We’ve all heard of Austin’s butterfly…..so how about Keisha’s butterfly? For our latest update from Crew Young I’ve captured comments from students describing their reactions to recent tragic events in America, and shared their current work and progress on the DofE First Aid course.

Keisha e-mailed me a piece of her beautiful art work last week, and I simply had to include it in our blog as an example of work that she’s really proud of:

Great work here Keisha – I like how you’ve blended the colours together in both the butterfly and the plant. Remember Austin’s butterfly? How he crafted and re-crafted his work acting on kind, specific and helpful peer feedback?

Dominic reminded us that he’s still training for MMA and for his DofE Award:

Well done Dominic, we already know that “you are amazing!” at times, but it’s helpful to be reminded of it now and again!

Summer wished to contribute her thoughts about the death of George Floyd in America:

“...Even things that many people grew up with, things such as comedic blackface or use of racial slurs, were only deemed acceptable due to the deeply rooted history of racism that, despite slavery being abolished, was never truly made illegal.

It’s great to have regular contact with Crew Young and hear how they’re doing during lockdown. Recently I asked them to share advice for new staff and students, with the benefit of their (nearly) three years of experience at the school, about “what makes us XP?”:

“For teachers to join next year i would say take each day as it is and try and relate with students more then ever before if you actually want to know them as many fail to do so in many scenarios in the education system“.

“For new teachers I would give the advice of not being afraid to teach differently to others because if you teach differently it could help the student retain information easier. For new students, I would possibly say it’s okay if you’re shy but if you know the answer to something, maybe try putting yourself out there and put your hand up“.

“My advice would be to just follow what the current teachers are doing right now with feedback on work and fieldwork building onto expeditions“.

“The advice I would give to any new student at XP/XP East is that they shouldn’t worry about making friends and should just be themselves. This is because, as a recent new student, I was very nervous that people wouldn’t like me or wouldn’t want to be my friend because of the way I act. However, XP East was extremely welcoming and everybody accepts who you are without hesitation. Therefore, any new student shouldn’t make the same mistake I did by doubting themselves and should instead put themselves out there, because there will always be someone willing to talk to you or be your friend”

In our next Crew blog we’ll report back on which distance learning measures Crew Young feel have been the most effective as they head towards the demands of GCSE study in Y10…..

After a two week break we return (metaphorically) to school in what is incredibly the fifth and final term of this academic year, and the end of another Key Stage for Crew Young. As we move inexorably towards GCSE in Year 10 it’s clear that some of us are finding time to research common mission options and subjects; Maclaren is keen on computer science, Summer is interested in media and geography for a possible career in journalism, Eleanor favours business studies and Keisha prefers psychology, but Louie is still undecided.

It’s also great to receive praise shared by colleagues for the hard work that is going on at home by students that are engaging with assignments being set. This week Mrs Sprakes was full of praise for Eleanor and her progress in Spanish+, whilst Miss Batty really appreciated the effort that Louie is putting into his Empire task and the Indian Wars of Independence. Well done everybody!

This week I’ve received countless positive comments from Crew Young students and our staff that work with them, and it’s been a great end to a shorter working week than usual. I also asked them to identify a celebrity who they would like to share a Google Hangout with and why, and these were their thoughts:

Lewis would probably choose last year’s NBA league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo or the iconic Lebron James due to his passions around basketball, whilst Maclaren would prefer to share a Hangout with family members that live in Australia.

Summer would host So Hyang, a South Korean singer who is often classified as the best Vocalist of modern day. She has survived cervical cancer and can no longer have children, and uses this story as her power when singing.

Keisha would interview Kylie Cantrall because she’s a really good actress and singer; she’s only 14.

Here are some of the appreciations and recognition from staff this week:

Crew Young have also been busy working on their Duke of Edinburgh bronze award skills challenge. Here are Lewis and Summer placing family members into the recovery position:

I’m really impressed with how versatile and creative Crew Young members are being whilst subject to the lockdown measures. Great work everybody!

This week I’ve heard back from most Crew members, the majority of whom appear to be busily working their way through distance learning tasks that staff have been setting, as well as re-considering how they might now achieve the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award.

I was delighted to hear about Lewis D’s nomination as one of the few “Hegarty Heroes”, and this is timely recognition for all the hard work he puts into his mathematics tasks. He’s still training with resistance bands and going for a few runs to balance the academic with the athletic.

Maclaren continues to stay on top of his work, with a 100% work completion score in every subject area – well done Maclaren! He’s also keeping up with his online Tae-kwon-do training, and has bought himself a computer science book.

George reports that: “This week I’ve been going for walks in the woods with my family, such as Cantley Park and Kingswood. I have also been walking my dog Frequently” (strange name for a dog!).

Glad to hear that Keisha is still able to continue her voluntary work with horses whilst observing social distance measures, and has made a start on the St. John’s First Aid course in Common Mission.

Summer has swapped ice skating for dog walking for her DofE physical challenge, and her father is helping her with the First Aid training in Common Mission.

Isabel is catching up with Hegarty maths and Tassomai science, but missed the deadline this week for posting photos of her work.

Sounds like we’re on it!

This week we can show and tell you about some of the work that Crew Young have been getting their teeth into whilst under the current lockdown restrictions.

Earlier in the week each “Youngster” and their parents received a personalised “work completion review” document designed to reward and recognise those with consistently secure HOWLs, and also intended to prompt an informed discussion around emerging distance learning issues, and how these might be mitigated. It might be something as simple as incorrect work sharing permissions on a Google classroom, but at times it’s not always such an easy fix!

It’s clear that nearly all of us are sticking to the basic principle of “do what you can, when you can” and here Summer has shared some of her most recent digital art work.

George‘s contribution to this blog is centred around his current humanities work text study, whilst Lewis continues to make progress with his digital graphics:

Dominic is prioritising his art assignments, practising drawing sketches of characters from memory, whilst Louie has been considering how his involvement with the Fire Cadets might help enable him to achieve the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award through a different pathway than he’d originally planned: