E24: Smashing it!

By K Poncia28th August 2019

Following on from a great first day back, E24 (Year 9) have had another excellent day!

It has been wonderful today to see such high levels of engagement, focus, co-operation and graft!

The day started with a crew session where crews were given four different challenges to solve.  These included: Radioactive Isotope, The Floor is Lava!, Precious Trophy and Scientific Breakthrough.

Here we are working as crew!

The next part of our day saw us building on our careers sessions from yesterday by finding out what potential employment opportunities might be suited to us.  Using a programme called ‘Start’, we discovered which careers matched our qualities, skills and interests.  We also researched what salaries different jobs would pay and the availability of specific jobs throughout the country.

Ali discovered that being an author could earn her anything from £9,800 a year to over £2million a year!  She’s already started writing her bestseller!

Rhys is interested in becoming a paramedic.  He researched the qualifications he needs to achieve this and found out that there are over 2,000 job opportunities in this field across Yorkshire.  We’d all be in safe hands with Rhys!

Throughout this session, learning and conduct behaviours from ALL students were exemplary!

The final session of today saw students introduced to ‘Passage Presentation’ which is an important piece of work students complete during Year 9 to demonstrate that they are GCSE ready.  More information to follow about this…

So, tomorrow, we are heading to Sheffield Hallam University.  We can’t wait!

Y9 (E24) First Week Back – 27th August 2019

By A Parker19th July 2019

As this academic year ends, we’re already looking forward to our first week back!

School starts again on Tuesday 27th August, 8.30am.  Students will require a PE kit for Tuesday and Wednesday, along with their usual stationery (pen, pencil and ruler) A kit list has been provided for Friday’s activity.

**There is no extended study during the first week back**

Tuesday: In school with a normal finish time of 3:15.

Wednesday: In school with a normal finish time of 3:15. 

Thursday: Students are out of school today, within normal school hours.  They should wear their usual everyday clothes and bring their bags and stationery. They will also need a packed lunch and a bottle of water (provided for students on FSM).

Friday: Students need to be at school for 7.45am.  We will be out of school all day so students will need a backpack with a packed lunch, a bottle of water, hiking boots and waterproofs. Students on FSM will be provided with a pack lunch.

Please check the kit list below for further details of the required clothing.  Please can students come to school in trainers, not their walking boots.  We are expected to be back at school for around 5pm (to be confirmed during our first week back.)

Please refer to these important docs and ensure you and your child are familiar with them.  A medical form will be sent home on Tuesday 27th; please return this to us on Wednesday 28th.

Have a wonderful summer break!

 

What an evening!

By J Smith7th June 2019

Today as crew leader I was incredibly proud of the crew for showing the courage to once again speak in front of the entire year group and 50 parents for the latest HUMs expedition. 

In particular, the moment where Corey spoke about his family to the audience brought the entire crowd close to tears! It was an emotional evening and all students produced high quality work, this was highlighted by Frida’s explanation of the Macbeth story and how this contributed to ‘fake news’

Building Circuits

By J Smith26th May 2019

The crew have conducted their own revision session on current resistance and voltage today. Corey and Raven led the revision session where students were asked to construct series and parallel circuits and compare the difference between current drops. 

Raven noticed that when a component in a parallel circuit is removed, other bulbs and components still allow for electrons to flow, Raven also noted that this is why houses use parallel circuits and not series!

Almost Complete!

By J Smith16th May 2019

This week Crew Mandela have been completing their final products for expedition High Voltage. This has needed a number of high level skills from the crew including soldering, drilling, scoring and shaping the wood. 

Outstanding crew support has come from Raven who has helped the entire crew to finish their designs and complete the base of the boxes. See the image below for a sneak preview of the final games.

What is going on in the world?

By J Smith30th April 2019

Crew Mandela were answering the DLT: What is going on in the world?

After a first check in from what students already knew, we then looked into using BBC News websites to notice wonder and question about the site.

After students researched various topics including political issues, world issues and local news, all students pop-corned their ideas to answer the DLT.

One memorable news story came from Holly W, she explained that a whale had been trained by Russians to be a spy!

 

 

Crew Mandela update!

By J Smith12th April 2019

Crew Mandela have had a great week in terms of HOWLS. The whole crew have made huge improvements with working towards 4.0 in work hard. We had a weekly crew focus to ensure that all students get their hand up in sessions as much as possible! We then had a session with a focus on how messages can be misinterpreted by others, even when students are trying their hardest to pass on the correct information. Watch the video below to get a feel of the topic of discussion had.

Passing on the Message!

 

In addition we also had a joint crew session with crew Turing who were fantastic with taking part in a crew led table tennis tournament.

 

Thanks to crew Turing for showing so much sportsmanship!

 

Academic Research Diary- Extended Study

By J Smith24th March 2019

Crew Mandela have a new protocol for Academic Crew!

All students have their own Academic Research book, each week a topic will be selected by a crew member for students to take home and lead their own learning on extended study tasks set by crew.

This week I chose the first topic and this was based around the STEAM expedition ‘Is knowledge power?’ and static electricity!

The research books have been taken by all members of crew and will form our academic check in on Tuesday. Raven was particularly excited about leading his own research into how lighting can strike in the same place twice and how electrical storms form.

Crew Young lead learning!

By J Smith14th February 2019

This week crew Young visited Crew Mandela to deliver a session on the method of loci. The method of loci (loci being Latin for “places”) is a method of memory enhancement which uses visualisations with the use of spatial memory, familiar information about one’s environment, to quickly and efficiently recall information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, or mind palace technique. Crew Mandela found the method extremely useful and all students improved their memory of a single list of words!

 

Crews Finch and Mandela make eachothers day!

By A Parker7th February 2019

Crew Finch joined Crew Mandela today, where they were asked to consider the question:

What is the one compliment you have received in your life that you have never forgot?

They also discussed the importance of compliments – and why humans feel the need to give them – before moving on to write out compliment cards for their Crew.

Feedback at the end included lots of comments about how good both the giver and receiver of the compliment felt, although Brendan did admit that the task felt a bit “awkward and forced.”  So, my challenge to Crew is to give more compliments so they feel less awkward, and to accept them graciously.  After all, “a compliment is verbal sunshine!”

Just look how happy Christian is with his compliment cards!