As we reach the end of a very long and challenging term, we are increasingly seeking to beat “screen fatigue” in readiness for a full digital detox over the two week holiday. I’ve recently asked our Youngsters to share their photos as to how they spend the last 45 minutes of each day, away from the screen, being mindful of their wellbeing.

Yesterday, some students in Crew Young played extreme scrabble in pairs, against others and I’d like to appreciate Adam M and Amber from X24 for their winning partnership!

Louie decided to cook some brownies!

George took 2 hours to build a card tower FOUR STOREYS HIGH! Neat artwork too, George!

Keisha prefers to hone her sketching skills…..

……whilst Maclaren works on his common mission subject (computer coding)

Lewis continues to work on HIIT (High Impact Interval Training) on his indoors Peloton bike set-up…..

……whilst his Crew Leader (a bit of a has-bean!) trains for the next Gira Mondial. Wheelie hard to get a sponsorship deal with Heinz………..

“Student-led conferences require and empower students to take the lead role in communicating their learning. The practice helps to build dispositions and skills—such as adapting speech to the appropriate context and organising and presenting information—that will be vital for students in college and careers…..” (Ron Berger).

When Ron Berger captured in his definitive EL book “Leaders of their Own Learning” the essence of Student-Led Conferences, he could not possibly have foreseen the challenges of delivering these remotely during a global pandemic!

I’ve been very pleased with and proud of Crew Young recently as they prepared and delivered their latest round of SLCs, this time to a remote audience, selecting examples of work that they were proud of, showed their mastery or indeed require improvement, all without physically having them to touch in their hands.

The depth of their reflections on their learning, the correlations that they articulated between their attendance, their HOWLs, and their Assessment Point 1 data, all self-assessed against their Minimum Expectations were thoughtful and well-considered throughout. I particularly like how Isabel invited and then acted on Eleanor’s critique to improve her first draft before then presenting this to her audience, and how both Aaron and Dominic chose to include photos of their HOWLs trackers to evidence demonstrable improvements in working hard and getting smart over time.

I would like to appreciate students and their parents for arriving promptly to these events, and especially those students who kindly agreed to having their SLCs video-recorded for critique and modelling purposes. Crew Young have consented to sharing some of their work, showcased in their SLCs, below.