It’s been a wonderful lunch time today spent with Y11 (and other years!) at Embrace in the library at XPE. Some Y11s were revising in study groups ready for this afternoon’s maths exam, but the highlight for me was seeing Tom, Hollymay, Frida, Mia, Ruby and Eleanor play Twister with students from Y7! [I’m not sure how Mia managed to stand back up, though!!] What a fantastic example of Crew – and a good laugh, too!
Due to the fantastic efforts of our incredible staff, we are delighted to be able to offer so many extra curricular opportunities to our wonderful students!
Please see attached an updated version of our enrichment timetable. On here, you’ll find sports clubs/fixtures, Arts clubs (including our new Vocaleles!) and KS4 Revision sessions with staff. We would encourage our students to attend as many of these sessions as possible to secure their GCSE grades and achieve their potential!
I can also share with you that D6 will begin again this coming Saturday, November 13th. D6 is our Saturday provision where students are able to come and work with coaches in school from 9am – 12:30pm. For the time being, D6 is open to year 11 only.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the staff running any extra-curricular activities, or myself at [email protected].
Thank you for your continued support – we look forward to seeing many of our students in these sessions!
Mel Cocliff
XP Y11 Phase Lead
Crew Macmillan Crew Leader
Year 11 will be sitting mock exams over a 2 week period, starting on Monday 8th November:
Please note that Wednesday 10th November may be subject to change due to the school nurses being in to administer Covid Vaccines.
Students have been given revision resources to help them prepare for these mocks, as well as having access to Seneca (science), Hegarty (maths) and all their previous session slides on google classrooms.
Crew Finch have spent the week preparing for the first Student Led Conferences of Y11. They will be reflecting on their Y10 mock exam results and sharing how they are preparing for the next round of mocks in November. Their presentations will also be focussing on the bigger picture of what they need to achieve in order to move onto the next stage of their learning journey, post-16 – and how they’re going to get there.
I’m really looking forward to welcoming Crew parents back into school for the first face-to-face SLCs in over a year. I sent out an email with the booking form link last week; if you’ve yet to book your slot please do so.
With the next round of mocks just a few weeks away, it is encouraging to hear that some students have already started revising. We will spend time in Crew looking at different revision techniques to find out what works best for everyone. Meanwhile, Crew have shared their revision tips with each other: the most popular method so far seems to be watching videos to reinforce learning.
I think that the time spent reflecting on their Y10 mock exam results along with last week’s taster day at New College has motivated Crew to really think more about how they are going to succeed, and this has been reflected in how they’ve been working in class. I’m pleased to see lots of praises for working hard and getting smart being put on the praise form from subject teachers for all Crew members.
It’s been a fantastic start to the year and our Y11 learning journey is right on track. Let’s hope it stays that way 🙂
Students this week have been given their own copy of the revision guide for our History exam board OCR B SHP History. All students should have named their copy so that if they are misplaced they can be returned. Students are encouraged to annotate and highlight the guide as they carry out their revision.
The revision guide has a number of different topics, however, students will need to focus on the following sections for revision:
The locations of these topics can be found in the contents page. We would recommend in general students start by revising The People’s Health as well as focusing on page 88 in order to prepare for the upcoming assessment in lessons.
If any student has been absent when these revision guides were handed out, they can see myself or Mrs Hannam directly and we will make sure they get their copy.
A further revision guide focusing on the Viking Expansion will be issued to students in the coming weeks.
I can’t quite believe that we’re ready to begin the final chapter of our Crew Finch adventure. I’m sure this chapter will include many more exhilarating twists and turns as we step onto the final road of this epic journey, overcoming obstacles and celebrating triumphs, which will ultimately lead Crew to GCSE success. We’ll end as we started: Together (I do love a happy ending!)
We’ve spent our first few days together regrouping and refocusing on Crew. We’ve had some to time to reflect on our Y10 results and map out what our Y11 learning journey will look like. This hasn’t been a solo activity; we know we can’t get there without the support Crew so we’ve been focussing on our Guiding Question:
How can we can everyone to the top of their mountain?
This generated a very mature and compassionate discussion about how everyone’s journey to the summit will look and feel different, but we need to respect each other’s journey and be on hand to support those who need it and respectfully challenge those who may be holding others (or themselves!) back. Crew have also created some amazing learning journey maps, which I will share with you next week.
We also had some time in sports hall playing dodgeball and even snuck in a bit of yoga! And can you spot our new crew pet?? (I’ve pledged to buy a souvenir from every place we visit together this year and will raffle them off at the end of the year!)
On Tuesday we travelled to Flamborough Head, where we hiked from North Landing to South Landing. This featured as the highlight of the week for most of us, especially as we were lucky enough to spot a cove full of seals! We reminisced about some of our other hikes and Malham Cove is still a firm favourite!
The nicest thing about this week for me has got to be the fact that it’s “business as usual” at school (albeit with some extra precautions in place). It’s been absolute joy to see different year groups mixing at break times. Y11s talking to our new Y7s at break times. Lots of excited chatter and activity around the school. What a buzz!
I’m also excited that we can start having parents back into school and I can’t wait to see you all soon at our first face-to-face SLCs for a while! I’ll contact you all soon with more details and other key dates for your diaries.
I’m writing our end of year blog whilst self-isolating, which is not where I was expecting to be! I know that members of Crew have also been told to self isolate, so it’s a very strange end to Y10 for Crew Finch. Maybe not as strange as our last day of Y9, though…
However, we were lucky enough to be at school for our end of term breakfast yesterday, where I did get to take our traditional end of term selfie! I can’t believe next year’s selfie will be our last one together as Crew… We’re already starting to think about what we can do to celebrate end of term next year, with a request to go back to Malham Cove to specifically recreate one of first ever Crew photos:
So, despite it being another year of lockdowns, restrictions, in-school bubbles and online learning, Crew Finch have so much to be proud of:
As much as I’m looking forward to the summer holidays, I’m already excited for getting back together on Wednesday 1st September for 3 days of Crew activities. Let’s get ready to smash Y11!
Wishing all of Crew and their families a Summer full of sunshine and smiles.
Mrs Parker 🙂
After the exceptionally challenging year that our premises cleaner, Bev, has had in terms of helping to keep us safe through deep cleaning, regular wipe-downs of high contact points in school, and routinely replenishing hand and surface sanitisers, we were only too happy to lend her a hand to move products delivered to a local stockist yesterday.
We appreciate your efforts, Bev, for we are Crew!
Students who hold prescribed medication at school will be handed back their medication tomorrow. Students who require medication to be taken at school in the new term 2021/22 will be required to fill in the medication form.
The Google form is required to be filled in and then press send. This then gives staff consent to administer medication and for it to be kept on school premises.
Please ensure Inhalers, Epi-pens and other prescribed medications are sent into school with the child’s name and expiry date clearly visible.
Thank you!
I am excited to say we are having our first Virtual Work Experience day at XP and XP East tomorrow, 8th July.
This will be for all our year 10 students at both schools including the ones unable to attend at the moment, so a fully inclusive event. We have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to have a full day of employer based presentations and workshops.
Students from XP East who are at home will be sent a link and Miss Parker and myself will support them through the day and the students in school will be supported by staff. This is an amazing opportunity to look through the lens of work with some key sectors onboard for the experience.
As Careers Lead for both schools, I am super excited to be planning a range of Further Education and Careers opportunities for the next academic year so please watch this space for updates.
Mrs Burns
