steinbeck’s use of this literary device throughout ‘Of Mice and Men’.
Aran also received a spontaneous round of applause for her wonderful example of textcoding. 
Well done, Crew Churchill, for your wonderful work so far!
It’s time for Churchill Crew to take their Star Reader tests!
In Crew this morning, we worked our way through our latest Star Reader test to find out how we are getting on with our reading.
As well as reading twice a day at school, we reminded ourselves that we should also be reading at home for at least two hours a week.
Maybe this could be our next Crew pledge?
We are proud to introduce our new crew name as ‘Crew Churchill‘.
We chose Winston Churchill as our inspiration because of his following achievements:
We believe he embodies our character traits and culture here at XP East because he showed courage to lead his country during a war, respect because he valued the ideas and thoughts and others and craftsmanship and quality through his beautiful artwork.
‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give’
‘Crew Churchill’ was the name we were given during our recent outward bound expedition to Wales and so reminds us of the our amazing experiences there together as crew.
As part of our expedition ‘Stand Up!’, we have been learning about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade during the 18th century.
To help us understand the deeper context of this time in history, we have been studying the mini-series ‘Roots’.
In Crew, we decided to create a soundtrack of songs which we think represent the life and times of the main character, Kunta Kinte.
Here are our choices. Have a listen. What do you think?
Kaiden: Human by Rag ‘n’ Bone Man
Ben: Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi
Kyle: Chain by Fleetwood Mac
Lewis: Human by Christina Perry
Rhys: You Don’t Own Me by The Blow Monkeys
Adam Mohammed: Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson
Theone: Try by Pink
Aran: Glory by John Legend and Common
Alyssa: Because of You by Kelly Clarkson
Ruby: Where is the Love by Black-Eyed Peas
Tyler: I have Nothing by Whitney Houston
Today in Crew, Adam and Alyssa led a well-planned session focussing on one of our character traits: Integrity.
Following a whiparound where we were asked to share examples of when we have shown integrity, we then had to crack a code, showing integrity by not cheating and helping others if they needed it.
Alyssa and Adam made a great team and we really enjoyed their session. Thank you!
Today’s Crew session was led by Teagan and Aran. Their focus was one of our HoWLs – Working Hard.
They started their activity with a Whiparound, asking students what working hard meant to them. Here are some of their responses:
Theone: come to school prepared both mentally and physically to work hard
Tyler: concentrate to to make sure you work hard so you achieve
Ben: working hards means you give 100%
Adam: work hard to achieve your MEG
Alyssa: try your best and never give up
Ruby: working hard means that all of us should participate – there should be no passengers
Kaiden: make sure you work hard to get your work completed on time
Rhys: working hard means you always do your best
Denzil: make sure you always put in your full effort when working hard
Now, look at what Crew had to do!
Adam’s team completed the challenge in 1 minute 54 seconds. Well done for working hard together!
Thank you, Teagan and Aran x
Over the last couple of weeks, members of Crew KPO have suffered with different ailments and illnesses and students have needed time off school to recover.
Today, however, we are delighted that we are all back together and everyone is in good health.
So… we’re now back in the running for 100% attendance – watch out other Crews!
