Monday 22nd Jan- We checked in, by sharing with each other what we had been up to over the weekend and also our initial thoughts and reflections on the learning that occurred last week.

Tuesday 23rd Jan- We dedicated our session to improving our levels of literacy on the Accelerated Reader programme.

Wednesday 24th Jan- We explored the notion of pledges. Our Crew Leader also reminded us in this session that our most recent punctuality and attendance records had slipped a little from their previous 100% perfect results. We need to return to our previous place on the league table!

Thursday 25th Jan – Due to the staff planning day tomorrow, we held an XP East School community meeting. This provided an opportunity to give apologies and pledges, share appreciations and make stands for things that we feel strongly about.

Friday 26th Jan – Staff planning day.

Monday 15th Jan- We checked in, by sharing with each other what we had been up to over the weekend and also our initial thoughts and reflections on the learning that occurred during Immersion Week.

Tuesday 16th Jan- Our Crew Leader explained the style and format of XP East Grade Cards. We learnt that for learning targets in boxes that are shaded grey there is no concern, whereas work that needs our attention in order to be improved, or fixed, is shaded in yellow. We then spent the last 20 minutes identifying examples of when we had witnessed crew members exhibiting the HOWLs last week. We were delighted that everyone was mentioned!

Wednesday 17th Jan- We dedicated our session to improving our levels of literacy on the Accelerated Reader programme.

Thursday 18th Jan – Our entire Crew session was devoted to reviewing and checking work in our portfolios. Our Crew Leader signed off some work from five portfolios and highlighted the small amount of work still needed.

Friday 19th Jan – 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 held a further school-specific Community Meeting in the afternoon.

Monday 4th Dec – We invited those students who hadn’t had the opportunity to share a favourite song with us last week to do so. For some, their “soundtrack of our lives” song choice was quite emotive.

Tuesday 5th Dec – We had an Accelerated Reader session in Crew. We are aware of the importance of regularly reading for pleasure in order to raise our literacy levels.

Wednesday 6th Dec – We spent Crew reading the next chapter of our anchor text, Lion, by Saroo Brierley.

Thursday 7th Dec – In our Crew session today we met up for an XP East Community Meeting to hear reminders about stewardship and safety on the steps.

Friday 8th Dec – 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. Mr Pearson shared the latest photos of our new school building when we met to review the week on Friday afternoon.

Monday 27th Nov- Teachers and Staff had a training day where they had different activities to do with planning our new expedition.

Tuesday 28th Nov- We had an Accelerated Reader session in Crew, whilst Mr Pearson shared individual attendance data with us, and reminded us of the clear link between excellent attendance and academic achievement.

Wednesday 29th Nov- We had a community meeting, discussing people’s homework and hand-in rate between classes.

Thursday 30th Nov- We shared a song which sums up or means something special in our lives, to create a soundtrack of all our lives in XP East. Dominic chose a song by Westlife that is significant to him, and we felt that the lyrics: “You raise me up to more than I can be” summarise the power of the peer support possible through belonging to Crew.

Friday 1st Dec – 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.

Thanks to Alesha Malik for authoring our blog this week, and to all our Crew members for the courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality they showed throughout their Student-Led Conferences.

Monday 20th Nov – We began this week with a quick whip-round of single words that we would use to describe our feelings about the SLCs: “calm”, “anxious”, “secure”, “worried”, “ready”, “agitated”, “ecstatic”, “disturbed” and “confident”.

Tuesday 21st Nov -Today in Crew we held a community meeting where we considered the importance of maintaining excellent attendance to school, and the impact of learning time lost when ours does not meet minimum expectations. We were also introduced to a monitoring tool, designed to both challenge and support us to meet our school’s Habits of Work and Learning (HoWLS).

Wednesday 22nd Nov – Our Crew completed their share of service to our learning community, by donning “day-glows” and borrowing litter-pickers, to retrieve, bag and bin items of litter that were found on the school site. “Clean-Up Crew” had a job to do!

Thursday 23rd – Due to the Staff Days tomorrow and next Monday we used Crew time to check-in and review the week. During this session we explored the concept of “proportional participation” and Lewis calculated the amount of time each Crew member spoke as a percentage of the total.

Monday 13th Nov – On Monday, we had a shared community meeting for all XP East students. In this community meeting, we discussed who we were proud of for numerous different reasons, such as people persevering through HOWLs (Habits Of Work and Learning) over our half term break. (by Alesha).

Tuesday 14th Nov -Today in Crew, we started by reading a short slideshow, about who you can talk to if you have got a problem. Then the majority of people still had to do the email for our Student Led Conference ,but then some people – the ones that had finished – were asked to do a blog post (by Isabel).

Wednesday 15th Nov – We used the Apple Macs or our own devices in our Crew Room to complete and send off personalised e-mails to invite our parents to the SLCs. (by Mr Pearson).

Thursday 16th Nov – We watched a video-clip of several Y10 students’ Student-Led Conferences, so that we know what to expect for ours. We then divided into two groups – some students paired up and practised delivering their presentations to each other, giving and receiving kind, specific and helpful critique, whilst others word-processed their notes on the Apple Macs (by Mr Pearson).

Friday 17th Nov – 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 (by Mr Pearson).

Our Crew member tasked with drafting this week’s blog was absent when it was due to be posted, so I have taken over. Building on our recent CPR course, Crew 7DP have completed further training endorsed by the British Heart Foundation, including another practical “hands on” session on placing casualties in the Recovery Position. We learnt the acronym D.R.A.B., and so in this photo our Crew are checking for Danger to themselves and others when approaching a casualty, looking for a Response before opening the Airway and then checking for Breathing.

We are delighted to report that following this training, part of the BHF’s Restart-a-Heart campaign, our Crew have all received a certificate and wrist band and would know what to do (should they choose to intervene) in the event of a medical emergency. For more info:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-to-save-a-life/cpr-kits/cpr-training-for-schools/get-involved-on-restart-a-heart-day

Today, Crew 7DP learned the simple steps to CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation). We used an Annie manikin to learn how to do it. We watched a video that was very helpful.  It was a door-opening experience for some as they would like to be a doctor or a paramedic.

We had to interlink our fingers and lean over the manikin, then push the chest until we heard a click. Once we had heard the click, we knew we were doing chest compressions that were hard enough. We then moved on to the mouth-to-mouth technique. We had to put one hand on the forehead, pinching the nose. Then, our mouths had to cover the manikin’s mouth and blow into their mouths so that they have breath in their lungs.

We learned how to do CPR on both an adult and a child so that, if we needed to, we would know what to do. This skill is very important in everyday life in case somebody nearby goes into cardiac arrest. Once we finish our training, we will receive a certificate and a wrist-band from the British Heart Foundation.

For further information on the Restart-a-Heart initiative, and to view the training video that we watched in Crew, please visit:

bhf.org.uk/…/get-involved-on-restart-a-heart-day

https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr/cpr-training-videos