This week Crew Young have been heavily involved in our two Open Evenings, designed to give prospective students and their parents and carers an insight into the daily working practices at XP East School.
Despite finishing at around 8.00 p.m. last night, volunteers from Crew Young still found the energy to let off some steam in a free-style fitness session this morning.
Needless to say, we are immensely proud of our students and of their achievements.
We’re glad to welcome Ella back into Crew Young at the end of a shorter-than-usual school week. In Crew we have mostly completed our pledges for this academic year, and we have continued to develop our literacy and comprehension skills in dedicated Accelerated Reader time.
We’re also delighted that more of us have made it onto the positive conduct log as follows:
Maclaren: “Focused and on task, listening to instructions and first to pay attention when I am speaking to the whole class“. “Maclaren has worked really hard in maths today, his work is brilliantly presented and he has managed to give some really tricky questions a go. Thanks, keep up the fab work!“.
“Eleanor has been proactive in her learning by emailing me questions related to her homework. I always spot her being kind in lessons helping others out when they are stuck. It’s great to see her work so hard in maths, thanks Eleanor!” “Dedication and hard work in lessons repeatedly. Needs no prompting to get on with work and always works hard!“.
Alesha: “Great contributions throughout the lesson!“.
Louie: “Some great contributions to peer critique during the lessons – kind, specific and helpful“.
Aaron: “Talked me through the student side of AR Star Reader tests – thank you!“. “Aaron has gone from strength to strength with his work ethic over the past week. It culminated in a written response in HUMS which showed high level of language and understanding. He was nominated by Chris to share out his work and Mr. Brown took a photo of it to post on the website“. “Got smart with work in Spanish“.
Dominic: “Worked hard during Thursday afternoon’s STEAM session. Worked independently and made lots of notes about the different types of energy efficient housing we were researching. Good work, Dom – keep it up!“.
This shorter week saw the very welcome return of Maclaren, fresh from his successes and increased medal tally after representing England in a Tae-kwondo tournament in Jamaica. Great work, Maclaren! In a shortened week, he has already made it back onto our praise log in maths: “his focus in class has been really impressive and his work has been at a really high standard” (Miss Haughey).
We also revisited the concept of “conflict” and worked in groups to address the following questions
Crew Young, our “Youngsters” were ready to articulate their understanding of the issues and how – if they should experience conflict with others – they may be resolved.
Other “Youngsters” that made it onto the praise log this week:
“Alesha initiated a really fantastic conversation in maths where there was a disagreement in their answers….keep up the fab work!“.
“Adam completed (hums) homework early, to a good standard and with the option extension task completed well. Keep up the fab work!”.
“Brilliant effort on Ella’s homework. All questions answered in depth and the optional extension task was completed to a really high standard with lots of excellent effort! I’m impressed!”.
“In the test which they were given a 5 minute timer, Aaron managed to complete all questions and achieved 48/60. Despite his excellent score, Aaron showed compassion and respect for others too. He carried this work ethic over into the next task’…”.
“Louis has been extremely attentive attentive in lessons today. He really excelled in the angles work, completing his work, helping others around him and also giving the GCSE problem solving question a really good go. Thanks Louis, keep it up!”.
“I have seen a vast improvement in Nathan’s efforts in getting smart & working hard these last couple of lessons in maths and I am really impressed with his contributions. He is compassionate to others around him, helping them when they are stuck which is lovely to see. Keep it up!”.
“Keisha created a detailed fact file research project on Doncaster’s School for the Deaf in X-Block this afternoon. She chose a building that had relevance to her and the sign language studies she completes outside school, and showed craftmanship and quality in putting together the information on her doc. I was really impressed! Thanks Keisha!”.
Wow – an excellent week for Crew Young!
This week we have been heavily involved in choosing our Crew name. Crew prepared and delivered presentations to promote their suggestions – Magellan, Knox-Johnson, McGregor, Tenzing and Columbus – but we finally voted for Crew Young.
“I like to finish what I start doing. I like to see it through to the end, to the best of my ability.”
Our Crew took the name Young in honour of Cliff Young, a 61 year-old Australian potato farmer who:
This astonishing hare-and-the-tortoise story is absolutely true….and inspires our Crew to come at things from another angle, to try things that nobody else has even considered before, to innovate and to motivate us to become true pioneers and explorers. Mr Pearson.
Monday – check-ins revealed how we had spent the weekend recovering from the exertions of Outward Bound in Wales. Our certificate awarding ceremony was an opportunity for Crew members to articulate the reasons why someone deserved to receive this accolade, allowing them to reflect on their own learning journey in Aberdovey.
Tuesday – digital preparation of pledges that students seek to make in answer to our Guiding Question: what do I want to change about myself in Y8?
Wednesday – AR reader programme
Thursday – Completion of pledges, online research into possible Crew names (famous explorers / pioneers)
Friday – Our weekly Community Meeting is an opportunity for our students to appreciate others, and to make apologies and/or stands against issues that they feel strongly about.
Thank you to all parents and carers for the feedback received following phone conversations to check in on our Crew members at the start of their Y8.
D Pearson
if anyone still doesn’t have a “Crew” about why we started our Y8 in south Snowdonia, Wales, then please do check out the video and the photos below! Our C24 students were asked to consider “what do you want to change about yourself (in Y8) and how have you started?
Eleanor’s Aberdovey blog:
Tues 28th – said goodbye to parents, 2 1/2 hours, break, got there and went for a jog and dip
Weds 29th – gorge walk, slides, cabin
Thurs 30th – wake-up in log cabin, 6km hike, de-grunge, solo time
Fri 31st – pack bag, Challenge Wall, lunch and departure
Gorge-scrambling involved a wet-suit, neoprene socks, wet-jacket, buoyancy aid and helmet protection worn against knocks and bumps, rocks and stones – great fun!
Now that our Crew have presented and received their OB Course certificates, with a rationale as to why they deserve them, they will make pledges that answer the guiding question.
Watch this space!
The end of our first year at XP East School will see the culmination of our current HUMS expedition – who in the world am I? As part of this process we came full circle, literally, by returning to Malham this week. This was an opportunity for our Crew to reiterate our five core character traits – respect, compassion, courage, craftsmanship and quality, and integrity. We spent the whole day as Crew, and considered to what extent we had grown in both stature and in character, and assessed how far we had travelled along our learning journey. The photos tell their own story….
On Monday, it is check in as usual and we tell each other how we have been and what we have been doing.
On Tuesday, South Yorkshire Police came to do a presentation about online safety, social media and messaging and safety around people you don’t know on the internet.
On Wednesday, we read for 45 minutes until class but you can do reading tests which I do if I have done reading my book.
Sometimes on Thursday, we play games like Dodgeball or Football. This week we played Dodgeball but circled up as Crew when the rules were being misinterpreted.
Thanks to Dominic for editing this week’s Crew blog.
Monday 10th June – On Monday, we checked in on how our crew members’ weekends had been.
Tuesday 11th June – Today, we looked at Rebus puzzles and are planning to make our own for other crews. An example would be Mil1ion. This is 1 in a million! Another would be DAYSALLWORK= all in a day’s work. Rebus puzzles encourage lateral thinking and are a great way to exercise our brain cells!
Wednesday 13th June – Today, we did our weekly Accelerated reader.
Thursday 14th June – Today, we joined Mr Smith’s Crew and began to make our own Rebus puzzles. A number of us had pivotal roles to play in the XPosé Conference – exciting times!
Friday 17th – Our whole school Community Meeting provides a weekly opportunity to give apologies and pledges, share appreciations and make stands for things that we feel strongly about.
Thank you to Ella for editing this week’s Crew blog.
Our Crew time this week was dedicated to the production of the pledges made by members of the public at the Frenchgate Centre last week, as we reach the culmination of our “Stand Up!” learning expedition. The week was as follows:
Monday 14th May – Crew members’ weekly check-ins and a look forwards to the week ahead.
Tuesday 15th May – We used Crew time to capture the pledges made by members of the public using professional Canva digital software.
Wednesday 16th May – We completed our Canva pledges and used the remaining time to refine our speeches ahead of our Celebration of Learning.
Thursday 17th May – We dedicated this time to quiet reading under the Accelerated Reader programme.
Friday 18th May – Our whole school Community Meeting provides a weekly opportunity to give apologies and pledges, share appreciations and make stands for things that we feel strongly about. XP East usually holds a further school-specific Community Meeting in the afternoon.
A reminder that students with excellent attendance and punctuality are regarded favourably by university tutors and employers, so we are striving to improve our current ranking on the whole school attendance league tables. This week we finished in a disappointing fourth place, in the tables. This is not a place where 7DPE are accustomed to being!
